Inia insists no holiday home conversions in protected Akamas

Reports of the conversion of shepherds’ huts into holiday homes in the Akamas region have emerged, sparking outrage, although the mukhtar of Inia on Tuesday said he is fed-up of sensationalist misinformation by media and NGOs.

According to allegations published in Kathimerini over the weekend, stone buildings have popped up illegally in the heart of the protected Akamas forest, which have nothing to do with animal husbandry.

The buildings are certainly illegal, the news source reports, and at least eight such structures have been identified. The newspaper published what it referred to as photographic evidence of the buildings, which are visible in satellite imaging.

The paper’s photos show five structures superimposed on a Google Earth map of the region, with approximate locations, labelled, “under investigation”.

Another photo, mentioned as taken near Lara beach, shows what is clearly a single-storey stone building with a chimney, whose roof is covered with brushwood, which the paper claims is done to prevent detection by authorities. The building’s size is reported as 100 square metres.

A second photo shows the property’s fencing and gate, which Kathimerini noted is strictly prohibited in the area, as are fireplaces.

“The photos show that the construction is residential and the owner has planted a garden with trees,” the paper said.

Inia mukhtar Yiangos Tsivikos told the Cyprus Mail that he is fed up of media and conservationists, who know nothing about the area’s history and traditions, spreading sensationalism and misinformation.

According to Tsivikos, there are hundreds of dilapidated shepherd’s huts, called stiathia, in the area. These are in fact of historical importance and the irony of the matter is that they should be renovated and preserved, he claimed.

Tsivikos added that in 2022, the interior ministry conducted a survey and recorded all stiathia in the area, proposing to categorise them as historic buildings.

“Those of us who live here and are old enough to have experienced them while in use, know that farmers live in and among nature,” he said. “This is our tradition and urbanites don’t understand how people and animals cohabit in such structures”.

“Stiathia were multipurpose buildings, made of dry-stone wall and wood. They were used as tool sheds, to keep animals warm at night or in the winter, store produce, and, yes, sleep when exhausted from hard work,” Tsivikos explained.

Kathimerini, however, reported that at least eight buildings are not the traditional stiathia that have been in the area since the 1800s.

According to the news outlet, authorities had already served two owners with notice of legal action should their installations, which fall within the Inia municipality boundaries, not be demolished.

As no corrective action was taken after 30 days, the town planning department initiated criminal proceedings, the report said.

An onsite visit by officials and a land registry survey of maps from 1923 and after 1974, showed no stiathia in the aforementioned areas, which led authorities to conclude that these were new buildings, according to the newspaper.

For the remaining six cases, no information is on hand to confirm or disprove if they are repaired stiathia or not.

The Inia mukhtar, however, insisted to the Cyprus Mail, that legal provision in fact exists for owning a shed on one’s agricultural land, even when this is in a protected zone. Moreover, he said, these are small 20-25 square metre buildings, most of which have stood around for two hundred years.

“If someone repairs a barn with a bed in it, this cannot be called a ‘holiday home’, as they do in the media, which immediately makes people think of 300 metre square villas with pools!” the mayor declared.

Kathimerini by contrast claims that the practice of local authorities turning a blind eye to actions such as these, raises the spectre of hundreds of illegal installations being built in the protected area.