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| Photo published in the Hellenic Bird Ringing Center Bulletin No. 2 (2024), showing: Banding group on Lafri Hill (Porto Lagos, Thrace) in early September 1987: From Left to right: top: Martin Gaetlich, Vassilis Goutner, Johannes Foufopoulos, Charalambos Alivizatos, Photis Pergantis. Bottom (from left to right): Dimitris Xanthakis, Stamatis Zogaris. |
Looking back...from November 2025
I became fascinated with natural history in Greece in the early 1980s. Part of the magic was the feeling that my friends and I were pioneering these pursuits. We felt really exploring and contributing... For me—just a teenager at the time—it was a focus on birds, on habitats ...all wrapped in a sense of discovery and wonder.
I can say just a few things here but of course, it was complex and political. And worthwhile.
Some top issues that come to mind:
1) We were anti-hunters! Perhaps, that is because we were seeking to change society's outlook on wildlife and we considered it the ultimate cruelty to be killing birds (i.e. nature) in such "degraded", disorganized conditions. Protected areas did'nt work, no enforcement was evident anywhere. It was bad, in the sense of how bad it is today in some Middle Eastern countries (see Egypt, Lebennon and the like).
2) The top NGO in 1984, when I joined, was the Hellenic Ornithological Society. There was a hierarchy, some top mentors we followed and learned from. For me these where: Ben Hallmann, Giorgos Handrinos, Phillipos Dragoumis,Triantafyllos Akriotis, Stratis Bourdakis, Alexis Vlamis, Photis Pergantis, Vassilis Hatzirvassanis, Aris Vidalis, Thodoros Kominos, Vassilis Goutner, Giorgos Catsadorakis, Martinos Gaetlich (among several others). The Hellenic Ornithological Society, was the major scientific club and a 'nest' for all these serious naturalist/activists.
3) There was no ecotourism at the time in Greece, although a very few visitors did come to explore (and several foreigners laid the foundations). These people include natural history experts and academics plus some intrepid walkers/hikers who publicised the wilds of Greece.
4) We did field trips; exploration trips. We inventoried and 'discovered' places.
5) We had very little access to birding spot data or ornithological literature.
6) The European Union helped a lot and brought a rapid transformation. However it also brought catastrophic change through land-use changes, agricultural subsidies that promoted certain cashcrops and agrochemical increases. Basically we lived the transformation of Modern Greece in the '80s.
7) We were ecologists, active in conservation. In Greek the term naturalist (φυσιοδίφης) is not used widely, so basically our interest was wildlife and conservation and actively trying to participate.
8) We were not amateurs, we were scientists and quasi-scientists and felt a professional connection to our 'work' and our cause.
9) We argued a lot. Politics was difficult and personal.
10) There was pain, lots of pain. And very little progress in conservation.
Some snapshots from the day, follow.
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| A lot of our action in the '80s was educational and awareness-building, but it was really very low key. This is an exhibit in a town square in Athens (Zogarafou Neighbourhood), circa 1988. In the bottom left are two of the most important figures in Greek activisim at the time Georgia Tsakona (genearal secretary of the HOS for many years) and Philippos Dragoumis. Note that the photos show a lot of shot-dead birds, from the rampant poaching at the time. Photo (unpublished), copyright: Aris Vidalis. |
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| We didn't have FB, but we had a monthy magazine focusing on political ecology, Nea Oikologia (and other local print-media as well); but this was national and available at many kiosks throughout Greece. Pictured on the late '80s volume (at Right) is Maria Ganoti - who spear-headed Wildlife rehabilitation in Greece and contributed immensly to the growing awareness of damage done due to shooting/poaching. This poster-girl photo is telling, and I think people like Maria really produced a cultural shift in Greece (...and she is still doing wildlife rehab...four decades later). |
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| One of Greece's success stories. At the time in 1985 we had no idea we could save it. Greece had only two Dalmatian Pelican colonies, this one, in the Amvrakikos numbered less than 30 pairs, all nesting on this strip of low islets in the Tsoukalio Lagoon. |
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| In 1985 we were based on this sand bar on the Tsoukalio Lagoon. We were witness to its total degradation by roadbuilding but could do nothing. |
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| This is the amazing camoflaged camper which was set up by HOS in 1985 to monitor and gaurd the Dalmatian Pelican colony. Tractor-excavator building the road next-door! |
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| This is me, a photo taken by Aris Vidalis in the Spring of 1985. Note the excavator and construction vehicles working on building a road on the shell-beach sand bars of the lagoon!!! I mean, we as a team must have suffered PTSD seeing and living this absolute desicration of this pristine landscape. |
