Former directors of the Forestry Department have accused the cabinet of illegally transferring forest firefighting duties to the interior ministry, urging President Christodoulides to overturn the decision.

“The attempted reform violates the provisions of the new forest legislation and the spirit of the new forest policy, which were completed after long consultations that lasted three to four years,” they state in a letter to the president.

Most forest firefighters are permanent department staff who alternate between firefighting in summer and forest management tasks in winter, making their transfer highly disruptive since no personnel focus solely on fire protection.

The department’s forest fire management system is regarded as one of the most effective in the Middle East and across Mediterranean EU member states, the former directors say, questioning why a successful model should be dismantled “for the sake of reform.”

They emphasise the need for coordinators with detailed knowledge of forest conditions, vegetation, terrain, access, and water points, to manage fires effectively and ask the president to reconsider the entire decision, warning that “any abolition of the existing system, which we reiterate, was built on the basis of long-term experience and expertise, can only bring bad things in the future”.