About us
FOR A MODEL ISLAND
RESPECTful towards THE VALUES OF SUSTAINABILITY AND BIODIVERSITY
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FOUNDING DECLARATION
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Our story
The Patmos Association for the Protection of the Environment “Hippocampus” arose from the need for joint action by several people, residents or connected to Patmos, who were motivated by the ever-increasing threats facing the environment on a global and local scale.
The founding members of the Hippocampus consider Patmos to be a place of unique natural beauty that combines – despite its small size – spirituality, historicity, architectural value and special natural beauty and believe that its environment, natural and man-made, must remain intact and be protected, as much as possible, from upcoming climate changes and unreasonable and unnecessary human interventions.
For Patmos in particular, they believe that there are real reasons for concern, mainly stemming from the tourism sector, which is growing to become the only economic outlet for residents.
The State – Greek and international authorities – has enacted special protection laws and has shielded the island, and as a result it has been classified as a World Cultural Heritage Monument by UNESCO, as a Sacred Island, as a Landscape of Special Natural Beauty and the settlement of Chora as a Preserved Architectural Monument.
Hippocampus seeks, through its actions, to inform and raise awareness of the local community about the necessity of protecting the natural, cultural and human environment, to intervene where it deems appropriate and to develop an activity that will potentially promote other sectors of the local economy.
It will seek cooperation with every resident who wishes to do so, with every entity on the island, as well as with the Municipal Authorities, wishing to contribute to the development of the local economy, by aiming for self-sufficiency, sustainability, the preservation and the strengthening of the cultural identity of Patmos.
The Patmos Association for the Protection of the Environment Hippocampus was founded with headquarters in Patmos and with registration number 4/24/01/2023, at the Court of First Instance of Kos.
Our goals
The association’s main goal is the protection of the natural, residential and cultural environment of Patmos. More specifically:
- The protection of the biodiversity of the natural environment – fauna, flora, marine ecosystems, wetlands, streams, springs, rivers of the island – and the prevention of interventions that alter its special physiognomy (Natura 2000 areas and protected endangered species).
- The vigilance over the required respect by local and regional authorities and the island’s residents towards the legislation for the protection of the natural and residential environment that has already been, or is about to be, legislated, which has special importance for Patmos (UNESCO World Heritage Site, landscape of exceptional natural beauty, Chora as an architectural monument of special protection, sacred island). The preservation, cultivation and promotion of the island’s cultural heritage, tangible and intangible.
- The dissemination of the ideas of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.
- The cooperation with the local government (Municipality and Regional), with local and supra-local associations, with public and private bodies for the success of our objectives
What we do – Programs & Activities
Master plan of the port of patmos – Cruise ships pier
The new plans for the port of Patmos include destructive interventions that degrade the value, beauty, and quality of its environment, both for the island’s residents and visitors.
LYGGINOU AREA
This wonderful part of Patmos has been subjected to systematic destructive interventions in recent years that are irreversibly altering its unique natural beauty.
TRAILS
The trails of the recent past, the exclusive communication routes of our agricultural and livestock-raising societies, constitute for us today precious values of our intangible cultural heritage.
We promote them, protect them, preserve them and make them attractive to the modern rambler who seeks to get in contact with nature.
WETLANDS
Patmos features several small wetlands – places of exceptional beauty and great importance for the species that find refuge in them.
Hippocampus highlights the issue and promotes actions for their conservation and protection.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT
The first wastewater treatment plant on Patmos was built 30 years ago. Its operation, for various reasons, was permanently discontinued in 2022. Since then, the wastewater has been discharged untreated into the sea, in the area of Chochlakas.
Hippocampus has placed this specific issue high on its agenda and has been actively involved in research, interventions and complaints, practically since its establishment.
LIVADI GERANOU
Livadi tou Geranou. One of the most beautiful, virgin beaches of Patmos, which gathers its loyal lovers every summer. This untouched by “development” area is under constant threat.
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
We strongly support energy sources that are based on the utilization of natural renewable energy resources, while highlighting as a necessary condition the criteria of the environmental protection and of the economic benefit of the residents of the concerned areas.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
The overproduction of solid waste (garbage) is – to a large extent – an inevitable consequence of the production and consumption processes in modern societies.
The reduction of the amount of waste produced is, therefore, the stable long-term goal towards which the efforts of the state should be directed, through the gradual restructuring of the practices and behaviors of both producers and consumers.
