Dreaming of a green Christmas

By Martin Hellicar

AMONG the throng of Christmas shoppers in Nicosia’s Eleftheria Square yesterday, a handful of environmentalists unfurled their banners to protest against development in the Akamas.

A massive hotel complex going up within the boundaries of the proposed Akamas national park was once again the focus for the greens’ anger.

The cabinet approved planning relaxations to allow the complex – owned by the family firm of former Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides – to be built. The environmentalists, from the Friends of Akamas and Ecological Movement groups, were also demonstrating against the government’s failure, as they put it, to stop illegal extensions to the hotel.

Earlier in the week, the Estate Agents’ Association (Skek) gave its backing to those pushing for development of the Akamas peninsula.

Skek chairman Nicolas Lemonaris said landowners in the area had “suffered” ten years of uncertainty since the remote peninsula was earmarked for a national park and declared a no-development zone. He attacked environmentalists, saying they were behaving as “self-appointed sheriffs” for the Akamas.

“It is easy for some, who are in no danger of loosing anything and have the security of a fat wage packet, to make decisions about the lives and properties of others,” he said.

He expressed support for a proposal put forward by the Bishop of Paphos: that the park be limited to state forest land and private individuals owning land within this area be compensated with other Akamas land – in the Lara area.

A government-commissioned World Bank plan for the Akamas proposes that development be kept within existing village boundaries with the rest of the area being preserved as wilderness.

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