{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='TALKING POINT Allegations that property developers encouraged fires' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bc01d8eafeecae129663' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bc01d8eafeecae129663' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nTALKING POINT Allegations that property developers encouraged fires\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eSouthern Peloponnese - August 2007 1. Wide of plumes of smoke rising from mountain with forest on fire 2. Fire on hillside with black smoke rising3. Close-up of flames and black smoke 4. Traffic on road with smoke rising from forest in...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eSouthern Peloponnese - August 2007 \u003cbr/\u003e1. Wide of plumes of smoke rising from mountain with forest on fire \u003cbr/\u003e2. Fire on hillside with black smoke rising\u003cbr/\u003e3. Close-up of flames and black smoke \u003cbr/\u003e4. Traffic on road with smoke rising from forest in background \u003cbr/\u003eAthens - 5 September 2007 \u003cbr/\u003e5. Wide of houses in forested area of Mount Penteli \u003cbr/\u003e6. Close  of houses\u003cbr/\u003e7. SOUNDBITE (English) Theodota Nantsou, World Wildlife Fund Environmental Policy Co-ordinator: \u003cbr/\u003e\"Apart from the adverse weather conditions and of course, accidents, in Greece we have quite widespread environmental crime by organised - in some cases - gangs that want to develop, illegally develop, forested lands, so they set the forest on fire so that it is no more a forest and then they start building and then they expect in five or ten years, that these buildings will be legalised. The problem is that, yes, these buildings are legalised and then we come to the long-lasting political indifference against Greek forests because most governments during the past decades keep legalising thousands of illegal buildings, thus giving a motive to these gangs to further burn down Greek forests.\" \u003cbr/\u003e8. Wide of map showing the Mount Parnitha areas that were ravaged by fires in July \u003cbr/\u003e9. Close-up of Nantsou hands as she circles area that was burned \u003cbr/\u003e10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Theodota Nantsou, World Wildlife Fund Environmental Policy Co-ordinator: \u003cbr/\u003e\"The Greek government should first start demolishing these illegal buildings. Then each government should refrain from any effort to downgrade the legal protection status of Greek forests and this would be enough for a start.\" \u003cbr/\u003e11. Wide of houses in forested area of Melissia north of Athens that was swept by fires in mid-August \u003cbr/\u003e12. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Yiannis Revythis, president of the Association of Athens Real Estate Agents: \u003cbr/\u003e\"I believe that many cases of arson are also from people who want this burnt land -- whether it is theirs or whether they want to buy it in the future - to develop it and construct various tourist resorts.\"\u003cbr/\u003eSouthern Peloponnese - August 2007 \u003cbr/\u003e13. Close-up of fire burning trees \u003cbr/\u003e14. Wide of blazing flames on hill with car stopped on street in foreground\u003cbr/\u003eAthens - 5 September 2007 \u003cbr/\u003e15. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Yiannis Revythis, president of the Association of Athens Real Estate Agents: \u003cbr/\u003e\"Currently there is no land registry or forest registry in many, many areas of Greece, especially in the Peloponnese that was ravaged by fires in the last days. Consequently, if there is no forest registry, the government cannot know if these lands are public, private or if they are already privately-owned forest land.\" \u003cbr/\u003e16. Pull out of scorched forest area in Melissia near Athens that was burned in August 2007 with house seen behind burnt trees \u003cbr/\u003e17. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Yiannis Revythis, president of the Association of Athens Real Estate Agents: \u003cbr/\u003e\"Once the land is burnt, we do not touch it, because if nothing else, we also want to protect these forests. But when a few years have elapsed, one can no longer see whether these lands were burnt and we real estate agents cannot know, and by mistake we can sell such lands.\" \u003cbr/\u003e18. Zoom-out of houses built in forested area of Penteli with Athens seen in background \u003cbr/\u003eFor 10 days in August, hundreds of wildfires razed dozens of homes, destroyed livestock and charred an estimated 190-thousand hectares (469-thousand acres) of mostly forest and farmland around Greece. \u003cbr/\u003eIn some cases, the cause of the fires was an accident, or simply the result of dry weather conditions. \u003cbr/\u003eBut in others, the cause was much more sinister. \u003cbr/\u003e\"In Greece we have quite widespread environmental crime by organised - in some cases - gangs that want to develop, illegally develop, forested lands,\" said Theodota Nantsou, World Wildlife Fund Environmental Policy Co-ordinator in Athens. \u003cbr/\u003e\"They set the forest on fire so that it is no more a forest and then they start building and then they expect in five or ten years, that these buildings will be legalised,\" she said.\u003cbr/\u003eIt's that legalisation, Nantsou claimed, that creates the problem. \u003cbr/\u003e\"Most governments during the past decades keep legalising thousands of illegal buildings, thus giving a motive to these gangs to further burn down Greek forests,\" she said. \u003cbr/\u003eAt least 65 people died, and about 4-thousand people saw their homes destroyed as Greece's worst fires in living memory obliterated swathes of forests and emptied villages from Evros in the north to the western islands of Corfu and Kefalonia, and the Peloponnese in the south. \u003cbr/\u003ePublic Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said the Secret Service and anti-terrorism squad had joined police in investigating the blazes, which he said appeared to be the work of arsonists. \u003cbr/\u003eA senior prosecutor ordered an investigation on Monday to examine whether the fires could be termed acts of terrorism or organised crime allowing authorities broader powers of investigation and arrest. \u003cbr/\u003ePrime Minister Costas Karamanlis  has also indicated that many blazes were intentionally started.\u003cbr/\u003eThe authorities have arrested 11 people on suspicion of starting fires since last Friday. \u003cbr/\u003eThese included an elderly man charged with deliberately starting a fire that caused six deaths, a grandmother accused of starting a vast blaze while cooking in her yard and a man who was allegedly careless with a lit cigarette. \u003cbr/\u003eThe government is offering an reward of up to one (m) million euros (1.36 (m) million US dollars) for anyone providing information leading to the arrest \"of members of a criminal organisation that is seeking to carry out arson in forests, or of deliberate arsonists.\" \u003cbr/\u003eBut independent experts offered a simpler answer - draw up a national forest registry. \u003cbr/\u003eYiannis Revythis, President of the Association of Athens Real Estate Agents, agreed.\u003cbr/\u003e\"Currently there is no land registry or forest registry in many, many areas of Greece, especially in the Peloponnese that was ravaged by fires in the last days,\" he said.\u003cbr/\u003e\"Consequently, if there is no forest registry, the government cannot know if these lands are public, private or if they are already privately-owned forest land.\" \u003cbr/\u003eRevythis told AP Television that this also poses a problem for real estate agents.\u003cbr/\u003e\"Once the land is burnt, we do not touch it, because if nothing else, we also want to protect these forests,\" he said.\u003cbr/\u003e\"But when a few years have elapsed, one can no longer see whether these lands were burnt and we real estate agents cannot know, and by mistake we can sell such lands.\"\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead 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