For "salamiization of Akamas" speaks the organization “Ecological Intervention Friends of Akamas”, which issued a relevant announcement.
It is noted that “in 2017, only the state forest, which makes up 75% of the Natura2000 area, was unfortunately declared a National Forest Park (NFP), on the basis of insufficient national legislation, with the addition that there does not appear to be “any other movement to correct this of the unacceptable tactic of salamization”.
It is pointed out that “even for the forest state land (SDF), the rulers decided to collect an entrance fee, to create a network of roads that will be used by private vehicles that will are stationed within state forest land".
“How much simpler would it be to buy small electric buses in which people boarded from entrances to the villages themselves, the Baths of Aphrodite and the area of Pegeia?”, asks the organization, adding that “this practice would not create problem with parking spaces and the traffic load of many vehicles, while the traffic would be regulated according to the period that requires some restrictions”.
“The same could be true for boat traffic, where the National Park management committee could hire services from the boats already in the area and thus regulate the frequency and season of traffic,” the statement said.
It is stressed that "it is patently unacceptable to allow hunting in the Akamas nature reserve – when the birdlife of the area is often said to be suffering – and it gives the impression to local and foreign visitors to the Peninsula that they are hiking in a battlefield".
4. The organization states that "the conservation area of the canyons should be unified and include their highlands, otherwise we will end up seeing pictures of the magnificent complex of canyons only in museums and lamenting what was there and what we lost" .
It is underlined that "we ended up having two Local Plans and in this case also the Peninsula is salamized. The Local Plan of Peyia is sitting on the shelf and is not yet considered by the decision-makers, and the Local Plan of Akama Communities is being debated because the Department of the Environment made an opinion that was not convenient for some of its non-environmentally friendly provisions.
" In fact, thanks to parliamentary and party decisions regarding Local Government, instead of the Municipality of Peyia and the Community Authorities (Kathikas, Pano and Kato Arodes, Inia, Druseia and Pittokopou, Fasli, Androlikou and Neo Chorio) being clustered, they were separated into two clusters together with other disparate areas that do not fall within the defined area of Akamas Peninsula”, the announcement concludes.
Source: KYPE
