Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Costas Kadis stressed on Thursday the need for urgent and sustained action in order to mitigate, adapt and build resilience against the impacts of climate change, in his address at a conference in Nicosia, which was co-organised by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Cyprus and the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Greece.
The aim of the conference, which was attended by renowned scientists and speakers from both countries, was to draw conclusions on how to improve the prevention and suppression of forest fires, as well as to strengthen cooperation between the two countries for the protection of Mediterranean forests.
The Minister of Agriculture referred to the initiative of the President of the Republic to coordinate regional action to address the effects of climate change, saying that Cyprus is taking advantage of its geostrategic position and its excellent relations with almost all countries in the region.
He said that around 240 scientists have worked in 13 working groups and have submitted their recommendations on measures to address climate change, adding that these recommendations have been incorporated into an action plan which after being approved by the conference held in Cyprus was ratified at a conference of region country leaders.
Regarding forest fires, Kadis stressed that the Government’s prevention and combatting efforts is persistent and continuous and noted the very positive results of the 2022 season, which was the best in the last twenty years.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy of the Hellenic Republic, Giorgos Amyras, in his address, referred to the programmes for the restoration of the burnt areas in Mati and the efforts to relieve the residents of the area which are funded by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus with a total budget of 11 million euros.
He also said that in Greece, despite a 15-year record in the number of fires with more than 6,000, the total area burnt was limited due to the prevention projects implemented in recent years, as well as the forest inventory and the preparation of forest maps.
The Greek Deputy Minister of Environment said 120 critical forest ecosystems were cleared, while anti-fire zones totalling 2,000 kilometres were created and forest roads totalling 12,600 kilometres were opened.
Moreover, in his address, the Secretary General for Natural Environment and Water of Greece, Konstantinos Aravosis, said that “the climate crisis, not climate change, is the great problem of our time”, adding that Greece and Cyprus now have “the tackling of this climate crisis as their top priority “.
Referring to climate change, Aravosis said that the climate in Cyprus and Greece tends to become tropical with very high temperatures and very low temperatures the next day, “with everything else that this implies in terms of natural disasters and economic impacts associated with these disasters.”
In her address, Environment Commissioner Klelia Vasiliou said that “knowing how beneficial forests are to our lives, we have no choice but to create those conditions that will prevent and forestall new threats as far as possible”, adding that “forests are a vast ecosystem that encapsulates the immense wisdom of nature”.
Director of the Forestry Department Charalambos Alexandrou said that until recently the main factors that had a negative impact on the Mediterranean were fires, overgrazing and overexploitation, while today, he said, changes in land use and climate change have been added.
He also said that climate change together with rural abandonment are responsible for large-scale forest fires, noting that over the last 10 years there had been an average of 247 fires per year in Cyprus that burned 2,108 hectares of forest and agricultural land.
Finally, the President of the Pancyprian Union of Foresters Nicolas Eliades said that there are phenomena of air pollution from the concentration of greenhouse pollutants and particulate matter dust, conditions that aggravate public health and the loss of water mass in the hinterland.
As regards the themes of the workshop, it included interventions on forest fires prevention, the introduction of new technologies in their management and the restoration of burnt forest ecosystems.
Source: Cyprus News Agency