Lefkara Experience

	Lefkara, October 2007 To sum up sustainability in a single sheet of A3 seems like a hollow exercise, when the essence is about action and participation, particularly at the local level. Once the European Commission’s initial project (and funding) was over came the challenge of how to continue the work we had begun. But our unique group, able to reflect views from all over the continent, could not be allowed to disappear. So, two years later, there we were in Lefkara, Cyprus, thanks to Andreas’, Yves’ and Carlo’s efforts to bring us all together again. A charming, friendly tourist town, with some problems, as we were to find, which were universal How do we get the young people to stay, and improve communication between young and old? and some which were very specific: What do we do about all the abandoned traditional buildings which are falling into disrepair? How can we stop people shooting and trapping the migrating songbirds’? Could we, with our cross section of experiences from all over the continent, offer any help and guidance? After all, we are not ‘experts’ that is our defining characteristic. But perhaps what we can offer is an example of cooperation and communication, to galvanise, to show that, look, we are just ordinary people; what has changed us, and enabled us to bring about change, is being involved in this process.

Lefkara, October 2007

To sum up sustainability in a single sheet of A3 seems like a hollow exercise, when the essence is about action and participation, particularly at the local level. Once the European Commission’s initial project (and funding) was over came the challenge of how to continue the work we had begun. But our unique group, able to reflect views from all over the continent, could not be allowed to disappear.

So, two years later, there we were in Lefkara, Cyprus, thanks to Andreas’, Yves’ and Carlo’s efforts to bring us all together again. A charming, friendly tourist town, with some problems, as we were to find, which were universal How do we get the young people to stay, and improve communication between young and old? and some which were very specific: What do we do about all the abandoned traditional buildings which are falling into disrepair? How can we stop people shooting and trapping the migrating songbirds’?

Could we, with our cross section of experiences from all over the continent, offer any help and guidance? After all, we are not ‘experts’ that is our defining characteristic. But perhaps what we can offer is an example of cooperation and communication, to galvanise, to show that, look, we are just ordinary people; what has changed us, and enabled us to bring about change, is being involved in this process.