The Public Benefit Foundation Athanasios K. Laskaridis has become a protagonist of the news in the past few days – and there were many reasons for this: first of all, the strong presence of the Foundation with multiple interventions at the international conference ‘Our Ocean Conference’, where Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ announcements on a set of state initiatives aimed at protecting the environment from plastics, etc.

Moreover, the Prime Minister’s visit to the ship ‘Typhoon’, as well as the important award of the Foundation for the cleaning of the coast of Magnesia from tons of plastic waste. After all, this is a public benefit organisation which has developed pioneering action, almost since its foundation, in the multifaceted protection of the marine environment in Greece, particularly with the ‘Typhoon Project’.

This year’s ‘Our Ocean Conference’, an important institution in its 9th year of existence and this year organised in Greece, was attended by representatives of more than 119 countries and presented 469 new projects for the Earth’s oceans and their protection, amounting to more than 11.3 billion dollars.

As part of the conference, the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Public Benefit Foundation pledged €13 million over the next five years to fund projects to protect the marine environment.

This is one of the largest commitments made in recent times by a private non-profit organisation – it is noteworthy that France, for example, as a state, made commitments of just €2 million.

Most of the funding (€10 million) will be channelled into marine de-pollution.

For the ‘adoption’ of the Saronic Gulf, the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation is allocating €1.5 million, implementing a complex programme of various actions.

The Saronic Gulf is of symbolic importance for Greece and of great historical, cultural and economic interest because of Piraeus, Salamina, the islands, etc. However, over the last 50 years pollution has increased dramatically and now the North Saronic Sea is the most degraded marine area in the whole of Greece.

With the ‘adoption’ of the Saronic Gulf as a ‘national experimental area’, the new initiative of the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation will thoroughly investigate the anthropogenic footprint in the area through scientific studies of chemical pollution, litter and biodiversity degradation.

In addition, an extensive archive of all available data will be created, which will help in the design of policies and strategies for the restoration of the Saronic Gulf environment.

An additional €1.5 million will be provided by the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation to continue, for another five years, the ‘Fishing for Litter’, a seabed cleaning programme with the participation of the fishing community.

As explained by Evi Lazou-Laskaridis, President of the Foundation, ‘thanks to Project Typhoon, the flagship of our activities, we have gained an in-depth understanding of marine pollution in the Greek archipelago. Project Typhoon is unique in the Mediterranean and has won numerous awards.

Of course, the key factor is the Typhoon vessel. A 72-metre-long ship, which contributes to the cleaning of the coasts around Greece.

With a crew of 35 people and a flotilla of 5 speedboats, the ‘Typhoon’ operates 365 days a year reaching coasts all over the country that are inaccessible by land. In numbers, the ‘Typhoon’ crew has visited 116 islands, as well as most of the inaccessible coasts of our country’s central core.

We have cleaned 3,348 beaches, representing almost 15,000 sq. km. We have collected 15.5 million items and removed solid marine debris weighing 624 tons and of multiple volumes – namely 33,300 cubic meters.’

Evi Lazou-Laskaridis announced at the international ‘Our Ocean Conference’ the interventions of the Public Benefit Foundation Athanasios K. Laskaridis

The inconvenient truth about marine pollution

Ms Lazou-Laskaridis represented the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation in specialised panel discussions at the 9th ‘Our Ocean Conference’, contributing data and expertise from the five-year experience of the Typhoon Project so far and contributing to the reflection on issues such as ‘Bridges between science and policy-making for the protection of marine natural wealth’ or ‘Technology for good: How Innovation and Open Data can make a difference for the protection of the ocean environment’.

In fact, this parallel event was organised by the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Public Benefit Foundation in collaboration with the highly active international organisation Global Fishing Watch.

Given that Greece has one of the richest biodiverse marine environments in the world, there is a commitment to protect 30% of its national waters by 2030, participating in the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, as part of the European Biodiversity Strategy.

This will be achieved through synergy between the Greek state and Global Fishing Watch, while the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Public Benefit Foundation will contribute to the implementation of the programme by providing technological and monitoring tools, as well as financial support.

More generally, as Mrs Lazou stressed in her speeches, ‘plastics are by far the number one environmental pollutant on the Greek coast and seas. Data from all our programmes show that the marine environment in Greece, as in the whole world, is on a fast track of rapid degradation and deterioration.

This is the result of the poor waste management system in modern societies, increased consumption, the explosion in single-use plastics, and human indifference to nature.’

Our Ocean Film Festival

Mitsotakis Proclamation

The ‘9th Our Ocean Conference’ and its side events, though thematically related, were hosted in Athens between 15-17 April. A large number of distinguished personalities from Greece and abroad, from the fields of politics, science, environmental NGOs, the Orthodox Church through the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, etc. attended the event.

