Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Dr. Maria Panayiotou has said that Cyprus’ experience as a small island nation has shown that security forces are often the best equipped to deal with disaster management.
The Minister of Agriculture, was speaking in Vienna representing the Minister of Defence at the Security Dialogue on Environment and Security that took place today in the framework of a joint meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC). It is noted that Cyprus has undertaken the chair of the FSC in January until April 2024. The FSC and the Permanent Council of the OSCE, constitute the two autonomous decision making bodies of the organisation.
“Environment and security have become all the more relevant and are thus a policy area which cannot be ignored; a global issue that requires a global response” she said.
For Cyprus, she added, “it is important to underline the importance of
this issue, since we have experienced severe natural and man-made disasters in the past, such as floods, landslides, forest fires, sea pollution and earthquakes”.
“As a small island nation, our experience has shown that security forces are often the best equipped to deal with disaster management. Military forces are highly effective when responding to humanitarian crisis situations due to their operational capabilities that allow them to operate in any weather and terrain. In this framework, over the years the mission of the Armed Forces has evolved to include both support to disaster response efforts and the provision of humanitarian assistance” she said.
On the other hand, the Minister continued, it is also important to note the significance of regional cooperation when addressing unfolding disasters, since the security forces of neighbouring countries have often joined forces to tackle emergency situations.
“There are several such examples where neighbouring countries have cooperated to deal with forest
fires in Portugal, Greece and my own country Cyprus, floods in Greece or Libya or earthquakes, such as the devastating one last year in Trkiye, in order to effectively and swiftly address their huge effects on the environment”.
Cyprus, she added, also recognises that promoting sustainability in the armed forces is a win-win approach for the defence sector, since the armed forces can benefit from the greater availability of resources from an operational point of view and noted that in this framework, there have been adopted specific measures to adopt renewable energy and promote energy security in the defence sector.
She also presented some examples of this approach as they were adopted by the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus. She said that the Ministry of Defence acknowledges its environmental and social responsibilities as well as the importance of having a solid environmental and energy policy.
In this regard, she added, the Ministry of Defence hosted in February 2019 the 3rd meeting of the
consultation forum for sustainable energy in the Defence and Security Sector, with the aim to share information and best practices on improving energy management and efficiency, the use of renewable energy, as well as on actions to increase the ‘energy’ resilience of military critical infrastructures.
Consequently, she said, through sustainable environmental and energy management, the Ministry of Defence of Cyprus aims to maintain the operational capabilities of the National Guard. To this end, in 2005, we established the Environmental Committee of the Ministry of Defence, which in 2006 published for the first time the Defence Environmental Policy.
According to this policy, Panayiotou added, an environmentally-friendly management system has been adopted at six major military camps in Cyprus, which includes the development of Renewable Energy Sources and the implementation of waste recycling programmes. Moreover, she said, military personnel follow training programmes to increase their awareness on environme
ntal policies and efficient energy management practices.
“In conclusion, I would like to underline Cyprus’ firm conviction that the OSCE is particularly suited to identify and address the increasingly complex linkages between security and the natural environment” Panayiotou noted.
Source: Cyprus News Agency