THE CAMPAIGN #SAVEERIMITIS GOES TO CYCLADES

CPF ISLANDERS FORUM 2022

In the three days at the end of October something amazing happened…

The #SaveErimitis campaign went to the Cyclades and specifically to Paros to take part in the “CPF ISLANDERS FORUM 2022” organised by the Cyclades Preservation Fund.

The meeting brought together 45 participants, representatives from 30 local organisations, from 17 Cycladic and non-Cycladic islands, to exchange views and experiences, to show our work but above all to share our concerns about nature ( and beyond), so that we can look to our future with hope!

In the midst of so many people spending a part of their lives, spending their free time, struggling to preserve beauty, nature, wildlife, and everything else worthwhile on their land (often in the most adverse conditions), what ultimately prevails is optimism. No matter how many the difficulties we face, at least we are not alone…

Erimitis was presented to the participants from the Cyclades and Patmos, lush green with its three wetlands full of life, and the sea full of Poseidonia meadows and many kinds of fish, characteristics so common to us in the Ionian Sea, but so fragile now, under the threat of unrestrained building and unsustainable touristic development.

If we have learned anything in recent years is that nothing can be taken for granted; and, if something is important to us, like nature, beauty, wildlife, we have to fight to preserve it. Erimitis is still saved to this day because of our fighting. Our strength lies in our love, our knowledge, our determination, and finally, in the fact that we are many. After this meeting, I realised that we are even more numerous!

Let us meet in Erimitis, in actions in nature, in protests in the streets because we still have a lot to fight for…

Soon we will have to fight again for our seas from the seismic surveys, from the extractions!