Campaign Aims to Replant Olive Trees of Olympia

In the wake of the dev­as­tat­ing sum­mer fires in Greece, a global cam­paign has been launched to restore the fire-stricken olive groves of Ancient Olympia, the birth­place of the Olympic Games and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Large swathes of agri­cul­tural and for­est land around the archae­o­log­i­cal site of Olympia were con­sumed by the blazes in August, the sec­ond time the area and the wider Ilia region in west­ern Peloponnese suf­fered such a dis­as­ter after the 2007 for­est fires.

According to recent assess­ments, more than 400,000 olive trees were burned down this sum­mer, depriv­ing local farm­ers of their means of liveli­hood.

The goal of the ​‘Replanting Ancient Olympia’ fundrais­ing cam­paign is to sup­ply farm­ers with new olive tree saplings, serv­ing the twofold pur­pose of help­ing the local rural econ­omy recover from the fires and restor­ing the olive groves of Ancient Olympia.

The cam­paign invites indi­vid­u­als, cor­po­ra­tions and orga­ni­za­tions to plant an olive tree in Ancient Olympia, with the results so far exceed­ing expec­ta­tions.

“The response to our cam­paign has been over­whelm­ing,” Yanos Gramatidis, for­mer pres­i­dent of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce and one of the spear­heads of the cam­paign, told Olive Oil Times.

“We ini­tially set out to replant 80,000 to 100,000 olive trees, but thanks to the enor­mous sup­port of indi­vid­u­als and cor­po­rate donors, in a mat­ter of a few short months we man­aged to raise €800,000, enough to plant 150,000 trees,” he added.

“Together with Nektarios Farmakis, the regional gov­er­nor of Western Greece, we needed to do some­thing to over­come the dev­as­tat­ing impact of the fires and restore the local econ­omy, which is largely depen­dent on olive and olive oil pro­duc­tion,” Gramatidis con­tin­ued.

“Even after we replant, it will take local pro­duc­ers years to recover,” he said, acknowl­edg­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties involved. ​“It is a com­pli­cated ven­ture requir­ing the advice and super­vi­sion of agri­cul­tur­ists, and, most impor­tantly, the assess­ment of the real dam­age.”

In the United States, the cam­paign is run by Dianne Tittle de Laet and Steve de Laet of the Arete Fund, an inter­na­tional non­profit orga­ni­za­tion based in Mountain View, California. The project quickly gained pop­u­lar­ity and received over­whelm­ing sup­port from local Californians and oth­ers.

“We have been amazed by how many Californians, whose homes and forests were also dev­as­tated by wild­fires this past August, planted olive trees in Ancient Olympia as a way of giv­ing thanks to the fire­fight­ers in their own com­mu­ni­ties,” the de Laets told Olive Oil Times.

“Individuals gave what they could in mem­ory of a loved one or to plant trees for their fam­i­lies or to com­mem­o­rate sports teams. Companies, non­prof­its and the Athens International Airport planted trees for their employ­ees,” they added.

The project is also expected to open up new path­ways for improv­ing the every­day work and the prospects of local farm­ers.

“This ini­tia­tive is the first step toward start­ing con­ver­sa­tions around pro­mot­ing sus­tain­abil­ity and entre­pre­neur­ship on these small farms, as well as dis­cus­sions about how to pre­vent future wild­fires,” the de Laets said. ​“Initial dis­cus­sions are tak­ing place to develop an agri­cul­tural school in Olympia to edu­cate young farm­ers in all aspects of agri­cul­tural meth­ods, sus­tain­abil­ity and man­age­ment.”

The de Laets also met with Farmakis, the local gov­er­nor, and the mayor of the con­tem­po­rary town of Ancient Olympia, Giorgos Georgopoulos, with all three sides pledg­ing to do every­thing for the ini­tia­tive to ​“take root.”

“These peo­ple came to tell us, not only that they are present, but that they have begun a process of attract­ing cap­i­tal from the U.S. for the refor­esta­tion of the region,” Farmakis said after the meet­ing.

He noted the sig­nif­i­cance of plant­ing the olive tree, which are the tree sym­bol of Greece and Ancient Olympia.

“Apart from being a sym­bol of peace and sol­i­dar­ity, it is also a source of liveli­hood for our region,” he added.

All cam­paign donors are relieved of the 24 per­cent VAT (sales tax) and other taxes. They will also receive a let­ter of appre­ci­a­tion from Farmakis, includ­ing a photo of the land that ben­e­fited from their con­tri­bu­tion.

The orga­niz­ers have also set a spe­cific time­line for the first olive tree saplings to be deliv­ered to farm­ers.

“Our dead­line to pur­chase and deliver the olive trees to the local com­mu­ni­ties for replant­ing is the end of March,” Gramatidis said. ​“We are still count­ing on addi­tional donor sup­port to help us close the gap and meet our new goal of replant­ing 200,000 trees.”

“But it’s not just about the eco­nomic dev­as­ta­tion,” he added. ​“Olympia is a rec­og­nized global sym­bol of human excel­lence, and the olive tree, whose branches crowned the vic­tors of the games, a sym­bol of peace and har­mony. It’s a sym­bol of the Olympic Ideal, but most impor­tantly, the olive tree links us Greeks to our tra­di­tions, roots and val­ues.”

• Greek Reporter
• The National Herald