Testy exchange in row over party at protected turtle beach

Testy exchange in row over party at protected turtle beach

By Tom Cleaver

The audit office is awaiting a response from the interior and agriculture ministries over a private party which was held at the protected Toxeftra beach, near the Paphos district village of Peyia, its spokesman Marios Petrides said on Thursday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), he said there are “reasonable suspicions” of a possible “serious case of negligence on the part of state officials”.

“We are awaiting responses from the interior and agriculture ministries. We will evaluate them, carry out an audit, and either issue a new announcement when the audit is complete, or proceed with the preparation of a special report on the matter,” he said.

He said the audit office had received a complaint about the matter last Friday, the day before the party was held, and that it had as such sent letters to both the environment department and to the fisheries department.

Those letters, he said, requested that both departments investigate what would at the time have been plans for a party to be held and then report back, “given that it was in a protected [turtle] nesting area and we are in the nesting and hatching season”.

He said that in response to those letters, “nothing happened, given that the event took place”.

Since then, he said, the audit office has sent “urgent letters” to both the agriculture ministry and the interior ministry, highlighting the environmental importance of Toxeftra beach and the surrounding area.

“It is the only area in the European Union where green turtles lay their eggs … These two beaches are the only ones in Cyprus which have been approved and included in the list of specially protected areas of Mediterranean importance,” he said.

He then cited various laws, both local and European, saying that had the law been followed, the central government should have been the authority making the final decision on whether the party went ahead.

Later on Thursday, both the environment department and the fisheries department rejected Petrides’ assertion that they had done nothing to prevent the party from going ahead, with fisheries department director Marina Argyrou telling CNA that both departments had “immediately taken measures to limit and eliminate the problem”.

She added that the departments’ own investigations into the matter found that turtle nesting on the beach had “not been affected”.

“Our departments immediately acted by taking the necessary preventative measures to manage and limit direct illumination of the protected area on Toxeftra beach,” she said, adding that they had not “become complacent”.

“We also conducted an on-site inspection at night during the event, where it became clear that the lighting was not intense and the reflection of light towards the sea and towards Toxeftra beach was limited,” she said.

However, on Wednesday, environment department director Theodoulos Mesimeris had said that his department’s recommendations “were not followed”, and that he had asked the Akamas municipality to cancel the event.

Later on Thursday, the environmental organisations’ federation (Opok) warned that the holding of the party on Saturday could set “a dangerous precedent for protected areas in Cyprus” and also disputed the fisheries department’s version of events.

“The assurances that no direct damage to the nests was recorded remain false and unconvincing since at the time of the event, no turtle nesting and hatching took place, so only by chance was there no direct impact,” it said.