SAVE NAXOS BEACHES

The campaign has started against the selling out of Naxos Beaches and the lakes of Naxos

One hundred and ten of Greece’s best beaches are on sale by Greece’s privatization agency, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) in the name of supposed “development” and “utilization of public assets”. In fact a sale off of Greece best beaches for cash so that the debt-ridden country can pay back its lenders.

The beaches plots are to be on sale with “50 years of utilization by the new owners.” Its stated aim is to ‘release the potential for economic development that coastal areas offer’.

The bill would also end the long tradition of keeping the coastline a commons open to all. In a country where no-one lives more than 60 miles away from the sea, this is a devastating blow.

In the list of TAIPED are featured among others Agios Prokopios Beach including the three lakes, a part of Plaka Beach, Kalados beach and the lake near the airport.

Breathtaking Agios Prokopios beach and the lakes are furthermore under the protection of European Program “Natura 2000?. The most impressine category of animal of Naxos, however, is undoubtedly the birds who visit our lakes every year. From the majestic griffon vulture (gyps fulvus), an age-long symbol of bird-fauna of Naxos, to the humble crested lark (galerida cristata), the environment of Naxos attracted and still attracts hundreds of bird species, many of which are rare or threatened with extinction.

The idea that Agios Prokopios, Plaka, and Kalados with its blue-green waters and light colored sand will be sold to investors fills us with horror. The idea that the lakes of Naxos that attract hundreds of bird species will become sports facilities fill us with anger.

The destruction of the coastline has already started. This might be the last summer that the unique beaches of Agios Prokopios, Plaka, Kalados Beach can be freely enjoyed by all, this might be the last year that birds found shelter on the lakes of Naxos -unless we stop this bill.