Wild Olive
Wild Olive is a 65,000m2 olive grove in Moria on Lesvos - an island covered by an astonishing 11 million olive trees.
This site will become Moria Academy’s primary research farm and training centre: a facility designed to inspire and equip much-needed workers for the harvesting and sustainable management of olive groves on Lesvos, in Greece and across Europe.
Beyond this agricultural emphasis we hope to create opportunities for educational and recreational activities to co-exist in a dynamic and family-friendly learning environment.
Wild Olive is therefore designed to enable 3 specific land-uses:
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Wild Olive’s goal is two-fold:
To innovate towards a diverse and sustainable model for olive grove management that brings ecological health and economic prosperity.
To offer certified vocational training to the refugee community.
Our vision is for Wild Olive to become a flagship project for soil health, biodiversity and social enterprise innovation - each identified as a missional goals of the EU’s Rural Pact from 2021 through 2027 - in the specific regional context of traditional olive grove management.
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Our Wild Olive Forest School is at the forefront of our efforts towards local integration with relevance to children and families.
Our goal is to develop a project that utilises benefits of this unique learning environment - from physical education and nature study to bushcraft and wild food foraging - whilst fostering community between local Greek, refugee and even NGO worker children and families.
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A key part of our vision for this local community is to help create a vibrant fabric of social and cultural events.
Wild Olive will therefore become a community event space equipped with a simple but flexible semi-temporary events infrastructure.