Issues Bird Migration
Cyprus has only 46 truely resident bird species, where a northern European country like the UK has 641, France 671, Sweden 576 resident species. It is noticable in mid summer when sparrows, doves and great tits seem to be the only birds in the town gardens. It is in the winter months that the number of birds multilply. Migrant birds who overfly or spend a brief stay in Cyprus, in spring on their way north to their breeding homes in Scandanavia and Russia, and in autumn when flying south to their winter homes in North Africa and the Middle East. bring the species numbers to over 200 species. 150 million birds visit in spring and slightly fewer in the autumn. 90 species regularly overwinter, taking advantage of the mild Cyprus winter climate. 27 migratory species are known to stay on to breed.
2,000 of the 11,000 world bird species are migratory. With some species, like the robin, some individuals will migrate while others will not. It is usually the younger birds that migrate while their elders, who are larger and better equipped for the cold weather, stay behind. Other species, like the warblers, leave en masse. The determining factor is the availability of food. Birds that feed from insects rather than vegetation, have to fly south in winter as insects die with the onset of colder weather. Wildfowl who rely on open water for food, also have to fly south when ponds freeze. Before migration the birds will hugely increase their intake of food, stocking up on reserves of fat, and reduce their weight by shrinking those organs, like reproductive organs, not needed to aid flight. Larger birds, particularly water birds, migrate in flocks, taking turns to lead the way, with the lead bird making the headway while the others conserve energy as they fly in his slipstream. They fly at over 8000 meters, where the cooler air will help prevent their bodies overheating, following thermals and tailwinds to minimise energy loss. Young birds making the migration for the first time have to find their own route. Mortality is highest with young birds migrating for the first time, around 80% of songbirds do not survive their first migratory flight. Those that do make it, will then follow the same route year after year.
In spring the migratory journey is reversed, as birds return north, away from the heat and drought, to their breeding grounds, to build their nests, mate and rear their chicks. Migrant birds will follow the same route year after year, returning to the same location, even to the same nestsite.
Journeys can be over 14,000 kilometers, flying at speeds up to 127 km/h. The longest migration is made by the arctic turn with a return autumn/spring journey of almost 90,000 kilometers. Birds follow tested routes with predetermined stopover sites, where they may rest for several days to feed and rest before continuing on their journey. They may spend 10 days at at a stopover site for every 3 days of flight. With water birds males usually leave their breeding sites before the females, resting at moulting sites where they will loose and regrow their flight feathers. Females arrive at moulting sites a month later, often with their young families. The birds then set off, hopping from site to site on their flight south, until they reach their destination in the southern Meditteranean or Northern Africa.
Birds navigate, using their sensitivity to earth's magnetic fields, their extra sensitve hearing, calculating direction from the position of the sun at day and the stars at night, and following recognised landmarks like rivers, mountains and coastlines. Larger birds fly by day, smaller birds usually by night when it is naturally cooler. Birds eyes are thought to be sensitive to earths magnetic fields, where biochemical reactions in to the earth's magnetic fields alter mollucules in the eyes signalling direction to the bird's brain.
As northern winters seem to become milder and southern summers drier and hotter, migration patterns are changing. Migratory birds take their cue from shorter days and cooling temperatures in autumn, longer days and rising temperatures in spring. In last two decades spring migration has started earlier by two days each decade as warmer weather has heralded an earlier spring. As their breeding grounds dry out and can no longer provide enough food to sustain their chicks normally non migratory birds of the southern hemisphere are making short spring migrations to a cooler climate further north.
The migratory flight is perilous for the birds. Loss of en route stopover sites, increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, vulnerability to hunting and illegal bird trapping, artificial lighting disorienting birds navigational skills, have accounted in the US for an 80% loss of migratory birds since 1980. Unpredicatble weather en route can push birds off course, to loose their way altogether. If any of their stopover sites are damaged through drainage, lack of rainfall or agricultural pollution, the birds will have to fly on with exhaustion reducing chances of reaching their destination. If their overwintering grounds are compromised, by an unusually cold spells, many more birds will be lost. A bad winter can result in 30-90% decline in population. 27000 - 62000 tufted duck died in the cold wnter of 1986.
Or their wintering grounds may have dried up with shrinking of the water supply and the unrelenting increase in summer temperatures causing faster evaporation of already reduced water levels. In 1985 Lake Tuz in Turkey, a breeding ground for wildfowl, was entirely covered in water. After 2000 water levels in August reduced to an average of 20 percent of 1985 levels, completely drying up in drought years 2008 and 2016. In 2021 there was almost no water. Farmers tapped the underground streams that ran into the lake to irrigate their crops, lowering levels in the lake yet further.
The Mediterranean basin has been heating faster than the world average, at 1.5 C compared to the average of 1.1 C. With variable heat patterns comes variable patterns of rainfall. In Cyprus rainfall in 2015-16 was 61% of normal, in 2018-19 158% of normal. In 2019 monthly rainfall varied from 0.3% of normal levels to 193% of normal. Birds can no longer predict the sutainability of their breeding sites and overwintering sites.
As migratory birds follow predictable routes with known stopover points, and migrate repeatedly to the same overwintering grounds and spring netsing sites, it is absolutely necessary that these sites are protected. In recent years, as awareness of risks to these sites has increased, bird protection organisations have isolated and manages bird sites. In Cyprus Orolklini is now a protected reserve for migrating birds.