On the Greek side, the opening of the proceedings was declared by the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, while the Ministers George Gerapetritis (Foreign Affairs), Theodoros Skylakakis (Environment and Energy), Christos Stylianides (Maritime Affairs), the former EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki and others participated in individual discussions.

Among the high-ranking international guests who came to Athens especially for the Our Ocean Conference are the Prime Ministers of island countries (Seychelles, Micronesia, Cook Islands, Capo Verde, etc.). ), UN Special Envoy for the Oceans Peter Thompson, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginius Sinkevicius, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Deputy Secretary of State Jennifer Littlejohn and others.

From the podium of the ‘9th Our Ocean Conference’ the Greek Prime Minister pointed out that ‘the solution for the protection of the marine environment and the oceans, in the long term, is very clear: to achieve a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades. Greece is doing its part. Our emissions have fallen by 43% since 2005 – and this is the largest percentage reduction in the European Union.

Also, coal-fired electricity generation has been reduced by almost 90%.’

Speech by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the 9th ‘Our Ocean Conference’

In addition to this, the Prime Minister outlined the government’s strategy for cleaner seas as follows: ‘We will create two additional large marine national parks, one in the Ionian and one in the Aegean, increasing the size of our marine protected areas by 80% and covering about 1/3 of our territorial sea. We will ban trawling in our national marine parks by 2026 and in all marine protected areas by 2030. By 2026 we will create a state-of-the-art surveillance system, with drones, satellites and AI, to effectively patrol these areas. And we will remove plastic waste in water by 50% and microplastics by 30% by 2030 compared to 2019.

In total, in preparation for this conference, Greece has identified 21 actions, with €780 million in secured funding, making a significant contribution, I believe, to the health of our ocean in the future.’

Mitsotakis also made public, for the first time, the government’s decision to establish a special Carbon Capture Fund, a “mega project”, as it is called, which aims to change the energy production mix in the Greek islands, replacing traditional and environmentally harmful forms of energy with Renewable Energy Sources. As he stressed, ‘the Greek government has secured funding for the Carbon Capture Fund from European Union funds’.

Earlier, the Prime Minister had received at the Maximos Mansion representatives of institutions from around the world that are active in the protection of the oceans and marine biodiversity. He also visited the anti-pollution ship “Typhoon” in the bay of Faliro, talked to the heads of the project and the crew, from whom he was informed in detail about its work so far and its future actions. The “Typhoon”, moreover, continues its anti-pollution excursions as usual, having already started its second round, the second scan for solid waste along the coast of the Greek territory.

Magnesia honours ‘Typhoon’

For seven months and without interruption, the vessel Typhoon’ of the Public Benefit Foundation Athanasios K. Laskaridis cleaned the coast of Magnesia. This particular project to clean up the marine environment was absolutely necessary – but also equally difficult – after the floods and the extensive damage caused by the severe weather wave “Daniel” in September last year.

The clean-up operation in Magnesia was also the largest ever carried out by “Typhoon” since 2019, when it was acquired by the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation. Specifically, in a period of 178 days, the 35-member crew of “Typhoon”, working in two shifts, managed to completely clean 122 beaches of Magnesia.

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The vessel crossed 31,082 meters of coastline covering 282,126 square meters and removed about 52 tons of waste, mostly small plastic fragments, Styrofoam, plastic building materials, plastic bottles, bags, packaging, etc. Also, whatever was reusable, such as wood, the Typhoon Project team returned it to the local residents after the collection phase.

It is worth noting that the local community, both through the local government bodies and directly from the residents, not only followed the progress of the project, but also actively supported the efforts of Typhoon Project. A typical example is the participation of volunteers, including 1,087 students from various schools in Magnesia.

As a sign of gratitude for the relief of the marine environment of Magnesia from tons of plastic waste, local institutions organized an award event for ‘Typhoon’ and the Public Benefit Foundation Athanasios K. Laskaridis, which was held on the deck of the ‘Typhoon’, in the presence of the Metropolitan of Demetrias and Almyrus Ignatius, the Deputy Minister of Education Zetta Makri, the Regional Minister of Thessaly Dimitris Kouretas, etc.

Accepting the honorary distinction on behalf of all Project Typhoon partners, the President of the Foundation Athanasios K. Laskaridis noted that ‘the action in Magnesia was one of the most difficult missions of ‘Typhoon’ due to the heavy burden on the coast and the mixing of garbage with mud, wood and rubble. Thus, the effort to remove small pieces of plastic was particularly difficult and laborious. Our task, however, was to carry it out and to return the coastline completely clean again, first of all to the residents of Magnesia, but also to every visitor to this beautiful corner of our country’.