Greens mark 25th anniversary with tree planting event

The Greens on Sunday planted 85 trees at the Academia Park in Nicosia, to mark 25 years since the party’s establishment.

Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis was also present at the event.

Head of the Greens, Charalambos Theopemptou said that the party has been planting trees for years, recalling their goal to plant a tree for every vote that the party receives in the parliamentary elections. “So, we complete around 16,000 to 18,000 tree plantings for each parliamentary term,” he said, according to the Cyprus News Agency.

Theopemptou said they chose Academia Park for the tree-planting event to mark their 25^th anniversary because this is where he used to play during his school years. The move was also part of the party’s struggle to prevent plans by the town planning department to have a road pass through the park, he added.

The Greens leader, citing Cyprus’ EU obligations for tree planting to address climate change, said there are groups for organised tree planting in which everyone can take part.

He said that the state needs to help with the allocation of space and trees to achieve this goal.

Kadis congratulated the party “for its 25 years of creative presence” in politics and praised its role in tree planting activities.

He also thanked all the organised groups that support the ministry’s effort “to make our country green” recalling that, last year, as part of the “Plant for the climate” campaign, 70,000 saplings were planted that were donated free of charge by the forestry department.

“This year, we hope to plant 100,000 trees but there are limitations due to the pandemic,” the minister said. He added that his ministry, together with the health ministry, prepared a protocol for tree-planting activities to make sure all the measures against the spread of coronavirus are observed, as was done at Sunday’s event.

Kadis invited those who wish to organised tree-planting activities, by adopting the protocols and in consultation with the forestry department.

The minister also said that next Saturday free saplings will be given by the forestry department to families to plant in their gardens and other places.

Kadis said Cyprus has high percentages in tree planting and called on people to participate in such events to contribute to the greening of the country and to tackling climate change.

The free saplings by the forestry department will be available in the following places between 10 am and 1 pm on Saturday, March 13:

Nicosia
Nursery of the forestry department in Athalassa
Forestry Department headquarters (Louki Akrita 26 – Agios Andreas – Nicosia), next to the Nicosia municipality’s swimming pool

Limassol
Nursery of the forestry department in Fasouri

Troodos Mountain Communities
Nursery of Platanias Forest Station

Larnaca
Larnaca Forest Station (Faneromenis 60 – Larnaca)

Paphos
Geroskipou Forest Station (Ploutonos 1 – Paphos)
Gialia Forest Station

Famagusta
Center for Environmental Information and Education, Cape Greco

Each family can get up to three saplings. To go get the seedlings, people can send a message to 8998, selecting category 8.

The delivery of the saplings will be done directly to the vehicles (drive-through), by officials of the forestry department.

More info can be found here.