The proliferation of mists nets and lyme sticks is the most distressing issue surrounding migration. Most people see migrating birds as no one countries property and should be given free passage over all the countries they flyover. But some southern mediterranean countries trap the birds and sell them on as a culinary delicacy. Trapping migrant birds is breaking the law, also in Cyprus. It is a cruel death for the birds, glued by their wings or feet for hours to a branch. Mosy of us are ok to see bolts shot through large animals brains to provide the meat we eat, so it is hard to moralise to others who may see trapping birds as a way to earn a few exta euros in hard strapped times. Small migrants, particularly warblers, mark the start of summer as they arrive back in northern Europe, and the onset of winter when they leave. They have a very special place in most Europeans hearts. In England alone there are over a million people affilated to birding soceties, spread across northern Europe more than ten million. When all these people see news items like the one shown on German tv they make a decision not to holiday in Cyprus. For each illegal euro made by the trappers, one hundred euros is lost to the men and women working in the the tourist trade. Enforcement cannot be left to local police. As the purchase and distribution of the birds is a nationwide organisation, policing of the trade needs also to be nationwide.
Issues Garden Birds
For those who live in towns birds in their gardens are often their only regular contact with wild animals.
The birds themselves are drawn to towns by the regular supply of a of food insects and fruit from town trees to the edible waste from dustbins. This gives birds confidence that in building their nests that they will have enough for themselves and their chicks.
Trees are vital for town birds. They offer protection, food in the insects that feed from the leaves, and nesting sites in their trunks and branches. The more trees in a garden the more birds will choose to live there and the richer the lives of the residents.
Cyprus is a mecca for birdwatchers who visit in spring and autumn to watch the passage of migratory birds who overfly or spend a brief stay in Cyprus. In spring the birds are on their way north to their breeding homes in Scandanavia and Russia, in autumn south to their winter homes in North Africa and the Middle East. Over 200 species fly over the island, 150 million birds in spring and slightly fewer in the autumn migration. But very few migratory species stay in Cyprus for very long and fewer stay to breed. 90 species are regularly overwinter taking advantage of the mild Cyprus winter climate. Robins, chifchaffs, some warblers, song thrushes, starlings, meadow pipits and white wagtails are regular winter visitors. With the warmer temperatures of late spring these birds move on to northern Europe.
The bird species that live and breed in Cyprus are far fewer in number, true residents like the house sparrow and great tit, only 46 species nest and have young. Some 27 spring migrants like the barn swallow and house martin also stay and breed.
For the resident birds the annual cycle follows a regulated pattern. In Spring they seek out a mate. Some birds like the hooded crow keep the same partners for life, others seek out new partners. They mate and set about finding a site for their nest, gather nesting materials to carry them back and forth to build their nest. When the chicks are born both parents bring food back for them. In early summer the chicks leave the nest, hopping from nearby branch to branch, closely guarded and fed by their parents, until they become independent and forage for themselves, with their parents never too far away. As autumn approaches the families gather together with other families to feed and rest in large flocks in safe roosting trees.
Doves, sparrows, great tits and hooded crows are all year residents. Doves build their nests of twigs and feathers hidden in tree branches, sparrows and great tits in tree holes where they can find them, more often under the eaves of house roofs, hooded crows nest in the safety of colonies in tree xx.
Swallows arrive in spring, as the airborne insects hatch, and remain till the heat of early summer sends them up to the cooler temperatures of the hills and mountains. During their short visit they raise a family, building their intricate mud nests attached to the roofs of balconies and porches, raising one brood in the town and often a second in the hills. In September they gather on electricity cables before setting off to overwinter in Northern Africa.
As the swallows fly south, migrants from Northern Europe arrive in Cyprus, many on a stop over in their migration to Africa but some to stay. Flocks of starlings descend on town pines and cedars. Families of willow warbler flit from branch to branch as they seek out insects., their melodic song brightening the winter days. Robins tend to stay put in Winter enduring the cold northern European weather, but some migrate south often staying in the same Cyprus town garden year after year.
Us humans are affecting Cyprus resident birds and those overflying the island. Mistnets cruelly and illegally trap migrant birds to be sold to restaurants served up as a local delicacy. We are reducing the populations of the most common species with our blindness to the effects of burning fossil fuels, driving our cars, heating and cooling our homes, flying away on our holidays. The house sparrow, the one bird that can be found almost everywhere, has lost 62 percent of its population since the 1980s.
Issues Garden Insects
Insects were on the planet long before humans, 400 million years ago, while humans have been on the planet for 7 million years.
Insects represent over two thirds of the worlds 1.8 million named species, 1.05 million compared with 73,000 vertebrates (animals with a backbone), with many more insect species still undiscovered. There are many more insect species than all the other species put together. Their physical size makes them undervalued, understudied by scientists. Nevertheless they play a vital role in maintaining the world we all inhabit.
At the bottom of the food chain they feed the small animals, that feed the larger animals, that feed many of us. They pollinate the crops that feed us. They recycle nutrients as they feed underground nourishing the trees and plants. They maintain the balance that allows us to survive.
An insect is strictly defined by the number of its legs. Six legs. Other anthropods, the name given to all insects may have any number of legs, spiders 8, millipedes up to 200.
Insects are divided into 8 groups, dragonflies, mantis, grasshoppers, beetles, wasps and bees, flies, bugs, butterflies and moths. They have two different courses of development, those that develop in stages, from egg to caterpillar to pupae tot heir adult form, like butterflies, beetles, ants, bees and wasps, and those that grow in stages, shedding their outer skin as they grow, like cockroaches and dragonflies.
Insects have extraordinary sensibilities.They do not have lungs but absorb oxygen directly into their cells, Ants can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, beetles and butterflies can sense infrared. Hawkmoths can see color in complete darkness. Moths antenna can smell a female from miles away. Jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes, allowing it to see in front and behind at the same time. Crickets can sense the airflow produced by a wasps wingbeat. Bees can detect electric fields, sensing the negative grounding of flowers inviting pollination. Flies have ultrafast vision reacting to stimuli 7 times faster than a human.
Insects have extraordinary life patterns. Butterflies are on the wing during the summer months, but may go through three to four generations in that time. Some overwinter as adults in a near dormant state, others as pupae or a caterpillar waiting to hatch in the spring. Bees build intricate mud structures under the eves of houses, or tunnel onto the barks of trees, to lay their eggs. Cockroaches deposit their dark brown egg capsules at the back of kitchen drawers, their nymphs taking one year to mature through several moults.
