TENTATIVE plans have been drawn up examining the possibility of turning Cyprus’s dividing line into a state park.
“We have to start with landscaping, and maybe the old Nicosia airport would be a showcase opportunity for this.” said Anna Grichting, a Fellow at Harvard University and one of the people involved in the project.
Though a lot of possible environmental usages for the strip of land in question are being considered within the framework of the project, the basic idea is quite clear: put the dividing line to good use.
The proposed project was presented publicly in Nicosia recently at a conference for climate change organized by the German-Cypriot Forum. It would involve green areas, state parks, areas where techniques of organic farming are accessible to the public and landscaped watercourses. Storm drainage is also a part of the scheme, as are considerations of the sorts of materials used for building with.
“The environment knows no borders and Cyprus is facing problems on both sides which are the same.” commented Engin Karatas, executive secretary of the forum.
The Green Line comes under the legal jurisdiction of the United Nations and is administrated by that organization, noted Grichting.
“It’s a question of priorities.” she said “I know there’s the whole question of ownership and what we’re really talking about is the difference between social interest and private interest. There’s a line of public interest and ecology is always near the bottom of that line.”
In America, Germany and other countries in Europe, ‘green belts’ around cities, ‘green zones’ within them, and environmentally-conscious town and city planning are a long-established facet of social development. In Cyprus, on the environmental front, “there is a big vision but there’s also a lot of projects that can be done incrementally,” according to Grichting.
“I think this is very good as a first step.” said Irini Armouti, a student from Germany with the forum who attended the talks. “But there are people living on both sides [of the green line] and so the next step should be taken to include them.”
