Chef Bettina Mohn on Astypalea “There is huge interest in electric cars”

“I’m not from here, but I lost my heart to this island a long time ago” – this is something you hear a lot when talking to people on the Greek island of Astypalea. The number of locals born here has dwindled in recent decades. But tourism has opened up new sources of revenue and attracted new people to the island – predominantly from Greece, but also from abroad. People like Bettina Mohn from Frankfurt.

German ex-pat Bettina first visited the island in the southern Aegean back in 1982. She moved to Astypalea in 1996. These days Bettina’s favourite pastime is taking care of her large garden, where rosemary grows as high as small trees do in other places. Old basil shrubs with woody stems are dotted between fig and olive trees. Bettina values living from and with nature, understanding and respecting its gifts, and has done so throughout her life.

“Nature gives us everything we need if we understand it and treat it well,” says Bettina. This basic idea fits in really well with the plan to set up a sustainable mobility and energy system on the island, which will rely almost exclusively on electricity generated locally by the sun and wind.

In her more than 25 years on Astypalea, Bettina Mohn has developed a keen awareness of the changes in the island’s delicate ecosystem. “It rains less. The island used to be green in spring, now it is brown all year in many places.”

Bettina lives in the green Livadi valley below the reservoir and would like the delicate balance between tourism and nature on the island to be handled gently: “I’m not against wind energy or green energy,” she says. But it has to blend into the landscape. Like the small solar parks that are located in various places on the island.

The plan is for the new energy system to cover 80 percent of demand by 2026 – including the approximate 1000 electric vehicles (cars and scooters) that will be out and about on the island then. The green energy generated locally will also make the diesel generators that currently produce the island’s energy obsolete.

Most islanders make a living from tourism. Large numbers of summer visitors come from mainland Greece looking for sun, sand and good food. “There aren’t any big hotels here, it is small, private and cosy here. I think that’s what people like about Astypalea. The food is good because there are good local products.” In low season it is mainly Italians and Germans who flock to the island, looking for peace and quiet.

Bettina believes that electric cars could work well on the island: “Some people have already ordered an electric car and many have expressed great interest,” she says. After all, it’s obvious that the earth’s resources are limited, including oil. So it’s time to look for alternatives. This is causing the popularity of the Volkswagen electric models e-up!, ID.3 and ID.4 to rise immensely on Astypalea.

Change doesn’t come over night, as Bettina can testify. “I fell in love with this place as a holiday destination at first sight,” she recalls. But she didn’t have any interest in living on Astypalaea initially. The main village of Chora looked very different at the start of the 1980s. The houses in the old town below the Venetian castle (“Castro”) were not as beautifully restored and lovingly painted in blue and white like they are today. The people of Astypalaea preferred to build new homes below the old town back then – old houses without a bathroom or toilet were available to buy at cheap prices. This is where Bettina was always able to find affordable holiday accommodation.

As picturesque as the main village is, once you get off the main road, many remote corners of the island can only be accessed via unsurfaced roads, called “dirt roads”.

Bettina has been taking care of her own gardens from the beginning. Many crop plants can be grown throughout the year on Astypalea. “Unlike in Germany, July and August are the worst months. There is a lot of wind, the sun is very strong,” says Bettina. She soon learned from the locals how to supplement the menu with garden produce year-round. There is always something to harvest and process.

Knowing where to find herbs and the best time to harvest them earned Bettina Mohn the reputation of being a “herbal expert”. These days she grows a lot of them herself: “I was always fascinated by what just grows here. In Germany you buy basil in a plastic pot and it doesn’t take long to wither. Here it gets so big that you can hardly keep on top of trimming it," she says. Nature regulates everything.

It’s a different story when it comes to a transformation project towards sustainable mobility, which can only do justice to its function as a role model for other remote regions through constant monitoring and getting the community involved. Which is why scientists are observing and systematically evaluating the project. Bettina is convinced that “you can only create something new if you ask the people of Astypalea whether they are on board with the change and how they feel about it, and if you include them in decision-making.”