The decline in itheir populations has gone almost unnoticed.
An estimated 2 million insect species are at risk of extinction with the insect population declining by 2% each year. This is in the context of an average 70% decrease in wildlife populations over the last 50 years.
24% of invertebrates are at risk. Insects that pollinate crops, fruits, vegetables as well as flowers. Without insect pollination 75% of food crops will wither. Already up to 5% of food crops are lost due to lack of pollination because of insect decline.
More than half of all species live in the soil. Healthy soil depends on insects that live in the soil recycling nutrients. A hotter climate and dryer soil reduces the soil populations, reducing the soils capacity to feed growing plants. Overproduction and lack of recycling nutrients has led to 40% of land now classed as degraded.
Clean water depends on healthy plant ecosystems. Fewer pollinators reduce plant growth which increases pollutants entering the water systems. Only 40% of the waters in Europe are considered to be in a healthy state
Where Cyprus has just a few mammals (36 species) it has a disproportionate number of insect species (over 5000). Beetles are the most species rich, followed by bees and wasps and then butterflies. There are 369 wild bee species. And 53 butterfly species. As an island Cyprus has fewer species than neighboring mainland countries. Its 53 butterfly species compare to 408 in Turkey, 146 in Israel.
The insects favor their own particular habitat often dictated by the availability of the plant they feed from. Butterflies found in the hills and mountains may not be found in coastal gardens
Insects in the garden pollinate flowers, encourage birds to visit, give nutrients to the trees, from tiny mosquitoes that bite people in their sleep to four inch long stick insects, noisy crickets and secretive cockroaches. Some fly, others crawl. Most can be found in a town garden.
Flamingos settle where conditions are most favourable at a time of the year. For four months over the summer they raise their chicks on the their breeding grounds. Where winters are usually mild, like the saltlakes of the Carmargue in southern France, two thirds of the flamingoes will overwinter on their breeding site. Those that breed on the high plains of Anatolia in Turkey, where winters are harsh, most of the population will migrate. Rains may have filled their breeding lakes to above a comfortable wading level, and cold snaps may have caused the water to ice over. After the months spent on their breeding ground they will have exhausted most of the food. It mostly from here that birds that fly to the saltlakes of Cyprus. Others come from Iran and Afghanistan, and from further away from E Africa with a very small number recorded flying from sites in France and Spain. They search out fresh supplies of their favourite food, the algae and brine shrimp that feed off the algae that can be found only in lakes with water of a very high salinity. In Cyprus only four lakes meet the requirements, the saltlakes on the Akrotiri peninsula near Limmassol, the and Larnaca and Oroklini saltakes, both in Larnaca and the Paralimni saltlake on the east of the island, The Akrotiri and Larnaca lakes have special protection as Ramsar sites, with the Larnaka saltlake having also protection as a Natura 2000 site and a Special Protected Area under the Barcelona Convention. Oroklini has been developed as as nature reserve for migrating and nesting birds. The saltlake at Paralimni is completely unprotected. The flamingo that overwinters in Cyprus is the Greater Flamingo. The Greater Flamingo breeds in countries around the Mediterranean, in Asia and India, and further south in E.Africa reaching down to South Africa where it is joined by a second flamingo species the Lesser Flamingo. There are four other species all native to South America and the Carribbean, the Carribbean Flamingo, the Chilean, the Andean and the James Flamingo. The Greater Flamingo has the largest population of the flamingo species, with over 600,000 birds, The Andean flamingo by contrast has much smaller population of less than 50,000 birds. Numbers of flamingoes overwintering in Cyprus vary from year to year, dictated among other things, by the amount of autumn rainfall that causes the brine shrimp emerge from the sands. The saltlake must have sufficient depth for the birds to feel safe from predators, and have enough food in the water for the flamingos to feed. The timing of the rainfall is also important. With not enough water on the lakes in the the early winter months, November and December, when the flamingos are arriving, they will move on to other sites even though later rains may fill the lakes. In a winter of low rainfall 2016-17 there were 130 flamingos seen on Akrotiri lakes with 77 on Larnaca. Numbers increased as rainfall increased but at their highest 2500 on Akrotiri and 3000 on Larnaka. In 2019-20 in a winter of very high rainfall, xxx% 12500 flamingoes were counted in December on Akrotiri and 9000 on Larnaca saltlakes.
Migrating patterns tend to be repeated. Once the birds have found a safe overwintering site they return. The high rainfall of 2018-19 did not lead to a large increase in numbers in that year, but memory of the favourable conditions brought the flamingos back in huge numbers the following year. But years when rainfall is low and resources scarce fewer birds will return the next year. Once settled on the Cyprus lakes, flamingoes seek out the best conditions. In years of low rainfall birds fly more frequently between the large lakes. In Febuary 2017 there were 470 flamingoes on Akrotiri and 2500 on Larnaca. Two months later in April, 3070 were on Akrotiri with only 440 on Larnaka. With their nomadic lifestyle it is most important that all Cyprus saltlakes are open to the flamingos. Paralimni saltlake was not included in birdcounts until recently because conditions there were not considered favourable for birds. It is still used as a hunting area, has building developments right up to the water line, has a shooting club on its banks which deposit large amounts of lead poison into the water and has a go cart track built on surface. But despite all this 2190 flamingos were counted on the lake in December 2019. If Paralimni was offered the same protection as Larnaca and Akrotiri, numbers of visiting birds would soar. In the the latest birdcount of 2021 held on 16-17 January organised by Birdlifecyprus there were 10,431 waterbirds on Larnaca saltlakes, 2,707 at Akrotiri, 1,073 at Oroklini and 906 at Paralimni. On all the lakes there were 7,758 flamingos counted on that day. In Larnaca there are four saltlakes. The largest is lake Aliki, the best known, sheltering the Tekke mosque on its banks, lake Orphani, lake Soros and lake Spiro lay nearer the sea. Saltlakes have a very high concentration of salt, twice that of seawater, ideal conditions for the algae and brine shrimp the flamingos like to eat. These are at their maximum levels in the winter months. Despite the noise and frequency of plane traffic of Cyprus main airport which sits right on the lakes, all are homes for the flamingos, with birds flying between lakes In the Spring the birds leave Cyprus to return to their breeding lakes. They leave as the brine shrimp has become depleted. One or two pairs have remained over the summer but have never successfully bred. They need remote islands surrounded by water to protect their chicks and the saltlakes at Larnaca and Akrotiri become dry sandbeds under the summer sun. They fly east to Turkey, to the Gediz Delta and Tuz Golu, where 5000 have bred, and to lake Rezaiych in Iran where 15-20 thousand pairs breed each year, to lake Dasht-e-Nawar to Afghanistan where 6000 birds nest, to the Ran of Kutch in India with 200 thousand nesting birds. South to Lakes Elmentiteita and Nakuru in East Africa with an average of 4000 breeding pairs. The further south in Africa the number of Greater Flamingo breeding pairs reduce as the number of breeding Lesser Flamingo increases. In Madagascar only 40 Greater Flamingos pairs have be known to have bred.
