Greens demand halt to harmful Akamas projects

The Environmental Movement on Friday called for an immediate halt to environmentally damaging projects in Akamas, demanding accountability from those responsible and stronger protection for the peninsula. “The Audit Office’s report has established an ecological disaster,” the NGO said, referring to findings published on Wednesday that identified serious shortcomings in the management and protection of the area. The movement said the disregard for basic environmental protection rules, along with interventions such as excessive excavation, had caused irreparable damage to sensitive ecosystems. “The official findings demonstrate a tragic failure of the competent authorities, turning a priceless natural treasure into a field of mismanagement and environmental degradation,” it said. The Greens pointed to serious violations and deviations from construction plans that had not been covered by the original environmental assessment. They said that 17 of the 19 additional conditions imposed retrospectively remained unfulfilled, while excessive excavation had caused environmental damage that could no longer be reversed. “The intention of the Audit Office to refer the file to the Legal Service for possible criminal liability confirms the magnitude of the illegalities and the need for a complete clean-up,” the party said. It added that projects worth millions of euros remained at the planning stage or had barely progressed, while wasteful and poorly coordinated decisions, including the installation and subsequent removal of infrastructure networks, had imposed additional costs on taxpayers. The party called for a full investigation and accountability “without concessions or cover-ups”, as well as an immediate halt to environmentally damaging works. It also demanded strict compliance with European and international protection standards for Natura 2000 sites and urged the government to take corrective action to safeguard Akamas. The Audit Office report, published on Wednesday, identified several serious shortcomings in the authorities’ management of the Akamas peninsula over recent years. Among them were delays between the identification of illegal catering and entertainment establishments in protected areas and the initiation of criminal proceedings against their operators. The report also raised concerns about unauthorised construction, which it described as remaining “out of control”, with on-site inspections identifying businesses operating illegally within the protected area. Responding to the findings, the agriculture ministry submitted a 36-page letter to auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou. The ministry said that the evaluation of projects being undertaken in the Akamas region “should take into account the full history of the decisions made, the institutional and legal framework in force when they were made, the responsibilities of the authorities involved, and the corrective actions which followed”, noting that several measures to reduce the environmental footprint of projects in the region had been undertaken in recent years. “[The findings of the report] will be studied and utilised with a view to continuously improving environmental protection, management and governance processes,” the ministry said. The report has since been submitted to the legal service for further evaluation and possible investigation.