"The Trip for the Regeneration of Kythera has started..." was a project about the rehabilitation of the island after the fire that took place in August 2017 in Kythera. The fire caused great natural damages, as significant forest areas were burnt. In order for the island of Kythera to be restored, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature signed a Cooperation Memorandum with the Kythera and Antikythera Domestic Property Committee, and in collaboration with the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems (IMDO) of ELGO-Demetra, aimed at implementing a set of actions both for the prevention of forest fires and for the post- fire restoration of the Kythera Island. The project started in 2017 and completed in 2021.
The project activities consisted of: awareness raising events, coastline and underwater cleanups, cleanup of the Mylopotamos ravine, tree planting, collection and processing of cedar seeds (phoenician juniper), as well as the involvement of the school community through student painting competitions for fire prevention. The local society, the student community as well as many other social bodies were actively present in all of the activities.
Under the umbrella of the greater Project, there was a program named "Innovative Action for fire prevention in Kythera", financed by the Green Fund, which played an important role in the project hereby. That program aimed to mobilize and raise the awareness of the residents of Kythera Island about preventing fires, strengthening security and avoiding possible disasters in houses and settlements. The coordination and the scientific oversight of the program was undertaken by Dr. Gabriel Xanthopoulos, as an expert forester on fire issues. The groundbreaking characteristic of the program was that the Kytherian residents participated in a series of pilot actions. The goal of this endeavor was to make the residents of Kythera take action through the recognition of their own problems and risks. In other words, the program was about making the fire prevention become both a “possession” of the residents and a legacy after the program was completed. It is noticeable that in our country there had not been such a program before in any agglomeration or HSPN WEBSITE municipality level. The program started in April 2019 and completed in September 2021.
