Terra Sylvestris

This Entry has been submitted.

Terra Sylvestris: Kalamos and Kastos sustainable development project

Kalamos island, Greece
Year Founded:
2014
Organization type: 
nonprofit/ngo/citizen sector
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Website:
http://www.terrasylvestris.org
Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/terrasylvestrisgenuine/
Share page with AddThis
Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

The goal of the project is to catalyze sustainable development through rewilding in the island group of Kalamos, Kastos and their surrounding satelite islands and waters

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

The mountains where forested again and the seas where full of fish and marine wildlife such as seals and whales once more and local people lived in harmony and prosperity as part of this?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

The continual degradation of the environment of the marine protected area of the inner Ionian archipelago , the loss of wild lands in previous centuries in the islands themselves combined with an unsustainable model of development focused on industrial aquaculture and mass tourism

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

The moto of the project is sustainable development through rewilding. This means that by both protecting and restoring the natural ecosystems on both sea and land and relying on their ecosystem services an overall greater level of prosperity can be achieved for the local people and economy overall. This can further be enhanced by both designing and promoting a model of daily living based on organic farming on the basis of an eco-community. All work is currently taking place.
Impact: How does it Work

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

The project has only recently started. Projected future impact includes the restoration of the production potential of the wild marine fish stocks resulting in immediate gain at an economic level, increased income from tourism from the restoration of wildlife on sea and land and increased ecosystem services such as underground water increase on land

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

Science, legal measures, media coverage, local people education and empowerment, concentrated ecosystem restoration efforts and a plan to manage ecosystems sustain ably by the communities and for the communities
Sustainability

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

Government agencies do exist in the area that have authority for protection of the environment such as the coast guard and the municipality however they have no specific plan they just act as law enforcement agencies . On the legal side of things efforts are being made by local governments and other non governmental organizations to improve the situation. Our proposed project consists of a specific plan based on the logical framework approach, with specific objectives based on the principles of ecology, sustainability and international human rights and environmental legislation relevant .
Team

Founding Story

There had been momentum building up for a model of development that focused on nature preservation for more than a decade driven by an increased interest in generating an income from ecosystem services via activities such as tourism by locals.The activation mechanism however came in 2011 when the area was declared an industrial aquaculture production zone by the Central Greek government without asking the local people. This led to an already increasing momentum for protection of the environment and sustainable development by local inhabitants to evolve into what our organization is today

Team

We have people of all walks of life but we also have ecological scientists and economists