Farmers ask for compensation for mouflon damage

Farmers whose produce is being damaged by mouflons are asking the state to compensate them and fund protection measures as the island’s pride and joy were now even visiting coffeeshops in some areas.

Following discussion at the House agriculture committee, chairman Andros Kafkalias said MPs he expected the matter to be resolved through next year’s budget.

Kafkalias said the responsibility for the damage caused by the mouflons to cultivations belonged to the state and the state should assume them. The Akel MP stressed that protection of the species was essential, suggesting that the communities’ opponents were not the animals but the government’s lack of caring.

He said the issue has been discussed in parliament for the past two years and promises and plans did nothing to help the farmers.

The government was looking to subsidise fencing to prevent mouflons from entering cultivations. There was also the matter of compensating those who lost crops.

“We have demanded to see the necessary funds in the 2019 budget,” Kafkalias said, adding that the cost was around €1m.

Kampos community leader Sotiris Antoniou said they had come to parliament for the umpteenth time to discuss the matter.

“The mouflons are the state’s property and it ought to control them,” he said. Of the suggestion to allow selective hunting of the animal, Antoniou said that would mean there will be none left in the end.

He said their suggestion was for the state to provide the materials and the communities would put in the labour to fence their properties and crops.

Antoniou suggested the mouflons were unable to find clean water and resources and that was why they sought refuge in villages.

“They came to the village coffeeshop,” he said.

The Cyprus mouflon is a sub-species of wild sheep that is unique to Cyprus. It is strictly protected after coming close to extinction during the Ottoman years.

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