Greater Flamingos are social birds, flocks gathering together to share the lakes. They live for 40-60 years. The Greater Flamingo stands six feet tall, with pink, red and white plumage and black flight feathers. Their pink colouring comes from the cartenoid pigments made up of carbon hydrogen and oxygen synthesised by the algae in the water. The flamingoes eat the algae and as well as the shrimps, molluscs and insect larvae which also feeds from the algae. The younger birds have not yet grown pink flight feathers. These appear when they are 2 years old. They gather in flocks of young birds, distinctive with their black and white plumage, arriving in their wintering grounds after the adult flocks and remaining for a few weeks after the adults have left. They are ready to mate until they are five or six years old and so have no pressure to leave to claim breeding territory. On the western Mediterranean the best known and most studied breeding colonies are in the Carmague in southern France, where a breeding island built in 1970 has resulted in successive years of breeding of several thousand pairs each year, in Spain at Fuente de Piedra, in Italy at Orbetello. Distance makes migration between these sites and Cyprus unlikely as a long migration will have a heavy toll on the birds. Flamingoes do not return to breeding lakes if the conditions there are not right, water levels, water salinity, food availability and safe nesting islands. If conditions are not ideal the flamingos will not attempt egg laying preferring to wait for another year. As the birds have a long life, one year without breeding does not pose a problem to population numbers. So breeding populations can vary from year to year, some sites abandoned altogether. The lake must have plenty of soft mud for the flamingos to construct their nest. a cupped, conical mound 30-40 centimeters high, 40-50 centimeters in diameter, 2-4 centimeters deep. Birds choose new partners each year and remain together through the breeding season, both birds building the nest, Once the single egg is laid frenetic further nestbuilding will increase the height to guard against flooding. The nests are gathered in dense colonies of many hundreds nests with 2-5 nests to a square meter. One egg is laid and is incubated in shifts by both parents. Eggs hatch after 28 days, the chick taking 24 to 36 hours to emerge from the shell. After two days the chick can stand by itself. After 5 to 8 days the chick will leave the nest for the first time and can walk and swim with the parents shadowing the chick. Adults and chicks frequently call to each other to recognise their voices which becomes important as the growing chicks gather together in creches, and the adult, bringing food, recognises the call of its own chick. The adult holds their bill above the chicks to drop liquid into its throat. The liquid contains fat protein, blood cells and some carbohydrate, secreted in glands on the adults crop. When the chick is still young feeding occurs every 5 minutes and as it grows larger, every 45 to 90 minutes. The chicks are fed exclusively by their parents until they are 3 to 4 weeks old, when the chick begins feed for itself. The parents will continue to feed the chick for another 75 days until the chicks bill has developed enough for it to begin to filter feed. Feathers grow after 30 days to a full crop of grey brown plumage after 50 days. After 70 to 80 days the chick can attempt its first flight During thee early months the chicks are vulnerable to predation, mostly by other birds, gulls, storks, vultures, eagles, crows. In Carmargue over one thousand chicks are predated by herring and yellow legged gulls each breeding season. Water around the nest protects it, but if levels drop during a hot summer, foxes dogs and cats can take the chicks. If the water rises during summer storms the nests are flooded, destroying the whole colony. If the nesting is unsuccessful males may look for another partner, while the female will recuperate and wait until the following year. The older the flamingo the better are the chances of successfully raising a chick. Pairs will return to the same nest in subsequent years, refurbishing it, and raising another family.
Flamingo flocks have different strategies to survive the winter, either staying on their breeding sites and hope for a mild winter or flying to a warmer site. The better chance of food and water mitigate the dangers of a long flight. They can fly 50-60 kilometers an hour, and cover several hudred kilometers in a single flight. On the Carmague about 18% birds will stay on their breeding site, 29% migrate further south to Spain, 34% to Italy and 34% to N.Africa. In N.Africa overwintering sites are also summer breeding sites, in Tunisia on the Chott Djerid where 10 thousand pairs have bred, in Algeria and in Morocco where 1500 have bred on the saltake near Iriki. Either way once the pattern has been set that flock will tend to repeat it every winter, some staying put and others following the rain and settling on the lakes with the highest water levels.
