The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Costas Kadis, described the results of the measures for the protection of forests during the last anti-fire period as excellent. Greeting the official launch of the Tree Week on Sunday, he noted that "2022 was historically the best year in terms of forest fire management."
Referring to the importance of forests for the country's economy, as well as for addressing the effects of climate change, Kadis referred to the actions taken to protect forests, noting that these had "excellent results" this year. Citing the data leading to this conclusion, he said that burnt area of state forest was the smallest since 1960, just 0.4 hectares; burnt forest area was the smallest in 20 years, just 30 hectares; the average burnt area per forest fire, just half a hectare; and the area of the largest fire of the year, just 3.6 hectares.
Kadis added that these results were mainly due to the improvement of the operational capacity of the Forestry Department and the strengthening of the forest fire response system, and expressed his appreciation for the important work done both by the staff of the Forestry Department and other government departments and agencies involved in fire protection.
He said the government had gradually proceeded to "fill almost all the vacancies that were pending in the Forestry Department and to strengthen and modernize both the ground and aerial firefighting fleet of the Department," noting that new vehicles were received in 2022, while for the first time, five planes and seven helicopters contributed to the work of firefighting this year.
At the event for the launch of the Tree Week, organized by the Forestry Department and the Cyprus Forestry Association, in cooperation with the Second Primary School of Agios Dometios, Mr. Kadis stressed the importance of organizing it in a school unit, underlining the awareness and substantial involvement of the younger generation in the protection of trees, forests and the natural environment.
"Trees, and by extension forests, perform important environmental functions that contribute to improving the quality of human life and the ecological stability of our planet," he said, referring to the importance of the content of the event.
He pointed out the decisive contribution of forests in addressing major environmental challenges, managing climate change and protecting biodiversity, while he also referred to their contribution to economic development through the supply of labour and the production of products used in various sectors of the economy.
He added that the Ministry and the Forestry Department, as the competent authority, manage Cypriot forests on the basis of the principle of sustainability, and therefore the effective protection of forests and biodiversity from all factors that pose a threat was set as an immediate priority. He made special reference to the Sustainable Development Plan of the Akamas National Forest Park, which is in its final stage of implementation, he said, "with more than 40 forty conservation and nature protection actions" and "with an estimated final cost of €44 million".
Under the Plan, he said, ecologically sensitive areas were declared as "Micro Reserves" for additional protection, cutting off accesses to protect habitats, designating points and areas of interest and activities, preparing information material for visitors, hiring park rangers, constructing Park management hubs and improving the main road network.
Finally, he noted the effort to encourage tree planting, saying that the Forestry Department granted for the 2021-2022 planting period, 31,000 saplings to 257 beneficiaries, while with the decision of the Council of Ministers for free annual allocation of saplings, both to organized bodies and citizens, about 100,000 saplings were given for this year alone.
Source: CNA
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