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Basic facts about Tilos
Tilos is an Aegean island with nineteen beaches,
twelve mountains, seven medieval castles, a Byzantine monastery and two hundred churches, a cave full of natural discoveries,
a village that is a declared cultural monument, a hundred bird species, hundreds of wild flowers and herbs, and five hundred
residents.
Sixteen different types of ecologically balanced
habitats, or biotopes, including four hundred types of plants and over a hundred bird species comprise the island’s
remarkable natural world. Every visitor to Tilos becomes an honorary bird watcher as the beauty and richness of the island’s
avian population is impossible to miss. Eagles, falcons and other birds of prey together with shags, cormorants, seagulls,
rollers, bee-eaters, golden orioles, jays, doves, owls, nightingales, swallows, sparrows and herons, fill the island’s
skies. The island has also become an Islander Partridge haven thanks to the self imposed hunting ban which was inaugurated
in 1987.
The environmental facts and problem
Hunting is banned on Tilos - a notable exception
for Greece. In 1999 the island was awarded the Greek Society for the Protection
of Nature's annual Eco-prize. The twelve year old hunting ban on Tilos is in danger of being lifted. The ban has protected the 27
endangered bird species identified by the European Union as being of special global importance. Renewed efforts by national
hunting clubs and others to lift the hunting ban on the small (63 sq. km.) island were announced publicly on Friday August
27, 2004 by the new Secretary General of the Aegean Periphery, an appointee of the newly elected Greek government. Our Association
delivered a written response to the Periphery office on Monday August 30 providing scientific and legal bases in support of
the ban. The official hunting season begins in Greece on September 15, 2004.
On September 3, 2004, the Tilos City Council
passed a resolution supporting the continuation of the existing hunting ban on the island and authorized Mayor Anastasios
Aliferis, MD, to take all necessary actions to preserve the ban to protect our irreplaceable and endangered avian wildlife.
The residents of Tilos who support the hunting ban are appealing
for international help and support.
For more information on the local campaign click here
WHAT YOU CAN DO
an e-mail to the Secretary General
of the Periphery of Southern Aegean in support of the continuation of the hunting ban on Tilos by clicking on the link
here:
E-mail to the Secretary General of the Periphery of Southern Aegean
A draft text is provided below or you can compose your own using the following main points:
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The island of Tilos is a designated European Union Specially Protected Area and therefore subject
to EU regulations
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Hunting
would cause a severe threat to the survival of many protected bird species
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Ecotourism
is a growth industry on Tilos
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Ask
for assurance that the authorities will fulfil their responsibilities, respect the wishes of the majority of the islanders and
oppose the lifting of the hunting ban
DRAFT TEXT
Subject:
A LIFTING OF THE HUNTING BAN ON TILOS WOULD HAVE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY OF
THE ISLAND
By email to the Secretary General, Periphery
of Southern Aegean
Charalampos Kokkinos
Secretary General
Periphery of Southern Aegean
Eptanisou 35
GR-84100 Ermoupolis
Dear Secretary General,
The news that the Office of the Southern Aegean
Periphery is considering lifting the hunting ban on the island of Tilos, outside the boundaries of the permanent Wildlife
Refuge, is extremely disturbing and environmentally retrograde.
Since your recent appointment to your post you
have undoubtedly been briefed on the existence and obligations of European Union laws and regulations (European Union Council
Directive 79/409/EEC issued April 2, 1979) that classifies the island of Tilos, in its entirety, as a Special Protected Area
(SPA). A study of these will make it clear that the lifting of a ban on hunting would violate these regulations and make Greece
liable to sanctions from the EU. We understand that local organisations and residents have informed you separately and in
detail on the pertinent requirements for the protection and conservation of the endangered species of flora and fauna.
We hope that you will find time to make yourself
familiar with the unique characteristics and circumstances of Tilos that distinguish it from the other islands in the Dodecanese
island chain. Complementary to the conservation issue is the progress towards a sustainable year-round ecotourist market which
will be of considerable importance to the economic viability of the island, and the region, in the foreseeable future.
Concerned environmentalists in Europe and elsewhere,
many of whom are regular tourists to your beautiful country, support all efforts to ensure that the status and exemplary progress
of wildlife conservation on Tilos be acknowledged and officially endorsed. A re-introduction of hunting would be a backward
step with serious negative consequences in terms of economic and conservation of natural resources.
In the conviction that your office will, after
unbiased consideration of the legal and economic facts and the wishes of the residents of the island, quash any present or
future calls for the lifting of the hunting ban on Tilos we remain,
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address)
a © Proact 2004 local campaign in cooperation with
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