The Mediterranean basin has been heating faster than the world average, at 1.5 C compared to the average os 1.1C. With variable heat patterns comes variable patterns of rainfall. In Cyprus rainfall in 2015-16 was 61% of normal, in 2018-19 158% of normal. In 2019 monthly rainfall varied from 0.3% of normal levels to 193% of normal. Flamingoes can no longer predict the water levels in their breeding sites and overwintering sites. On the main breeding site in Turkey, Lake Tuz on the Central Anatolia plateau, from where most of the flamingos on the Cyprus lakes migrate during the winter months, these variations have led to the deaths of nestling birds. Lake Tuz is fed by groundwater flowing from the Taurus mountains,passing through Konya Plain and Obruk Plateau to bubble up in springs on the lake, and by two freshwater streams. Rain falls in the springtime. Studies by Aydin-Kandemir have shown the reduction in water coverage of the lake in the month of August since 1985 when the entire lake was covered in water. Up to 2000 there was a permanent presence of water on the lake, from 93 percent coverage in the humid years of 1988, to 16 percent in drought year 1992. The permanent presence of water was vital for the breeding flamingoes as this was where they found their food. Afer 2000 water levels in August reduced to an average of 20 percent, completely drying up in drought years 2008 and 2016. Since 2019 conditions have worsened. In 2021 there was almost no water. As droughts have become more frequent, farmers tapped the underground streams that ran into the lake to irrigate their crops, lowering levels in the lake yet further. This led in 2021 to the the death of over 1000 nestlings. Conditions in 2022 have improved but the shrinking of the water supply, the unrelenting increase in summer temperatures causing faster evaporation of reduced water levels makes successful breeding for the flamingos ever more unlikely. Turkey makes up 34% of the flamingo population in Europe with 71 thousand birds overwintering. With the Mediterranen warming, with unpredictable rainfall, water becoming a scarcer resource, the Cyprus saltlakes will need thoughtful management to help overwintering flamingoes to return with confidence of finding enough water and enough food
Issues Street trees.
Street trees offer shade, reduce ambient temperature, absorb co2 and offer a home for birds and other animals whlie providing oxygen through the natural process of photosynthethis. So why are street trees being cut down? Who owns the pavements?
In the cities of most countries in the EU the pavements are owned by the town council. The council is responsible for their maintenance and the important decision of planting and caring for trees. In Cyprus responsibility for the roads and pavements depend on the type of road. Responsibility for building and maintaining main roads in the towns is divided 75 percent government and 25 percent the local councilis. Maintenance of roads and pavements in residential areas are the responsibilty of the residents. Residents of Kaimalki outside Nicosia found this out to their cost when bills landed on their doorstep for the rebuilding of the pavement outside their houses.
Originally treeplanting on the pavement on residential streets was not allowed, but then was allowed and incorporated in the building permit for the house. Now the policy is not to allow trees to be planted on pavements and any felled tree cannot be replaced.
Main town highways are often tree lined, the pavements straight, wide and even and roundabouts planted with grass and flowers. These are watered and maintained by the local council as symbols of civic pride (with 75 percent of costs paid by government public works department). But on local streets where people walk in their neighbourhood the state of the pavement and the planting of trees is a matter for the adjacent house owners. Some homeowners may see trees as more of a burden, their leaves falling into pristine concrete car ports, and so either do not plant them or cut them down. Others see trees as an asset and care for them lovingly. Trees need watering and care and water is a valued rescource in the hot climate and is costed accordingly.
So why grow trees?
Trees provide shade and reduce temperature. A tree lined street will reduce the ambient summer temperature by 4 degrees centigrade and the temperature of the surface of the shaded pavement by 12 degrees centigrade. In a house this cooling effect will reduce power consumption by air conditioners in the summer and acting as a windbreak, reduce heating needs in the winter. Trees reduce a houseowner's electricity bill. Birds and other animals make their home in trees. A garden is much richer for the birdsong that surrounds a house. Trees look after the soil around it. Falling leaves build up compost as invertabrates feed on the compost further enriching the soil.
Trees offer us so much. But of all their favours one has become overiding. Trees and other plants absorb 25% of man made co2.
A tree absorbs water and minerals through their roots to make sap. The sap travels through the tree to the leaves. The leaves absorb co2 and light. The leaves use chlorophyll and the sun's energy to convert co2 and water into glucose. Oxygen is released and the glucose nourishes the tree carried in the sap. This process is called photosynthethis.
Trees absorb co2 through pores in their leaves called stomata, balancing carbon absorbtion with water loss and store the carbon in their leaves, branches, trunks and rootes. 50% of a tree is water ( 20% of which is in the roots) and 50 dry mass. Carbon is stored in the trees dry mass of which 47.5% is stored carbon. A tree 30 to 40 years old weighing about a ton will absorb an avarage of 25 kg of co2 each year.
Normal amounts of Co2 in the atmosphere was 290 parts per million. Today co2 levels are 405 parts per million. It is the excess co2 in the atmosphere that is one of the causes of rising temperatures and unpredictable sometimes extreme weather events.
This is what trees do for us. Soil conservation. Water balance. Carbon sequestration. Wildlife maintenance. Climate change mitigation. Biodiversity support
So why are we cutting trees down from the streets?
A Paphos developer cut down protected turpentine trees to make way for a block of flats, without permission and before the council or the forestry department could intervene. Cutting down a mature tree releases the tons of co2 stored in its trunk and branches and brings to an end the benefits that the tree would have brought us. Developers want the maximum area for their constructions and trees, no matter how valuable, are just in the way. Cutting down hedges and trees is just accepted. A new block of flats is built in a year, trees take over twenty years to mature. New flat developments often show luxurious trees around the flats on their billboards. The trees hardly ever materialise. Parking space is more valuable even though greenery, trees, hedges and climbing palnts would enrich the residents lives. Until prospective buyers ask for a communal garden to sit in rather than a larger kitchen and parking for two cars, developers will not change their strategy.
