Filenews 4 March 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The first of its kind in Cyprus, The Turtle Museum, is being promoted for implementation after many months of immobility of the procedures. The museum will operate in the community of Inia and as the commune of Inia, Yiangos Tsivikos, stated to "F", the required budget of €400,000 for its creation has been found and it is now a matter of time before the works for the exhibition material are promoted, since the construction part has long since been completed.
Mr. Tsivikos said that in recent contacts with the competent ministries and services, it has been finalized that the museum costed for € 397,000, will be permanently financed by European funds through the EU structural funds and now everything is on track to be implemented.
The Turtle Museum will be created in a space that has already been prepared in the renovated central square of Inia, which was inaugurated in September 2015. As Mr. Tsivikos mentioned, the space is ready and the financing of the project remains for the purchase of the special equipment and the internal arrangement of the museum.
"Since for decades the turtles of Lara were the main reason for the stagnation of the community in a state of non-development, it was decided, at the very least, to exploit the area their existence and their reputation for an alternative exploitation for the benefit of the people of the region," he pointed out. "Already the spaces that will be converted into the Museum of Turtles have been created, in the context of the redevelopment of the central square area of the community that was completed and now remains its internal arrangement and the purchase and installation of special equipment."
The museum will consist of two halls of 150 sq.m., which will exhibit everything and information that has to do with the turtles and their interconnection with Lara and the wider Akamas area, he said. At the same time, the museum will also function as an educational and environmental centre, with seminars, lectures and other activities of an educational and informative nature, which schools, other institutions and organized groups will be able to visit.
The creation of the museum space follows the completion of the renovation and promotion works of the central square of Inia. Yiangos Tsivikos points out that the project, with a total cost of €1.3 million, is a major project. It was co-financed by state and European funds and includes landscape design, installation of paving, creation of an amphitheatre, library, information office and pavilion.
