Smart villages” resulting from participatory processes of residents for their common problems and the use of digital technologies to solve them, the environmental organization “Kallisto” seeks to create.

In this direction and in collaboration with the Natural Environment and Climate Change Organization (OFYPECA), it organizes meetings in villages in Prespes, North Pindos and Rhodope, in the framework of the European program “LIFEARCPROM – Improvement of human-bear coexistence conditions in four National Parks of N. Europe”.

As Dr. explains to APE-MPE. Giorgos Chatzinakos, member of the Social Dimensions Group of “Kallisto”, “Smart Villages” are part of the new strategic plan of the Common Agricultural Policy and aim to create extended communities in rural areas, through participatory processes to address the challenges they face locally.

“In other words, the inhabitants of villages, livestock breeders, hunters, farmers, representatives of Local Government, tourism professionals, are invited to meet and discuss together and propose solutions for the problems they face to which digital technologies can contribute, such as accessibility in health services” says Mr. Chatzinakos.

The first meeting will take place on October 23in collaboration with the Management Unit of Prespa National Park and Western Macedonia Protected Areas, in a coffee shop located in the square of Agios Germanos, where the local community is invited to discuss “Smart Villages” and how digital technologies can improve the quality of life in the rural areas of Greece.

Meetings with the same theme follow, at the town hall of the municipality of Prespa, in Laimos, at the conference center of Ano Pedina and at the Asprangelon Information Center in North Pindos and in Paranesti of Drama, in collaboration with the Management Unit of the Nestos – Vistonidas and Rodopi National Parks.