Paphos village’s green award ‘an honour’

The naming of the Paphos village of Kissonerga as the “Green capital of Cyprus” is “an honour for both Kissonerga and the entire Paphos district”, village mukhtar Giorgos Stylianou said on Saturday.

Kissonerga was awarded the title at the Pan-Cypriot environmental awards on Friday night, with Stylianou keen to point out that Kissonerga was the only local government authority in the Paphos district to win an award.

The village has been something of a trailblazer in environmental matters, having been awarded as the “Green community of Cyprus” in two separate categories by the Cyprus Centre for Environmental Research and Education (Cycere) in December last year.

Specifically, the village won the “Culture and Environment” category for its coastal path, and the “Sustainable Tourism” category for its Nature study trail network project.

The award-winning coastal path was also built at just seven per cent of its total allocated budget, with Stylianou having told the Cyprus Mail in March that he village council “decided to proceed with a more prudent design” for the path and engage in “proper financial management”.

This prudence was further helped by various tradesmen offering the village their services free of charge to help construct the path, with Stylianou hailing their “contributions to the community”.

This, in addition to scaling back designs which the village deemed unnecessary or frivolous, allowed the savings to be made.

The path features a playground and an outdoor gym as well as a viewing point named “Lock your Love”. These three points of interest, Stylianou said, are “particularly popular” and have significantly increased foot traffic on the path.

At the “Lock your Love” point, he said, people are able to place padlocks, allowing them to be involved in the growth of the attraction.