GOVERNEMENT officials are facing an uphill battle in imposing an EU environmental protection programme on angry local communities, saying officials trying to inform villagers of the changes involved had been threatened with violence on several occasions.
The Environmental Services are facing the monumental task of convincing communities in 33 areas of ecological importance designated for protection under the EU’s Natura 2000 programme that farming and some development will still be allowed to take place.
The areas include the Akamas peninsula, Paphos, Troodos and Machairas forests, Diarizos valley, Akrotiri and Larnaca salt lakes, and Cape Greco, but also areas surrounding several villages, such as Mammari, Panayia, Ayia Anna and Lefkara, to name but a few.
A meeting of the House Environment Committee to discuss the issue yesterday was a stormy one, with representatives from communities in the areas accusing the government of misinforming them and the environmental services trying to explain that Natura would not be jeopardising their livelihoods.
The community representatives said they were concerned that there would be restrictions on development in their land due to the EU programme, and were furious that they hadn’t been properly informed about what areas would be involved, what the management plan would be, and what it would mean.
They said they were against strict restrictions, objecting to the areas being declared nature reserves because they wanted to be allowed to develop, adding the only areas that should be included in Natura 2000 should be those that were either not developed or were not zoned for development.
One of the Mukhtars even issued an indirect warning about the protection of the sites.
“It only takes one match for the entire area to be up in smoke,” he said adding that the protection of the areas could not be enforced without the consent of the local communities.
The Mukhtars complained that the information sent to the villages was in English and demanded that it had to be changed.
But Environmental Service Director Nicos Georgiades replied to the complaints about insufficient information saying local authorities were so aggressive that ministry representatives had been threatened with violence on several occasions and had no intention of going back.
“How can we do this when they tell us they are going to beat us up?” he said.
“We are not going to risk our lives to inform people who don’t want to be informed.”
Georgiades added that 90 per cent of the proposed areas were already protected and insisted that development and farming could take place in those areas as long as the local habitats that the sites are designated for are protected.
Martin Hellicar of BirdLife Cyprus told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that 33 sites of ecological importance had been earmarked for protection under Natura 2000, but that a lot of them had been significantly reduced from their original size. He echoed the Environmental Service’s assurances that development and farming could still take place.
“These are not areas which are nature reserves,” he said.
“There isn’t a ban on hunting and development, as long as the species and the habitats that the sites are designated for are protected.
“There will be some areas, which, for example, could be the breeding grounds for an important species of bird, and that would be a strictly protected area.”
Hellicar said only two out of the 19 areas proposed by BirdLife had been added to the programme and stressed that the government should have separate protection for birds.
Cyprus also faces EU fines for failing to present a catalogue with the proposed areas on May 1. The Commission has now given the government until May 15 to submit the catalogue.
Georgiades said the government had been given more time and that the catalogues would be submitted, but assured that for the moment the island would not face an EU reprimand.