Hippocampus Board of Directors
Ioanna Memou
President
With 25 years of service in public education as a philologist, 5 years of involvement with School Libraries, 2 years of active participation in the Oral History groups of Tasoula Vervenioti, 3 years of activity in the Movement for the Defense of Refugees and Immigrants of Patras, and founding member of Hippocampus.
A book lover since memory, eternally fascinated by ancient Greek civilization, a fan of the arts – “high” and “humble”, a child of nature and mother earth.
Vision chaser, Cloud in pants, Persistent gardener, Lover of the island of Litoida
I never gave up – Tribute to Koula Xiradaki
Eleni Ikonomidou
Secretary
I was born on a starry winter night in a country in the East, in a city at the crossroads of peoples and cultures, in Constantinople. The stars illuminated my path full of wanderings and discoveries. I lived and worked in many countries, met many people, studied foreign languages, literature and Fine Arts. And in recent years I have found myself living in a country in the West, in a city whose inhabitants make up a mosaic of different nationalities and where no one feels like a stranger, in Brussels.
I arrived in Patmos on a starry summer night centuries ago. I felt this feeling. That I had always lived on the island. I was enchanted by its incredible beauty, its great cultural tradition and the kindness of its inhabitants.
My husband is Dutch. His first trip to Greece was to Patmos. Where else? My criterion was whether he would love Patmos. What else? And since then, he has been using his knowledge to help residents acquire healthy water, sewage and waste management.
Together with the other members of Hippocampus, we try to protect the natural environment of Patmos, which is threatened by ill-conceived development, the organization of beaches, illegal construction, mass tourism and the irreparable alteration of its natural landscape.
The homeland of all of us is the Earth, Nature. This conclusion was the result of a study between anatomy and botany and was the source of inspiration for a series of works entitled “Escape Routes” and presented in the French city of Toulouse as part of the European Triennial of Contemporary Printmaking where they received awards, at the MUDEL museum in the Belgian city of Deinze as part of an engraving competition organized by the Roi Baudoin Foundation, as well as in two solo exhibitions held in Brussels, at the Théorème gallery and at the old primary school of Chora in Patmos. Through thirty-two works, oils on canvas, etchings and silkscreens on paper, the union of man with his roots was presented.
Human organs have surprising similarities with plants and trees. Nature is our Beginning and our End. An alien is anyone who cuts their roots with the Earth.
Hippocampus’ goal is to raise awareness among those who live and love Patmos, to unite with their land and protect it.
Tryfon Farmakakis
Board member
I was born in Athens but have lived in many different parts of the country. Patmos, from which I come and where I have spent all my summers, holds the place of my homeland in my heart.
I am an engineer by profession and a man of action and efficiency, and I wish to contribute with these qualifications and with anything else useful that I can offer, to the work of our association for the promotion and protection of the natural and cultural environment of our island.
I believe that with perseverance, good planning and dialogue we can all achieve amazing things together and help make Patmos a model island for all of Greece, with respect for the people and the environment as the central guiding principle.
Willebrord Sluijters
Board member
Willibrord Sluijters was born in 1960 in the Netherlands. He holds a degree in Economic History and Roman Linguistics from the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and has also studied at the universities of Florence and Perugia (Italy). After his studies, he was a researcher at the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research for four years and an associate professor at the Free University of Amsterdam, when he also obtained his PhD.
In 1991 he moved to Brussels and until 2025 he worked as an officer at the European Commission, specializing in regional development policies, with a particular emphasis on environmental and clean transport projects.
Since 2011, he has been Head of the Management Service for programs co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund in Italy, Malta, Greece and Cyprus.
He is a founding member of the Patmos Association for the Protection of the Environment “Hippocampus”, a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Environment and Cultural Heritage (ELLET) and a corresponding member of the Accademia dei Georgofili of Italy.
George Gampierakis
Vice president
I was born and raised in Patmos. After high school I continued my studies at a private vocational training school in Athens, where I graduated as a computer programmer and analyst. For a short time, I worked on the subject I studied.
Ceramics and pottery were something that excited me since I was a little child, for over a decade I was a student of the late artist-ceramicist, Zora Fetko. Next to him, I “didn’t” learn many things but most importantly, I learned how to learn.
