An environmental organisation has called on the President, the Agriculture Minister and the Environmental Authority to revoke a newly issued Appropriate Ecological Assessment report for a road in the Akamas National Forest Park, alleging it contradicts legally binding conditions from previous environmental authority decisions.
The Friends of Akamas said in a press release dated 6 May that the assessment — covering proposed improvements to the Baths of Aphrodite–Kakoskali road — undermines binding conditions issued by the same Environmental Authority in two earlier documents: condition 6.13.1.10 of the AEA Report for the Akamas National Forest Park Sustainable Development Plan (June 2021) and condition 1.30 of the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment opinion for the same plan (September 2021).
The organisation said both conditions required the Baths of Aphrodite–Fontana Amoroza forest road to have already been closed to all private visitor vehicles.
Under the park’s Management Plan, the organisation said, the road should be accessible only to staff of relevant authorities including the Forest Department, Environment Department, Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, Game and Fauna Service and Paphos District Administration; other public service vehicles with prior Forest Department notification; park shuttle vehicles; landowners along the road; and other private individuals with written permission from the Forest Department Director.
The Friends of Akamas said the new assessment favoured what it described as environmentally damaging use of the road by private vehicles, safari jeeps and quad bikes — including on a road it said had been linked to human fatalities — and failed to address risks to the safety of pedestrians and cyclists visiting the park.
The organisation also alleged the report bypassed the Ad-hoc Committee responsible for the relevant ecological assessments and said the findings left reasonable grounds to suspect that interests contrary to the protection of the area were being served. These are the organisation’s allegations; the Environmental Authority has not responded publicly to the press release.
The Friends of Akamas rejected the Forest Department and Environment Department’s stated justification that upgrading the road to urban specifications was necessary for fire-fighting access, arguing this would instead increase the free movement of private vehicles and quad bikes in the park and raise the risk of fires rather than reduce it.
The organisation said closing the road to private vehicles would reduce the park’s environmental footprint, lower maintenance costs, improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, promote sustainable mobility and bring the road into compliance with the Environmental Authority’s own previously issued conditions.
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