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The 2021 forest fire on the Greek island of Euboea was one of the worst the country had experienced in recent years. 50,000 hectares of pine forest were destroyed and thousands lost their livelihoods. Including a couple of beekeepers – today they rebuilt it.
Wearing protective suits and protective hoods, Gogo (Georgia) Passa-Afendra and her husband Nikos Afendras bend over their beehives and examine the busy insects. While Nikos smokes the bees with the smoker, Gogo carefully takes out a wooden frame full of bees: a so-called frame.
Legend:
Gogo and her husband Nikos don’t give up even after the forest fire.
SRF / Rodothea Seralidou
The 40-year-old explains what can be seen with shining eyes: “These bees that have just arrived have colorful balls on their legs: pollen. This is what they feed the baby bees with.”
Charred tree remains on the horizon
The beekeeper couple’s colorful beehives are located outside the village of Pappades, in the north of the island of Euboea, on a hill where the family also grows grapes. But the terrible forest fire of 2021 has left its mark on the area.
Today there is hardly anything left of the once dense pine forests that were typical of northern Euboea. Charred tree remains reach into the sky everywhere: a sight that still makes the beekeeping couple sad. “The fire came with incredible force,” remembers Gogo, “a huge fire front that almost completely destroyed our pine forests.”
Legend:
Many people on Euboea live from agriculture, for example from raising livestock.
SRF / Rodothea Seralidou
This also has consequences for the residents, who have lived predominantly from nature. The couple lists parts of their damage: “80 percent of our bees died, all of our chickens, our family’s 500 olive trees burned, even half of our vineyard burned down.”
Solution from nature
There were financial compensations after the fire, but these could not make up for the actual property damage. Gogo Passa-Afendra didn’t even receive this money, she says: “We didn’t get a single euro for our bees because the hives remained intact.” There was only 2000 euros for the olive trees. “So we had to see what we could do under the new conditions.”
Legend:
80% of the beekeeping couple’s bees died in the forest fire of 2021. The region’s high-quality pine honey is also a thing of the past.
SRF / Rodothea Seralidou
The solution came by itself: after a very difficult winter, nature worked its miracle in the first spring after the fire, says the beekeeper. Where the dense forest used to be and the sun’s rays did not reach the ground, countless colorful wild flowers and aromatic spices now sprout.
This is the perfect food for bees, according to the beekeeping couple: “We may have lost our valuable pine honey forever, but we now have very aromatic blossom honey of the best quality in spring.”
Disappointed with the state mechanism
However, the disappointment remains that the state was unable to protect their forest and thus the habitat of the animals and people in the region. There were hardly any attempts by the fire brigade to extinguish the fire and they hardly saw any fire-fighting planes, they say.
Legend:
The burned tree trunks are currently being removed and the forest is being cleaned.
SRF / Rodothea Seralidou
Greece fought several large forest fires at the same time in the summer of 2021. Maybe that’s why the fire brigade wasn’t particularly present on Euboea.
Even though they had to start almost from scratch after the fire: Gogo Passa-Afendra and her husband Nikos want to stay in Euboea with their two children and pursue their passion, beekeeping. This year they’re hoping for 500 kilos of honey – more than last year, but still around half of what they had before Fire expected in 2021.