From Economist's top story:

Arsonists certainly have strong motives for starting blazes. Rising incomes have fuelled a construction boom. Demand is high for land near the sea to build second homes. Although Greek law states that builders cannot put up homes on forest land, developers are practised at getting around the rules.

Because Greece still lacks a land registry covering the whole country—a programme to put this right paid for by the European Union is moving at snail’s pace—it is easy to have burned land reclassified as farmland, which can then be sold for development.

This is music to my ears because it shows that the real estate market is hot in Greece despite the subprime Alt-A problems in the US--if you don't mind a fire sale. Makes polonium assassination seem downright civilized in comparison.

The experience in stopping the poaching of natural resources is to allow sales to fund protection of the remainder. My solution: privatize the forests, tax the carbon output and subsidize the carbon storage. If it works for ivory tusks, maybe it will work for ebony. Or we can stick with the Jerry Lee Lewis approach to forestry conservation.

When I read the title, I was thinking of something completely different that fit.

Here in Seattle, the environmental review and permitting is sufficiently onerous that we seem to have "mysterious" arsons at buildings that the owners can't get demolished/permitted for new construction.

There's one particular one where it used to be one of the one-level sleazy motel - closed for ten years. It burned down mysteriously one day... and less than four months later there was a full-block 5 story hotel on the site. I assume the owner dropped the fire insurance in advance, because there was around one story in the newspaper about the fire department investigating and seeking leads... then nothing.

Owner:"Hey, can I build here?"
Seattle:"No."
Owner:"Hey, can I build here?"
Seattle:"No."
Insert fire here.
Owner:"Hey, can I build here?"
Seattle:"Um. Yes?"
Bam. Hotel.

Greece is the cradle of civilization. Prometheus gave us fire, so let's use it to slash and burn our way through red tape! Glad to see that there are alternatives to regulatory gridlock in the US too.