The audit office’s most recent report on Akamas buttresses the countless warnings by environmental groups, Birdlife said on Thursday, highlighting the concerns of inadequate supervision and other serious shortcomings in the area for years.

“The audit office’s multi-page special report on the planning and implementation of projects in the Akamas National Forest Park does not, unfortunately, reveal a reality that was previously unknown,” the group said, responding to the findings published in the latest audit report on the Akamas on Wednesday.

The group spoke of Akamas as “perhaps the most telling example of the weaknesses in Cyprus’ environmental protection system”, saying that the region had been subject to various issues including an inadequate institutional framework, problematic environmental assessment procedures and the tolerance of illegal activities, plus a lack of coordination between the competent authorities.

“These findings once again vindicate the environmental organisations, which as early as October 2023 had reported serious deviations from the approved, legally binding and essential environmental conditions,” Birdlife said.

The complaints had led to the suspension of road works in the Akamas in December 2023.

“It is particularly worrying that, despite the passage of almost three years, key issues remain unresolved,” the group said, adding that decisions by the cabinet for the reassessment of the project have yet to be implemented even though the government had committed to a June 2024 deadline.

The group also referred to the finding that the special environmental assessment of the sustainable development plan for the Akamas national forest park was carried out without first establishing the conservation objectives to form an adequate special environment assessment.

“Consequently, the competent authorities must not assess and authorise projects and activities in protected areas where there are no specific conservation objectives on which to base a full and adequate assessment of environmental impacts,” Birdlife said.

The group argued that the findings of the report highlight a “broader failure on part of the state and its institutions” for the protection of Akamas, as well as a lack of coordination between the competent bodies to ensure compliance with environmental standards.

“The audit office’s intention to forward the report to the attorney-general, so that he may decide whether there are grounds to investigate the possible commission of offences, underlines the seriousness of the findings,” the group added.

Birdlife called for the implementation of concrete actions with outlined timetables, transparency and accountability, stressing that the government must immediately proceed with the full implementation of the report’s findings.

The findings of the audit office’s report revealed several serious shortcomings by the authorities in the Akamas peninsula observed over the past years.

These included year-long delays between the detection of illegal catering and entertainment venues in protected areas and the bringing of criminal cases against their operators.

Other issues mentioned in the report concerned unlicensed construction in the area, which according to the report “remains out of control”, with on-site inspections finding various businesses operating within the protected area.

Responding to the findings of the report, the agriculture ministry submitted a 36-page letter to auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou.

The ministry said that the evaluation of projects being undertaken in the Akamas region “should take into account the full history of the decisions made, the institutional and legal framework in force when they were made, the responsibilities of the authorities involved, and the corrective actions which followed”, noting that several measures to reduce the environmental footprint of projects in the region had been undertaken in recent years.

“[The findings of the report] will be studied and utilised with a view to continuously improving environmental protection, management and governance processes,” the ministry said.

The report has since been submitted to the legal service for further evaluation and potential investigation.