In Paphos 15 mature pines and cypresses were cut down in Grivas Digherri this april to make way for wider pavements. In Nicosia mature trees were pruned back in Pindaroa street, to limit roote growth. Tree rootes can push up pavement flagstones making walking along the pavement difficult and can impede on underground electric cables and water pipes. But without trees providing shade and coolness who would want to walk along the avenue in 35 degree heat even if the pavement was wider. and if people do not have any incentive to walk or cycle, they will take to their cars, undoing any co2 reduction the trees may have provided. One litre of petrol emits 2.3kg of co2. One litre of diesel 2.64 kg.
Pavement width is determined by the width of the road. Cars should be able pass each other without slowing down, while parked cars sit in the side of the road. Typically this gives a 11 meter wide road pavements of 2 meters on either side. Narrower roads have narrower pavements until there are no pavements at all. Pavements are wide enough to walk on they are seldom maintained, always stradled by parked cars. The car always has precedent over the pedestrian.
An air conditioned car offers us a comfortable option on a hot day. Cars, the size of a world war two tank, give the drivers visibility and status. A single person weighing 200lbs is transporting him/herself in box weighing 6,0000lb, 300 times his/her own weight.
An SUV will emit 14% more co2 than a smaller car. In spite of this SUVs make up 40% of new car sales. SUVs were the second largest cause for the rise of co2 emissions over the past decade, greater than industry and aviation. Over their 15 year life span all the SUVs sold in Europe will belch out 192 million tonnes of co2, equal to the annual co2 output of an entire country. In addition to co2 emmissions cars dramatically increase nitrogen dioxide levels. Nitrogen dioxide (no2) is a poisonous gas that causes respiratory infections. And that before the 69 annual deaths from car accidents in Cyprus.
During the pandemic, when towns were in lock down, European cities recorded 50% to 60% reduction in no2, up to 87% reduction in co2.
Residential roads can be given back to the residents without any major cost, reducing these pollution levels. Wider roads can be narrowed, simply by placing boxes with plants at intervals a meter or so away from the pavment on either side of the road, allowing walkers to walk on the even tarmac. Pavements planted with trees for shade. Benches installed to rest on a hot day. Small roundabouts built on busy junctions to slow drivers down. One way streets and road humps introduced to control the flow and speed of traffic. This has been done already in so many European towns.
Without any intervention Cyprus towns will become hotter. Annual temperatures in the mediterranean are set to rise by 2C in the next thirty years, in the summer by 3C. Heat waves are common now, reaching 40C, sometimes even higher. Increased levels of co2 lead to higher temperatures.
Some iniatives are happening.
In 2020 there was an iniative to plant 800,000 trees in Cyprus. with 300,000 being planted in Nicosia, 100,000 in Paphos, 300,000 in Limassol and 100,000 in Larnaca, mostly pines, cypresses, carob and mulberry trees, The majority of trees were placed in town parks where maintenance regimes are already in place, or along main traffic routes where not many people will feel inclined to take a stroll. None were planted in the neighbourhood streets where trees are still being felled either by the council or by homeowners.
In 2021 the forestry deparment handed out 100,000 tree saplings free to people who would plant and care for them. If trees can't be planted on the pavement, then homeowners can plant them in their gardens adacent to the road. They will grow and provide shade and coolness for those walking beneath. Watering and caring for the trees takes time and money though. Government might think of providing grants for garden treeplanting in the same way as grants are given against the cost of installing solar panels.
So which trees are best suited for planting in towns?
Trees that are suited to the cooler and moist mountain regions will not fare well in a town. Paphos planted the silver poplar along one of its avenues in 1998. The silver poplar is a mountain tree The trees had to be felled as 80% of each tree had been effected by rot caused by disease.
Trees can absorb only so much co2 before they become saturated and stop photosynthesising. Drought will reduce photosythesis. Trees like the oak prefer to grow above 200 meters where temperatures are cooler and and the soil more moist. Beech, scots pine an black pine wil only grow above 700 meters.
Trees that are not native to Cyprus, as are many garden trees planted for their colour or the fragrance of their flowers, have not the natural association with insects and birds that native trees have built up over time.
Town trees need to be tolerant of drought and variable weather conditions, able to adapt to different soil types and ideally be native trees to provide a home for animals. But any trees wiill need to be watered regularly especially in their first years while they establish roote systems to draw up enough water themselves.
Town trees should above all be effective at reducing co2. Palms, which give an exotic air to a seaside promenade, absorb only 2.25 kg of co2 per year while the average mature tree will absorb 25 kg of co2 per year. Broadleaved trees with a wide canopy that develop dense trunks and branches are best suited to absorb co2.
So which specific trees will do the best job of absorbing co2?
Typical trees found lining Cyprus main streets are laurel, lilac, rosewood, bottlebrush, peppercorn, oleander ,figs, cypress, eucalyptus, norfolk island pine, calbrian pine. These trees tend not to be native Cyprus trees. Most are planted more for their ornamental value. Along residential streets homeowners prefer smaller trees, figs, olives, or citrus.
Medterraneen trees that are known to absorb co2 are the aleppo pine (about 50 kg of co2 each a year) and the stone pine (about 27 kg of co2 annually). The eucalyptus also absorbs healthy amounts of co2 about 25 kg per year. Among the common garden trees olives can absorb about 22 kg per year, citrus trees absorb around 5kg co2 per year. The co2 absorbtion of trees of the same type will vary depending above all on its age, which will determine its roote size, wood density, the size of its canopy and the amount of leaves. Trees with a trunk diameter more than 77cm will capure 90 times more co2 than a smaller tree with a trunk diameter less than 8cm.
But to give perspective. One litre of diesel emits 2.64 kg of co2. The average mature tree absorbs an average of 25kg of co2 per year. Planting trees cannot resolve the crisis of inceasing levels of climate warmimg chemicals in the atmosphere. Traffic needs to be calmed as new roadside trees are planted for the sake of walkers and drivers. But trees just make our lives better.
links to tree planting groups: green cyprus.com, we green cyprus initiative
Issues Introduced plants on the Larnaca saltlake.
