Filenews 8 July 2025 - by Dora Christodoulou
In the Diarizos Valley, in the Paphos district, the inhabitants of Trachypedoula notice that in the past the rain reached the community from the southwest, i.e. in the direction of the sea of Mandria, through a green valley, while today the rain comes poorer than the forest of Panagia.
This is emphasized by the former Inspector of Physiognomy and Biology and for many years community leader of Trachypedoula, Konstantinos Feraios, pointing out that this simple observation of the people of the area is fully compatible with the already visible climate change in the area.
Employees at Paphos Airport, Mr. Feraios points out, notice that a rain cloud coming from the west, i.e. the sea, when it approaches Cyprus is usually divided into two. One part heads south of Cyprus towards Israel, while the other part heads northeast. The adverse climate change is due to the way the southwest coast of the Paphos district is developing, with an increase in greenhouse gases and reflective surfaces and then extensive deforested area, where the air temperature above the tree trunk is lower than over a neighbouring deforested area. That is, as a compensation for the residential or other development of the coast, it should have been the development of greenery, he points out. But instead of seeing a green Paphos district, we see it being characterized to a large extent by deforestation.
The main causes of deforestation are malicious fires, free grazing and largely overgrazing, material exploitation and the insane drainage of the Diarizos River, emphasizes the former community leader Trachypedoulas. Desertification of the Diarizos Valley and the wider Paphos district, means desertification of the whole of Cyprus. Environmental degradation also occurs in other areas of Cyprus where ecological axioms for economic development are violated. The above constitute a painful reality that affects every sector of economic development, such as tourism, and must be immediately addressed, he says.
During a recent conference held in Nicosia, the Commissioner for the Environment announced a welcome news that the area of the Diarizos and Xeros Valleys Complex will be promoted as a biosphere reserve, she said. However, the environment is not protected with words, but in practice and action must be the result of scientific guidance. Unfortunately, the real situation is very unpleasant, Mr. Feraios estimates, since several beautiful landscapes, such as the area of Petra tou Romio and the Diarizos Valley, are unacceptably degraded, although they are Special Protection Zones.
An Environmental Center has been created in the community of Trachypedoula, which emerged with the fervent support of the Honorary Professor of Geosciences of the University of Ohio, Dr Rossanne Fortner, the former Director of the Department of Forests Mr. Tsintidis, the then Minister of Education and later of Agriculture Kostas Kadis, the then Minister of Finance Harris Georgiadis, the Minister of the Interior the late Socrates Hasikos and the District Governor of Paphos Mary Lambrou. The purpose of the Center is to highlight the natural and cultural elements of the Diarizos Valley and to contribute to the improvement and protection of the environment for sustainable development and for the improvement of the local climate. In order to achieve these goals, the Minister of Agriculture has been asked to make a proper staffing of the Center, concludes the former community leader Trachypedoulas.
