About us

PROJECT PARTNERS

Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature (HSPN)

Founded in 1951 in Greece, the HSPN is the oldest environmental organization in Greece and acts as a non-profit association. The HSPN rep-resents in Greece the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), a global educational organization, and operates all five of its inter-national Programmes for environmental education and sustainable management: “Eco-Schools”, “Young Reporters for the Environment”, “Learning about Forests”, “Blue Flag” and “Green Key”. At present, HSPN is active in five main areas: Environmental Interventions, Nature Conservation, Environmental Education, Sustainable Management in the Tourism Sector, Public Awareness Raising.

For more information, visit: http://eepf.gr/en

Foundation for Environmental Education in Turkey (TÜRÇEV – Türkiye Çevre Eğitim Vakfı)

Founded in 1993, TÜRÇEV operates FEE’s programmes in Turkey. TÜRÇEV initiated its action with the “Blue Flag” in 1993 and then joined other FEE Programmes: “Young Reporters for the Environment” and “Eco-Schools” in 1995, “Learning about Forests” in 2004 and “Green Key” in 2011. TÜRÇEV’s central office is in Ankara and branch offices are in Antalya, Bodrum (Muğla) and İzmir.

For more information, visit: http://www.turcev.org.tr

THE PROGRAMME

The “Civil Society Dialogue between EU and Turkey” Programme is implemented with the financial support of the EU. In 2006, it was established by the Directorate for EU Affairs and served as a plat-form for civil society organizations (NGOs) from EU member states and Turkey to meet for commons issues and then societies to get to know each other, exchange information and establish a sustainable dialogue between them. The first implementation of the Programme, started in 2008. Civil Society Dialogue between EU and Turkey – Grant Scheme (CSD) was put into practice in the scope of IPA – Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance. Through this Programme, a total amount of 42.5 million euros was provided to 350 dialogue projects run as partnerships between NGOs from Turkey and EU member or candidate countries. Accepted projects targeted gender equality, education, agriculture, health, food, environment etc.

For more information, visit http://siviltoplumdiyalogu.org/

The team

Chara Agaoglou is a Project Officer in the HSPN’s European Projects Team. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Primary School Education at the University of Ioannina and a Master’s degree in Environmental Education at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. She was the Project Coordinator of the EU project “Theoretical Approaches and Practical Implementations in Environmental Education – YUNUS”, under the Civil Society Dialogue Programme and currently she is involved in the implementation of other EU projects of HSPN, in the framework of different Programmes, such as LIFE, Interreg MED and Erasmus+, being responsible for the overall management and implementation of the projects, including material and content development, dissemination of project activities, as well as monitoring of financial plans.

Chara Agaoglou, HSPN

Christos Georgiadis is the Team Leader of HSPN’s European Projects Team. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development at the Faculty of Biology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He has been working for more than twenty years as Project Manager in European projects about the protection of the environment, such as LIFE, INTERREG III B ARCHIMED, Interreg MED and Civil Society Dialogue Programmes, etc. At HSPN, he is responsible for the overall management of the European projects that the organisation undertakes, as well as for the implementation of specific projects, such as the LIFE “Natura Themis” project, LIFE “PriMed” project and LIFE “NewLife4Drylands”. He is also part of the team developing new project ideas, and actively involved in the process of proposal writing.

Christos Georgiadis, HSPN

Theodora Polyzoidou is the Team Leader of HSPN’s Educational Programmes Team. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. She coordinates all five Environmental Education Programmes of HSPN. Under this position she is responsible for the overall management, implementation and dissemination of these programmes, and also for organising annual teachers’ seminars, “train the trainers” summer schools, students’ conferences and contributing to the creation of educational material for teachers and students. She has participated in the implementation of various transnational projects of HSPN and has made contributions to the advisory group of the Special Permanent Committee for Environmental Protection of the Greek Parliament regarding the strengthening of Environmental Education in schools.

Theodora Polyzoidou , HSPN

Nikos Petrou is the overall Coordinator of HSPN’s European Projects Team. He is a naturalist and author having published 14 major books and more than 70 articles, mostly on conservation and current environmental policies and issues. He has been involved in conservation since the late 1980s. A long-time member of the HSPN, he has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2005 and continuously elected its President since 2009. Since 2012 he is coordinator of the projects “LIFE ForOpenForests” and “LIFE PRIMED”, in which HSPN is the lead partner. As he also actively oversees all HSPN EU funded projects, and is involved in the process of project selection and proposal writing, he brings considerable management expertise.  As President of the HSPN, he is in frequent contact at the highest level with the relevant local and national authorities and the main stakeholders in the areas of education and the environment.

Nikos Petrou, HSPN

He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Ankara University in 1967 and 1969 accordingly. He went to the United States of America for advance graduate studies in 1969. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh and received a PhD degree in Arts and Sciences in 1975. He started to work at Hacettepe University in Ankara for two years, then went to University of London for post doctoral work for one year. After returning to Ankara, he worked for four years at the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority and then for two years at the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey. In 1986, he returned to Ankara University to teach in the Engineering Physics Department. He worked as a University Professor until 2012 and retired at the age of 67. Besides his academic work, he is one of the founders of the Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) in Turkey, TÜRÇEV (1993). Since 1995, he has been coordinating the Programme ‘Young Reporters for the Environment’ (YRE) as national operator of TÜRÇEV. He also operated “UNESCO Associated Schools Project (ASP)” Programme on behalf of UNESCO National Commission for Turkey between 2004 and 2016. He is the Technical Manager of the YUNUS Project that was completed jointly by TÜRÇEV and the HSPN.

Prof. Dr. Çelik Tarımcı, TÜRÇEV

Fatma Köle is a national coordinator of Educational Programmes in TÜRÇEV. She coordinates the ‘Learning About Forests’ Programme (LEAF) and she is also involned in the operation of the Programme ‘Young Reporters for the Environment’ (YRE).  She acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Science Education in Hacettepe University-Ankara in 2007 and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration, Inspection, Planning and Economy in Mersin University at the Educational Sciences Institute in 2010. She started her professional career in the private sector and now she is working at TÜRÇEV. At the YUNUS project, she worked as an Environmental Education Expert.

Fatma Köle, TÜRÇEV

Efsun Ece Deniz worked as translator/interpreter in TÜRÇEV. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations (Boğaziçi University – İstanbul) and a Master’s degree in European Union studies (Galatasaray University-İstanbul). With a professional background in private sector, she has worked in various non-profit organizations. As the administrative staff in YUNUS Project, she handled project documents’ translation and interpretation, as well as financial transactions.

Efsun Ece Deniz , TÜRÇEV