The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Kostas Kadis, presented the results of the measures for the protection of forests during the last fire fighting season as exceptional. Welcoming the official start of Tree Week on Sunday, he noted that "2022 has historically been the best year in terms of forest fire management".
Referring to the importance of forests for the country's economy, as well as for dealing with the effects of climate change, Mr. Kadis referred to the actions to protect forests, pointing out that they had "excellent results" this year. Citing the data leading to this conclusion, he said that state forest area burned was the smallest since 1960, just 0,4 hectares, forest area burned was the smallest in twenty years, just 30 hectares, the average area burned per forest fire, just half a hectare, and the area of the largest fire of the year, just 3,6 hectares.
Mr. Kadis added that these results are mainly due to the improvement of the operational capacity of the Forestry Department and the strengthening of the forest fire response system, and he expressed his appreciation for the important work carried out by both the staff of the Forestry Department and of other government agencies and bodies involved in fire protection.
He also said that the government gradually proceeded to "fill almost all the vacancies that were pending in the Department of Forestry and to strengthen and modernize both the ground and aerial firefighting fleet of the Department", mentioning that in 2022 new vehicles were received, while for the first time, this year, five airplanes and seven helicopters contributed to the firefighting project.
At the event for the start of the Tree Week, organized by the Department of Forestry and the Cyprus Philanthropic Association, in collaboration with the XNUMXnd Primary School of Agios Dometios, Mr. Kadis highlighted its organization within a school unit, underlining the awareness and essential involvement of the new generation in the protection of trees, forests and the natural environment.
"Trees, and by extension forests, perform important environmental functions that contribute to the improvement of human quality of life and the ecological stability of our planet," he said, referring to the importance of the event's content.
He pointed out the decisive contribution of forests in dealing with major environmental challenges, in the management of climate change and the protection of biodiversity, while he also referred to their contribution to economic development, through the supply of work and the production of products that are used in various sectors of the economy.
He added that the Ministry and the Department of Forestry, 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 the factors that pose a threat, has been made an immediate priority. He made special reference to the Sustainable Development Plan of the Akamas National Forest Park, which is in the final stage of implementation, as he said, "with more than 40 nature conservation and protection actions" and "with an estimated final cost of €44 million".
As part of the Plan, he said that ecologically sensitive areas were declared as "Micro-reserves" for their additional protection, access was cut off to protect the habitats, points and areas of interest and activities were determined, information material was prepared for visitors, park rangers were hired, and management nodes were built. Park and improvement of the main road network.
Finally, he noted the effort to encourage tree planting, saying that the Forestry Department granted for the 2021-2022 planting season, 31.000 saplings to 257 beneficiary agencies, while by decision of the Council of Ministers for free annual grant of saplings, both to organized agencies and and to citizens, for this year alone approximately 100.000 saplings were given.
Source: KYPE