For several years now, as a freelancer, I have been running a workshop for special construction, using a wide variety of materials, such as clay, metals, blown glass, wood, stone, synthetics, etc.
Since my school years I have been knee-deep in the commons without “qualifications”. Sometimes, either on my own, or with friends, we managed to produce important work for our island or stop ugly things that were happening on it; I never turned my head away to avoid looking at them and always took a stand.
Being a sheep in a society that chooses its convenience, I choose to be the black one (this is how the society of Patmos characterizes me) and I choose the hard path.
I believe that the biggest enemy of our island is the real-estate concrete. It hast to be stopped immediately.
Many times, things are there but are not visible, and many times they can be seen but are not.
Victoria Sidiropoulou
Treasurer
I was born in Tashkent, daughter of a political refugee. I studied piano in Moscow and in 1983 I came to Greece, my other homeland. I worked in a public organization teaching piano and was involved in public affairs at my workplace. I like to travel, hike, play tennis and surround myself with friends. Since 1986 I have been married to Dimitris Fokianos, who is originally from Patmos, and since then we have been coming to the island regularly. We spent our summers here with our children. We have a house in Grikos and we are citizens of Patmos. I love Patmos and everything that happens here does not leave me indifferent. This is why we, along with some people with similar concerns, joined forces, became friends and created an environmental association, Hippocampus, with the aim of preserving as much as possible the special aura of our island, its picturesque and pristine beaches, and the simple beauty of its traditional settlements.
Despina Vakratsi
Board member
I was born in Patmos under the Aegean sun, in the first month of spring, on a Saturday morning, on the day of Saint Theodore. Theodore is also the name of my husband, who came to Patmos as an architect, our parallel paths met one summer and today we have been living as a family, for 37 years, on our island.
I grew up here until my adolescence, adding 3 unforgettable years of high school in Kalymnos, full of friendships and love, full of sun, sea, myths and traditions, writing poems and dreaming of distant journeys, which as I grew up, I realized. I lived in Athens for 15 years, I was taught literature and the arts, especially theater, I gave birth to my two daughters, I claimed Freedom through Collective Struggles.
In Patmos, throughout my life, literature and history have been my passion, as has folklore, and theater, thirty years and more as an amateur actor. Politics has also played a part in my life, as has work through associations on the island. I was a founding member and president of the Patmos Women’s Association, and a founding member of the Patmos Theater Group. I have also worked as a businessman. I am an animal lover, and I love floriculture and gardening. Above all, however, my passion is books, I can’t even fit myself in my house anymore! But my cats certainly can. For years, I wrote articles for the island’s newspaper “Patmos Times”, about folklore of my homeplace, and other topics. I have also written four books and a series of unpublished poems. Three of these books have been published: the literary “It Happens on the Road”, the walking “The Paths of Patmos” and the historical “Patmos Yesterday and Today”. The fourth is under publication.
Given my love for Nature, the Environment and its preservation, I became a founding member of Hippocampus and a member of the Board of Directors.
A letter from the board
Dear resident, visitor and lover of Patmos,
Patmos is a wonderful and unique island that we wish and have a duty to bequeath to our children and future generations unscathed while ensuring to satisfactorily meet the needs and constantly improve the quality of life of its residents and visitors.
We envision a place that will strive for self-sufficiency, cultivate and promote all areas of wealth that its land possesses, and serve the principles of Sustainability and Sustainable Development, with due respect for its heritage.
You who love this place and reside here, whether permanently or not, and if you are “involved” as much as you are able, must surely have noticed, with concern and consideration, changes and destructive interventions in the natural landscape, as well as in the way of life that signal a troubling future.
You will have felt in your daily life the degradation of the quality of life, due to poorly conceived development, together with its consequences: air pollution, traffic congestion, noise pollution, over-production of garbage…
If you believe, like us, that tourism development must take the size and strength of the available infrastructure very seriously into consideration, then the island’s carrying capacity will act as the compass for charting the future course of Patmos, with the concept and value of measure redefining the goals of its development.
We dream and wish to contribute to a new generation that will love Patmos more, that will appreciate and protect its unique environment, that will know the special history of the island and respect the great wealth of tradition it carries with it.
Young people are the future, and we primarily address you and invite you to play a leading role in saving the environment and the identity of the place we love, Patmos.
The President
Ioanna Memou
The Secretary
Eleni Ikonomidou
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