They call it Europe's Galapagos.
Lake Ohrid in Macedonia is the most biodiverse lake of its size in the world, home to more than 350 species found nowhere else and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site based on its natural value. It is also Europe's oldest lake, having survived for more than a million years.
But none of that may save it.
For a tourist boom is coming to Ohrid, the town on its shores. From April, British holidaymakers can take a
cheap flight with Wizz Air from Luton to holiday in Ohrid.
To meet their needs, the lake's most critical ecosystem is set to be concreted over to make space for apartments and a marina."Lake Ohrid is a Holy Grail for biologists from all over the world," says Christian Albrecht of the University of Giessen in Germany. "But it faces a biodiversity crisis."
Albrecht was part of an international team of researchers who
drilled almost 600 metres into the lake's sediment in 2013, to chart its complex history. They uncovered the "combination of longevity and stability that has triggered the evolution of the endemic species".
Unique species"The lake is not as old as the famous big lakes of the world, such as Baikal or Tanganyika," says Albrecht. "However if you take its size into account, it is the most biodiverse lake in the world. I am seriously concerned about the future of its endemic species. Many are restricted to a few square metres of the lake."
The majority of the lake's fish and snails
are found only here, as are many of its sponges and worms.
These species often live around underwater springs that bubble up from the surrounding limestone geology and create ecological niches, says
Daniel Jablonski of the University of Bratislava in Slovakia.
Life in Lake Ohrid has survived a lot over its long history, including repeated glaciations and fallout from volcanic eruptions.But a "creeping crisis" for the lake from the rising human population is about to become critical because of the coming tourist boom.
In particular, the lake's most important buffer against human activity,
the Studenchishta marsh, is threatened with being wiped from the map. "Its buffering function is being jeopardised," says Albrecht.
Luxury apartmentsThe marsh is the only surviving wetland on the lake's shore. It cleans raw sewage and other pollution from water flowing from Ohrid into the lake.It also harbours its own rare species, including the Macedonian crested newt (
Triturus macedonicus) and four globally endangered butterflies.
But last year Ohrid's mayor, Nikola Bakraceski, unveiled plans to drain the entire 75-hectare marsh and replace it with luxury housing and a marina.
"These development plans will irreversibly destroy this crucial ecosystem," says Albrecht. In a letter sent to the Macedonian president in October, Jablonski called the plan to drain the marsh, and to replace nearby reed beds with imported sand to create Mediterranean-style beaches, "totally unacceptable".
So far, the city authorities haven't responded to their pleas.
A
citizen initiative called SOS Ohrid has launched a petition to save the unique habitats.
Reader Comments
Anyone want to lay a bet against me that the Mayor and Council of this town are NOT being generously bribed by the corporations which are planning to build these marinas, condos, and strip malls?
Petitions are as useless as tits on a boar pig. They might make the citizens feel good that they are doing something, but petitions will change absolutely nothing. Now, if the Mayor's children got run over by a speeding truck, or if fire broke out and burned the condos to the ground, or if some of the city councilors committed suicide by shooting themselves three times in the back of the head, that message would be understood.
That is just what happened in Iraq. The US Coalition Authority under L. Paul Bremer decided to privatize the state assets of Iraq - the cement factories, the appliance factories, etc. etc., after shutting them all down and laying off their workforces, and sell these businesses to foreign corporations. Of course Bremer would have received nice commissions on these sales. Well, every foreign executive who entered Iraq to inspect the goods got assassinated, by "jihadis" and "terrorists." Very quickly, the foreign corporations decided the risks were not worth it, and the whole program of looting and sale of Iraqi State assets collapsed.
A similar program of "accidental deaths" among the city council and the executives of the corporate developers is the only thing which is going to stop the destruction of this lake. That is just the reality of the world we live in.
- LG
It's sad, but the world has reached the state where only wanton death and destruction can stop the onslaught of capitalism.
I've visited the lake, it's something really unique. I've also seen these marshes, fields of reed, was kind of surprised they still existed. However, I'm not surprised about this news so much. Corruption is rife in Macedonia.
Still, although the article says the life in that lake survived much, it is worth mentioning that the life there isn't the same as it was was even a few decades ago. The tourism is already there, the hydroenergy dams are already there (preventing migration of fish from and to rivers), the pollution is already there. I suppose that for the local businessmen the marsh (which is 0.75 km³, compared to about 350 km³ of the lake) is just another area to be developed, and they don't see a difference between this lake, and artificial lakes (except size). If the local population also sees it the same way, then there's no hope. Unless the tourism plummets for some reason...
I also agree with the above comments. This isn't capitalism anymore, this is BARBARISM. Find machine guns and kill all the rich and their lakes otherwise we 'll get overrun by people who think that they can buy the UNIVERSE.