Many Mediterranean flowers and plants are in fact imports from other countries. The bourganvilia that adds color to many gardens and the Washingtonia palm trees lining Larnaca beach are both imports from South America. Saltlake trees, the eucalyptus and the mimosa are imports from Australia.
Cyprus has one of the richest native flora in Europe, 1908 recorded plant species, 200 are trees, and over 140 are endemic, found only on Cyprus.There more plant species per acre than any other European country. This is the consequence of the variety of rock layers formed with the islands volcanic origins. each rock layer offering different minerals to the soil forming above it, each layer favoring its own specific mix of plants. It is important that this diversity is protected.
Plants evolve slowly in their own home area. They evolve in balance with other species, insects, birds, and the mammals that learn to feed off the plant and as the food chain evolves, off each other. Plants introduced from other countries may add to the botanical richness, but some introduced plants may find conditions so favorable that they grow and spread without limit.They often have faster rates of growth and more plentiful seed production, with the ability to disperse their seeds that much further than native trees. They are generalist, able to adapt to changing conditions. Not having the evolved web of predation that naturally limits the spread of native plants, introduced plants can spread further and faster and consequently crowd out more delicate native flowers and shrubs. Animals that depend on these displaced native plants for food and shelter may not be able to adapt and so are also displaced .Even after decades an introduced plant will seldom offer the variety of insects and birds that will be associated with native plants. It takes generations for animals to learn to use a new plant.
The definition of an invasive species - a plant that has a severe impact on an ecosystem’s structure and function, a plant that replaces natural species throughout a significant proportion of it’s range, a plant that hybridizes with natural species. If an introduced plant can alter a natural habit, a water hungry tree that will drain a wetland ecosystem for example, or its growth is so vigorous that it outshades native plants stunting their growth, or is able to hybridize with natural plants changing their character, then it might be considered an invasive species.
Thousands of alien species have been introduced to Europe and most are harmless. An introduced plant may be able to grow in conditions where native plants cannot, in salty soil for example. Then it does not endanger other species but rather adds to the biological mix.
Alien plants are sometimes planted as a deliberate strategy to counter some natural problem. Cyprus was riven with malaria up to the middle of the 20th century. The mosquito larvae developed in stagnant pools and in order to drain these pools a program of planting Eucalyptus trees in marshy areas was instigated in the early 20th century. By the 1960s the disease was eradicated partly with the help of the eucalyptus tree.
The eucalyptus forests are still a feature around saltmarshes and along the coast. The tree does not compete with the pines and cedars of the mountain forests, as its seedlings do not grow well in the mountain soil and are soon outgrown and outshaded by native trees. It grows on low lying land and does not spread beyond a narrow local area. It offers all the benefits (described on the notes page) of medicinal oil, scented insecticide, a source of pulpwood, and a winter home for beekeepers.
Today a tree that drains the soil of water might be considered a luxury in times of water shortage. As described in a paper by Serkan Ilseven and Mert Bass available on the pdf page, the eucalyptus roots are very shallow, penetrating no deeper than six meters. This makes the tree susceptible to uprooting and collapse as seen in the main video, but it does mean that the roots do not reach the underground rivers that carry water around Cyprus and so do not divert water from agriculture or domestic supply. The eucalyptus roots spread out over a wide area as it draws up sufficient water so distancing one tree from another.
Under the eucalyptus trees grows and understory of bushes and shrubs. Some are plants also introduced to Cyprus at about the same time as the eualyptus, at the beginning of the 20th century.. The yellow wattle or mimosa, a member of the acacia family, also imported tree from Australia, and the African boxthorn, a native of South Africa. The mimosa is even more tolerant of salty soil than the eucalyptus. It grows faster and if a eucayptus falls and sunlight falls directly onto the forest floor the mimosa will have an advantage and for a time will outgrow the eucalyptus. But if a eucalyptus does root, as it will grow taller, it will grow through the mimosas around it.
The eucalyptus forest on the saltlake is probably contracting. Young trees still grow where the canopy still provides suitable conditions but In the sunlight around the edges of the forest the mimosa grows alongside the native tamerisk isolating the few outlying eucalyptus from the main forest.
The eucalyptus forest, with the mimosa and African boxthorn understorey, has become naturalised on the saltlake. It has adapted to its new conditions and grows and regenerates without help. Insects and birds have learned to live with the introduced trees. Hooded crows and migrating beeeaters shelter in the forest. Kestrels hunt there by day and owls by night. Without these salt tolerant imports the vegetation would be sparse. The introduced plants grow alongside native flowers, shrubs and trees and do not encroach on the specialised saltlake plants like the glasswort and liverwort. The saltlake introductions seem to offer no threat to native plants. They grow in soil that native plants cannot tolerate.They offer shelter and food to insects and birds. They add variety and color to the natural landscape.
In Cyprus waferin is the poison used on smaller mamals, rats in particular, and lanate for larger animals, large birds, foxes, cats and dogs. Wafarin, a drug derived from red clover, kills by preventing blood from clotting, causing internal bleeding, allowing the animal to bleed out. It can take up to five days and is a slow agonising death for the animal. If a cat or dog or a child picks up the dead animal the poison can get into its system and have the same effect. The poisoning can be reversed by giving doses of vitamin K found in vegetables, spinach and beans, and eggs. Lanate, although banned in most countries is easily bought in Cyprus. The poison works quickly killing the animal in minutes. In the same way as waferin a poisoned animal eaten by another animal will pass on the poison and kill the second animal. That animal then too becomes a poison bait for a third animal. And so it goes on. Griffon vultures, native to Cyprus, who feed exclusively from carrion, were all but wiped out by ingesting prey killed by lanate poisoning. Birdlife Cyprus instigated a repopulation programme by introducing griffon vultures from Crete. These birds, too, were all but wiped out by ingesting poisoned prey. When there is a need to control numbers of animals, either large or small, there are more effective and more humane ways of doing it. An animal is normally territorial, living in its own space and defending it from other animals of the same species. If the rat is poisoned another rat will take its place from a neighbouring territory within weeks. More effecient is to keep the resident rat in place but to prevent it from reproducing. Drugs such as Contrapest make the females infertile. It continues its life but does not breed. The rat population in the New York subway was halved in three months using infertility drugs.
