Η θέση του Γάλλου Olivier Aubel για την υπόθεση "Μανίκια

Olivier Aubel

5/5/2022

πηγή: https://www.facebook.com/100004417146467/posts/2261951597295390/

 

As the Petzl Roc Trip in Manikia is announced in the next few days, we are seeing criticism, clubs and organizations, some of which are deploring the fact that they have not been involved in the project to develop climbing in Manikia. It is therefore good to clarify a number of things. The first is that any project is by nature imperfect and that as we say in French: “la critique est facile mais l'art est difficile”. The second thing is that a certain number of individuals or organizations who declare their hostility in a sometimes-violent verbal manner were solicited from the beginning of the project to associate themselves with it without even answering us or by refusing outright to associate themselves with us. Others threatened us from the start or claimed a hold on the project on the grounds that we were not Greek. It is only a short step to imagine that their current complaints are the product of their bitterness. They had the opportunity to do otherwise by participating, they did not take it.

The third thing I want to say as a historical facilitator of the project is longer to express. The project as it has been conducted, while not perfect, has:

- To have nearly 700 pitches opened by qualified and expert routesetters who were all volunteers during the equipment sessions carried out under the aegis of the Manikia project association with the support of the Municipality of Kymi Aliveri which revealed very recently, including to us, how it had managed to release the means to do so.

- To realize the signposting of all the sectors

- To set up a unique governance in Greece by a unique association, Manikia project, completely managed from now on by the inhabitants of the villages in order to guarantee that everything happens peacefully.

- To set up collaborations with climbing companies in order to find the best technologies to equip the cliffs: Peter Lappas, Petzl...

- To create, train and equip a rescue team with funding from the Petzl foundation.

- To set up the supply, the management of the equipment by a unique structure, the association Manikia project.

- To produce a guidebook of the cliffs, the proceeds from the sale of which are exclusively dedicated to the equipment and the perpetuation of routes. The sale of the Manikia guidebook will not benefit individuals but the community.

- To establish relations with the inhabitants and the authorities in order to prevent conflicts of use.

- To take all the measures for the protection of nature that it was possible to anticipate, while constantly seeking to improve and increase them. 

 

 

 

And if all this is achieved, it is with a unique ambition: that this project be a way for the villages and their inhabitants to find life and economic activity that is sustainable. The challenge in the region is both the aging population and the economic difficulty. We know that this project already benefits the local economic actors who are in direct contact (restaurants, cafes, house renters) but also indirectly (grocers, butchers, farmers). We know that climbing in Manikia, even if it will not bring the same spectacular number of climbers as in Kalymnos or Leonidio, will allow young people to imagine a future at home instead of going elsewhere to make a life for themselves. We know that no local actor will become rich thanks to climbing but we hope that they will live better. All this is much more important than the development of climbing and this is how this whole project since its origin has been thought. I am quite happy to see what we have done even if it is not perfect of course. I hope with all my heart that all this will evolve well at the time when the inhabitants from now on manage the destiny of this project in the association Manikia Project.

The result is indeed globally and objectively positive:

- A project for the inhabitants, managed by the inhabitants

- A quality equipment set up by voluntary experts

- An economic model that will be self-financing and that leaves no room for personal enrichment on the funds generated by the topo.

- A slow and measured development that will respect nature and the inhabitants.

It is this balance sheet that allows us to respond to the criticisms and accusations:

We have been accused of having equipped a large number of routes quickly. But in the end, except for Adonis Stevofilakas and his friends who joined us, very little had been done in Manikia to create a sustainable economic development for the inhabitants. Yet the cliffs were there and sport climbing had been going on since the 1990s. Some critics claiming to be locals had watched their country wither away without using what they said was their know-how to develop climbing.

We have been criticized for not being Greek or not being from here...but in the end, it is the people of the villages who are now running the project even though we helped them at the beginning and remain by their side.

Is what is happening elsewhere in Greece so exemplary that we should have turned to developers in other spots? There are conflicts elsewhere. In other places, there have been major waves of re-equipment because things were initially done badly or the development was not coordinated or supervised. Elsewhere, it has taken years for rescue teams to be structured. Finally, the economic model is not always assured to attempt to self-finance development and maintenance. Elsewhere, there are many problems of preservation of the natural environment. We have observed what is happening elsewhere and tried to prevent what is going wrong. So I think we did the right thing in moving forward.

Therefore, while inviting those who criticize us to meet the people of the association, even to support their action, help to improve it, I can say that I am proud to have participated in all this since the beginning, in 2015/2016. All those who have participated in this have done so with a laudable intention whether it is the municipality, the association Manikia project, all the inhabitants who are friends of the project, Petzl, Peter Lappas, all the team members.

To end this discourse, I wish all climbers understood this intention. I wish they would respect the place and especially not park anywhere randomly to spend the night with their van. I wish they wouldn't shit everywhere. I would like them to respect the paths but also the temporary bans when they exist. I would like the crew to refer to the Manikia project association before going to equip and to respect the few not very restrictive rules that have been put in place in this matter. Basically, I would like climbers to be faithful to what they claim to be in our society.

Of course, everything that has been said above is only for my own account and not for the Manikia project association or the municipality of Kimi Aliveri.