The state’s plan for so-called sustainable development of the environmentally sensitive Akamas has been so bad it brings to mind the old joke: “They couldn’t organise a beer party in a brewery”.

A report this week by the audit office laid out the entire litany of failures by authorities in financial terms highlighting the shortcomings and omissions by the forestry department that resulted in “significant delays, increased costs and a failure to protect the public interest”.

And that was only the financial mismanagement. The audit service stressed that the remit of the report did not include the environmental impact of the project, which had in the past and still does draw broad criticism from environmental groups.

The damning report even used the plan as an example to be avoided when it comes to any kind of public works. That’s how bad it was.

The contracts were part of two key actions under the plan, three of them concerning road network upgrades and a fourth involving the creation of 14 visitor nodes with basic facilities. We’ve all seen photos of the tragic state of the road project.

Regarding the 14 nodes, the report found that contracts were tendered before securing the required environmental assessment, failing to adequately evaluate potential ecological impact. This later resulted in forced design changes, which increased costs from an initial estimate of €2.8 million to €6.59 million.

As the whole plan remains locked in red tape and green opposition, illegal refreshment kiosks have sprung up within Natura 2000 areas – a testament to the perennial Cypriot penchant for opportunistic entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, frustrated ecologists criticised the audit service’s report for focusing solely on the aspect of financial mismanagement, while failing to address environmental damage caused by the Akamas project itself, arguing it was “a great threat to the future of the habitat”.

They want the entire plan revised.

For decades successive governments have tried to please everyone involved through appeasement, especially the local communities who understandably feel hard done by. But either we protect the environment or we don’t.

So far Akamas is the victim of a mish-mash patchwork of “sustainable development”. It’s a recipe for ultimate failure on top of the failure to even get right what little they have done until now in terms of protection.

Only a year ago this month, Cyprus was slapped by the EU for its failure to adequately protect its designated Natura areas and for submitting only “vague” objectives for these sites.

Yet, all we hear ad nauseum from politicians is the need to protect the environment – electric cars, solar panels, green taxes etc. There doesn’t seem to be too much of a delay in implementing these policies.

Meanwhile, measures to protect the natural environment are carried out at a snail’s pace, mucked up through incompetence or ignored altogether. 

Perhaps there is more money to be made from ‘Big Solar’ than a pristine nature park.

The protection of the Akamas has been the subject of debate for almost 40 years, the second-longest running issue after the Cyprob. That’s not exactly a track record that should be emulated.