ARETI Christodoulou has broken through a 130 year-long male dominated tradition, by becoming the first-ever female forestry official on the island.
She has recently taken up her post at the Forestry Department premises within Nicosia’s Athalassa Park as a Conservator of Forests.
Following her appointment, the Forestry Department has said it hopes more women will show interest in the field. So far, not a single woman has entered the Cyprus Forestry College in Prodromos since its foundation in 1951.
Twenty eight-year-old Christodoulou holds a Bachelor Degree in Forestry and is a graduate of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki in Greece.
“When I left for my studies I was one of the few Cypriot women interested in forestry; that’s not the case abroad,” she said. “I think my personal interest had a lot to do with my family who share great environmental consciousness – we were all very close to nature.”
Now getting to grips with the basics of her new job as she gets to know the rest of the team, she doesn’t feel intimated by the all-male environment.
“It would be great to have some women with me but what matters is being with others that share the same passion. A big part of the job involves working on trying to protect our island’s forest from fires as much as we can – one of the biggest threats to our natural environment.”
Although the forestry department was always officially open to females in the forestry department, the prevailing mentality in the past was that it wasn’t really a place for women.
“Now things are finally beginning to change,” said president of the Trade Union of Foresters, Antonis Sarris. “Women have shown more interest in entering the profession in the past few years. We’d really like to see some female graduates from the Forestry College in the near future.”
But what Sarris sees as an even more pressing issue, is that of Forestry Studies being offered at a university degree level here on the island. “Why should people like Areti who want to pursue the job as a science have to go to Greece or other countries to do it? We need an established institute here on the island and we have been pressing for a forestry department to open within the Technological University of Cyprus to no avail as yet,” he said.
“The Ministry of Education just tell us that there won’t be enough interest in the subject at a local university level. But how is that possible when have a good number of Cypriots who are forced to go abroad to study in the field on a yearly basis?”
Offering the subject at university level would obviously generate more interest in the field and raise standards.
“I’m not saying that the standards at the existing Forestry College aren’t any good, but we do need to progress. A university would obviously have more funds and equipment for extensive research, indepth training and academic projects which look at the specific dynamics of our countryside,” he added. “Then of course there’s the matter of raising awareness – more young women and men would get an idea of what the actual science of forestry was all about and maybe show more interest in it if it were more accessible.”
