20 November 2008 | Macedonia is taking steps to protect the environment though a country-wide tree-planting campaign and an increase of the fines for the pollution caused by the OKTA oil refinery.

Close to 6 million trees were planted yesterday in about 100 locations throughout Macedonia as part of the massive “Day of the Tree – Plant Your Future” initiative, which BalkanTravellers.com reported about on Tuesday.

The bad weather conditions made the planting of the trees more difficult but did not stop the initiative, the Vecher newspaper reported today. Only in the towns of Berovo and Krushevo the activities were postponed for a few days, because of the 30 centimetres of snow.

Participation in the environmental campaign came from all parts of society – politicians, singers, actors, students, mayors, pensioners, diplomatic corps representatives, citizens, municipalities, the City of Skopje, NGOs, media and companies all took part

“Even with the bad weather conditions, Macedonian citizens came out en masse! I am proud to be part of this kind of a people who demonstrate a high environmental consciousness,” opera singer Boris Trayanov, who initiated the campaign, told Vecher.

It is expected that the other Balkan countries will follow Macedonia’s suit and organise such forestation activities in March of 2009.

In addition to preventive environmental measures such as the tree-planting campaign, Macedonia is also responding to ecological problems that are already plaguing the country. One such response is the increase of fines of the OKTA Oil Refinery, situated just outside the capital Skopje.

The refinery, 54 per cent of which is owned the Greek company Hellenic Petroleum, could now be faced with fines reaching 100,000 euro, or five times higher than it has paid in the past.

“There will be changes to the environmental law with which instead of 20,000 euro for pollution of the air and especially of the underground waters, the fines will be 100,000 euro for the company and for the responsible person – 5,000 euro,” Macedonia’s deputy environmental minister Sonya Lepitkova told the Dnevnik newspaper.

Analyses have shown that OKTA is polluting the air, water and soil more than is permissible, Lepitkova added.

People living in the areas around the refinery have been protesting in front of it since Tuesday, but they – along the new governmental measures, are being ignored by OKTA.

“Production continues. Nobody from OKTA wants to come out and speak with us, even though they are quilty for the high pollution from which we are facing heavy repercussions,” Milivoe Stanovski, member of the protesters’ coordinating body told Dnevnik.

As BalkanTravellers.com reported earlier, a seemingly fake website is advertising package tours to the area around the OKTA refinery, where tourists can spend their holidays in a polluted environment, where – among other things, they can observe the toxins across rivers and the night lights of the factory’s emissions.

It is unclear who is responsible for the website, but one thing is for sure: it serves to bring attention to the ecological damage incurred by the refinery.

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