Ambitious project to give new life to Cyprus tree bags EU award

An ambitious programme to protect the Cyprus cedar has been awarded the EU’s LIFE Award in the nature protection category, a fitting accolade for a tree native to the island.

The distribution of the Cyprus cedar is restricted to a small area in the Paphos forest.

The awarded programme improved the conservation status and resilience of cedar forests at risk from climate change on a Natura 2000 site.

It was implemented by the forestry department, Frederick University and the Cyprus Forestry Association as part of the LIFE Programme, the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action.

Carried out between 2016 and 2021 with a total budget of €1,342,850, of which 68.6 per cent was covered by the EU and the rest by national funds, the programme aimed at the integrated and sustainable management of the Cedrus brevifolia (Cyprus Cedar) forests located exclusively in the Paphos forest.

Through the project, measures were taken to strengthen the resilience of trees to climate change, to reduce the likelihood of their loss in case of fire, to restore and expand the forest as well as to enhance its natural regeneration.

Furthermore, actions were implemented to raise awareness among the public and the scientific community about the habitat and the Cyprus cedar, one of only four cedar species in the world.

The award was announced at a ceremony held on May 30 during EU Green Week, the forestry department said.

The LIFE awards recognise the most innovative, inspired and effective LIFE programmes in three categories – nature protection, the environment, and climate action.

“The award is a special honour for the forestry department and for cooperating partners but even more for our country,” the department said.

The team undertook silvicultural treatments for the first time and reduced competition between mature and young cedar trees.

They restored 12 hectares of degraded habitat, planted eight hectares of new cedars and installed a seedbank for reforestation.

They also closed more than 30km of forest roads to improve habitat connectivity and stability. Fire patrols became more frequent, and controlled grazing was encouraged to reduce flammable vegetation on the ground.

A number of information leaflets and reports were published to brief the public, and a film was produced on the initiative to better spread the word.

The LIFE award for the environment went to Clean Sea LIFE, an awareness raising project to reduce marine litter along the Italian coasts while the LIFE award for climate action went to LIFE VOVEcos for boosting biodiversity in vineyards in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany to make them more climate-resilient.

The LIFE Citizens’ Prize, as voted by the general public, went to Clean Sea LIFE – voted in an online poll.

Finally, the LIFE and #Natura2000 award went to the Alvars project for restoring two 500 hectares of alvar grassland in Estonia – roughly 25 per cent of the global total – by removing woodlands and forests that developed spontaneously on these sites.

Frederick University has been involved in two other LIFE projects that in the past have been awarded, the 2013 Plant-Net CY which aimed to improve the conservation status of four plant species and two priority habitat types in Cyprus, and Junipercy in 2015 which aimed to promote the long-term conservation of native juniper forests on the island.