Major wildfires are “the new reality”, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou said on Friday.

In her address to the day’s joint session of the House agriculture, environment, and interior committees held in light of the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district and killed two people last month, she chose to focus on more long-term efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of future wildfires.

“The longstanding problem that the forestry department had with the very large number of vacant positions for forestry employees – over 90 – is being resolved, since the forestry college will open on September 15,” she said.

She added that next year, the government will install five new water tanks with a capacity of 90 tonnes of water, adding to the 227 which are already in service, as well as clearing illegal waste dumping sites.

Of those sites, she said, 269 have already been cleared, while works to clear another 300 are in progress.

Additionally, she pointed out the “proven … firefighting and fire-retardant properties” of cultivated vineyards, which effectively act as a barrier to slow or stop the spread of wildfires.

With this in mind, she said, the agriculture department is now “preparing a plan for the restoration and revival of abandoned vineyards”, which will “contribute to containing and slowing down fires, while at the same time restoring the traditional landscape of ancient vineyard areas”.

Looking ahead, she said there is now a “comprehensive plan for the use of technology to enhance the existing system for monitoring forest areas, detecting fires, and transferring images to operations centres”.

She added that the first phase of this plan’s implementation has now been completed, and that cabinet will soon launch the second phase, which she said will include “additional electro-optical fire detection systems, daily risk forecasting and fire evolution simulation software”, and other technological advancements.

“We remain committed as a ministry to strengthening the forestry department, so that it can respond to the challenges which arise in the best possible way,” she said.

On the matter of the Limassol wildfire, she said the government has approved €23.5 million worth of funding for the “rehabilitation” of fire-affected farmers, while efforts are also underway to begin replanting the trees which were burned during the fire.

“The environment department has carried out a map assessment of all the areas which were burned and will carry out an on-site study aiming at a comparative assessment of the before and after … This will be completed in September,” she said.

After that, she added, “the final tree planting plan, which the forestry department will undertake in collaboration with village councils, volunteer groups, school boards, and church authorities, is expected by the end of September”.