Conservationist group Initiative for the Protection of the Natural Coastline announced on Tuesday it will continue its fight for the Akamas peninsula to preserve its wildlife.
The group said it “will continue and escalate the race, together with other environmental and scientific organisations of civil society, with the aim of environmental protection, biodiversity conservation and the restoration of the Akamas Peninsula habitat.”
This is necessary for the welfare of local communities, to safeguard public interest and to protect the area from economic interests and political considerations, it added.
“The Akamas Peninsula is an integral part of the common natural and cultural heritage of all of us and so it must be protected and promoted as an area of particular ecological, naturalistic, scientific, archaeological, architectural and social interest in Cyprus, Europe and on a global scale,” a statement said.
Their statement came after what they describe as misleading requests were made by the Akamas property association in an open letter to the president on December 2.
“Their claims that Natura 2000 includes exorbitant land which is private property are unfounded and misleading, as it is not based on any scientific data and legal assessment criteria,” the group stated, adding “instead, according to the scientific data and conclusions of the research project ‘Special Areas of Conservation’, the total area of the Natura 2000 Akamas peninsula should amount to 25,541 and not 18,082 hectares.
“As usual they protest that the protected area is too big and they want to be allowed to build in the Natura area. They are applying pressure on the government which is dangerous because they have the money,” Christos Theodorou from Friends of Akamas commented. “As the government promotes development this can have disastrous consequences.”
The environmental organisations ask for protection of the existing Natura 2000 area, saying giving in to any of the landowners’ demands would constitute a violation of environmental laws, EU directives and international conventions.
All state-owned land in Akamas was declared a national forest park by the cabinet in March.
The question of how much ‘mild development’ of the privately-owned land in the area will be allowed keeps coming up and is a bone of contention between nature lovers and landowners.
