Filenews 14 August 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
Dynamic reactions of the residents of Inia to the issue of the Akamas Local Plan begin today. Wanting to prevent the worst that is yet to be seen, as they claim, authorities and residents of the community of Akamas are starting from today a series of protest actions in order not to complete a process that, as they complain, will once again have them on the sidelines, depriving them of the right to their properties and the development of their area.
After last Sunday's nationwide event, today residents and landowners are proceeding to close roads and access to the Lara area from 11 am.
Speaking to "F", the president of the community of Inia, Yiangos Tsivikos, stressed that lately, the entire community authorities of Akamas have been racing to prevent the further decline and exclusion of the communities, calling for the revision of the existing Akamas Local Plan, a plan that is anything but sustainable. What we demand, he emphasizes, is the creation of conditions that will bring real development and revitalization of the local economy, in combination with the protection of the environment.
"The narrative that wants the inhabitants of Akamas to wish to cement the area and destroy nature on the altar of money, is completely wrong," he says. "As residents of the area we have grown up in nature and we are the first to desire the protection and prosperity of the natural environment of our region, since we recognize that our own health and prosperity depends on it. The aim is to find the common component, so that the environment and people can live in harmony. We expect the Government to give such incentives to the people of Akamas, through which the protection of nature will be achieved, but also the preservation of the population of the area. We refuse to accept anything that is expected to condemn the communities of Akamas to desolation."
No project can be implemented successfully without its consent and acceptance by the local community, which is confirmed by a recent study by the Universities of East Anglia and the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL), according to which local communities are the best managers of environmentally sensitive areas, according to Yago Tsivikos.
The President of the Community of Inia also argued that in Cyprus, we have not so far managed to protect the environment and at the same time man. A striking example is the communities on the outskirts of Akamas, he points out, which have been facing serious economic and social problems for three decades, with the population declining more and more, due to the low birth rate and the relocation of young people to other areas.
"The 1989 Policy Statement contributed to the decline of the communities of Akamas, with the implementation of which large areas of Akamas and a huge number of private properties were determined with the urban planning designation Nature Protection and with zero building coefficient, within which any development was prohibited", he emphasizes. "Since then, no compensation has been given to the owners of the properties, who remain to this day trapped in the indecision and procrastination of the respective governments.
The adoption of the Policy Statement in 1989 was made as a precautionary measure pending the identification of areas that really required protection. Given that the Natura sites have now been designated, this urban designation must be deleted and the legal provisions governing the Natura sites must be applied.
Unlike the areas of strict nature conservation that were in force in the past, says Mr. Tsivikos, the Natura 2000 sites are not zones of prohibition of development. The basic principle of Natura 2000 is that its design must take into account "economic, social and cultural requirements, as well as regional and local specificities", in order to ensure the compatibility of any economic activities within the Network with the protection of valuable species and habitats. The logic of zero growth has proven disastrous for humans, he argues.
