The Greek government recently announced it had launched a study into links between burning and new contruction. The master plan includes Athens's first subway, a ring road to draw traffic away from the city center, and a new airport. The WWF here was one of the first to demand the government act against the arson. The organization stirred controversy last summer when it published a map showing that the areas worst hit by the fires were in the immediate vicinity of major Olympic sites. Subway contruction at Constitution Square turned up Roman baths from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD in March.
Archaeologists say rapid work threatens artifacts.
Nothing is clearly marked as forest on the map, so you burn it down and in a few years you start building on it. Formerly green areas have been made barren and Athens has begun to experience unprecedented problems with flooding as trees that once held back run-off from the mountains have disappeared. Because of the flooding, the government accepted the fact that much of the damage was man-made. Local environmentalists have convinced the Athens 2004 committee that some locations are too sensitive to be developed. Instead of building part of the Olympic Village on Mount Parnitha, with its pristine forest, the village will be constructed below the mountain in the Valley of Acharnes.