Limassol Hills of Cyprus Wine Villages Collaboratory
Description
The following is based on a rough translation of Maria Kakoulakis' report on a colaboratory for the wine villages in the Limassol hills of Cyprus.
Maria Kakoulakis:
"The cultivation of the vine in Cyprus is an ancient profession. Historical studies indicate that the island produced wine for millennia and became the center of worship of Aphrodite, goddess of fertility and love, and Dionysus, god of wine. Recent excavations show that viticulture has roots 5500 years ago..
Crossing today's highlands of wine villages, the visitor sees the hand terraces (stone walls) and understands how stony and barren hillsides that got "life" for centuries from the hands and sweat of wine villagers. The vineyards are now in decline and desertification conditions. The demands of markets have kept the price of grapes stationary, while farmer income has shrunk because of increasing maintenance costs. Also, the absence of political vision, integrated planning, and strategy has resulted in indecision and procrastination. Absent sound policy decisions in a demanding and rapidly changing global market, the villages have fallen into conditions of backwardness and decline.
In addition, wine growers have been pressured to eradicate traditional varieties of vines and plant new ones and have actually been paid to uproot their vines. These pressures have wrought devastating effects on people whose lives were inextricably linked the root of the vine. Also, wine growing has helped to preserve the landscape, preventing soil erosion and ensuring the presence of humans in inaccessible rural areas. It has made possible the development of alternative rural tourism and environmental preservation. Today the Limosol vineyard is rapidly shrinking, changing the landscape while not offering any incentive for the last surviving working vineyards.
The main objective of the proceedings was to create 7 new visions of thriving Limassol wine villages that would completely release them from the barriers of their present situation. These visions were in the areas of:
1. Economy & Entrepreneurship
2. Infrastructure & Services
3. Agriculture & Environment
4. Environment and Architecture
5. Society & Culture
6. Information & Education
7. Management and Governance
This virtual-ideal vision for Limasol winemaking is designed to attract future development. The vision was generated through colaboratories from the opinions of its own citizens. In this way, the knowledge on the matter was substantial, and the responsibility of the participants to resolve the situation actively strengthened, creating a democratic "tool" for building a collectively shaped reality.
After the preliminary visioning process, participants engaged in the diagnostic phase of Structured Dialogic Design (SDD) to identify obstacles to achieving their visions. In seven thematic colaboratories, nearly 500 ideas were expressed, discussed, classified, and prioritized to democratically locate the root causes of the decadence and desertification of the historic vineyards. The results were "trees of influence" that depict both the radical causes and the correlations among all the obstructing factors. Further efforts identified activities designed to remove or ameliorate the obstacles, especially the root obstacles (leverage points).
In this effort 142 experts, 86 players from 68 organizations joined their experiences, thoughts and suggestions with a focus on sustainable development. In this way, the future is not determined by external influence or interference, but by the interaction of citizens and local communities with a common vision. This collectively shaped vision of the Limassol wine villages was established in a fair and meritocratic by the SDD participants. It provides a new model of sustainable development. It obviates the plethora of policy initiatives, usually financial, that ignore the systemic correlations, connections, and influence interactions behind the problem. And yet, only systemic knowledge will lead to the effective use of financial resources.
It is our intention to publish a full report on the wine village' colaboratories as a monograph in our Social; Systems Approach to Global Problems series. This effort may serve as a model for how Indigenous resources may be maintained and adapted in an age of globalization." (Institute for 21st Century Agoras www.globalagoras.org)