Each of the last three years has been hotter than the year before. 16 of the 17 hottest years recorded have been the 16 years of this century. The earth's temperature is now 1.2 degrees warmer than pre industrial levels. The world has not been this hot for 115,000 years and carbon levels have not been this high for 4 million years. Frightening data which is unfortunately true. With the arctic heating up several times faster than the rest of the planet, melting ice caps have led to warming seas, which has effected changes to the air streams which carry our weather across the oceans. For Cyprus a prolonged drought stretching back to 1998 has left the island 50 percent drier than any time in the past 500 years. 2016 has been a very dry year for Cyprus, wells have dried and water pumped from the reservoirs to the fields stopped flowing in early summer. Without water farmers have struggled to keep their trees alive let alone gather a crop. Hopes for a wet winter have not materialised, rainfall reaching only one third of its usual levels, and dams at 20 percent of their full capacity have only half the amount of water they held even after the reduced rains of winter 2015/2016. So the outlook for 2017 cannot be very optimistic. The Paris accord of 2016 has focused the world's attention on the frightening consequences of climate change. As the Mediterranean is a region that is predicted to go dry in the future, Cyprus needs to look where it can make a difference on its own. It is now the greatest user of solar energy per person in the EU, and that hopefully will increase as investment in solar farms begins to offer commercial returns. Cyprus, the most southern EU country, with investment, may become a net exporter of clean energy to the EU. But at the moment it relies on oil for its energy, to fill its oversize diesel stationwagons, to power its air conditioning systems and to drive its desalination plants. We have all become accustomed to having more. We need to get accustomed to living well but with less.
The Mediterranean climate provides for long summers and winters and practically no intermediate seasons. There seems to be no introduction to summer through a leisurely spring and no preparation for winter through a colourful autumn season. Individual plants have to react quickly to cooling temperatures and occasional rain showers after the long arid summer to push through the dampening soil, flower and set seed all in a couple of weeks. Nevertheless the variety of plants in Cyprus and the number of endemic species make it one of the richest of European countries for plantlife. 1910 plant species and 143 endemic species, plants that can only be found in Cyprus. Compare that to England with 2951 plant species of which 47 are endemic, Cyprus with an area of 9,251 sq kilometres, England with an area of 243,000 sq kilometres. Cyprus has varied topography and varied soil types squeezed into a small area, a result of its volcanic origins, and this makes it such a paradise for plants. Variaton in temperature from the plains to the mountains, with an average of 17-19 degrees centigrade on the plains and 9-13 degrees centigrade in the mountains helps with the variety of plants as well as extending the flowering season. But there are pressures on the plantlife. Throughout Europe intensive farming has squeezed out wildflowers, and while Cyprus does not have fields growing a single crop for as far as the eye can see, overuse of herbicides and pesticides has reduced natural generation of wildflowers on the hills and plains. The gradual increase in temperatures and correlated reduction in rainfall, resulting in the draining of aquafers for agriculture, is a worwide problem that acutely affects Cyprus. Building along the coast and gentrification of the beaches, the damning of rivers and drying up of natural estuaries, has left the coastline almost unidentifiable from the coastline of fifty years ago.
Cyprus electricity bills are amoung the most expensive in Europe, typically over 250 euros a month for a household. Cyprus has for a long time been dependent on expensive, wasteful and dirty oil powered generators from three plants, Dhekelia, Moni and the newest at Vasilikos. Hopes are pinned on fresh fields of oil and natural gas found in the southern Meditteranean, but these will not do much to decrease emmissions of climate warming gasses. And Cyprus does not need to become any warmer, with record temperatures recorded with each new summer. Power consumption has doubled in the last fifteen years from 2500 megawatts in 1996 to 5250 megawatts in 2009, and is set to increase by a further 50 percent before 2020. Cyprus reliance on oil cannot continue if the island is not to bankrupt itself - the cost of buying oil was over six hundred and fourty five million euros in 2012, consuming over 1.1 million tonnes of fuel - and if it is not to suffer a drier and hotter climate. When Cyprus joined the EU subsidies for windpower produced windfarms in Paphos - Orites, Alexigros and Koshi - and in Larnaca - Santa Anna and Klavdia. These have been contributing a small but steady input into the national grid, 0.07 percent of total generation in 2013. More available than wind is sunshine. A moderate array of solar panels on a house roof will typically reduce a household electric bill by 50 percent. A larger investment will eliminate the bill altogether. More ambitious are the construction of solar farms, with arrays of photovoltaic panels. Solar power accounted for 1.05 percent of total power generation in 2013. The total contribution of renewables to the national grid increased from 5.2 percent in 2012 to 7.5 percent in 2013, with solar power increasing from 0.43 percent to 1.05 percent. Villages and farmers with patches of rocky land that has been useless for agriclture should now see a way to make it work for them. Land that is rocky and unproductive for can be ideally positioned for solar farms.
Over 465 dogs are abandoned each day in Cyprus, 14000 a month, 170,000 a year. We find our humanity in the manner we treat animals. These figures do not speak well of us. The responsibility of looking after abandoned dogs is left to voluntary organisations, like Paws dog shelter in Paphos, Argos centre in Larnaca, the dogshelter in Nicosia, and many smaller voluntary bodies, like CyprusBeagles. When people lost their money in the banks, the first casualty was donations to charities. The second casualty was their pets and hunting dogs. So at a time when they are needed most, animal welfare charities are struggling to maintain the level of donations needed to do their work. Most cannot cope with any more abandoned dogs. The only way to make space is for the vets to do the one thing that undoes everything they believe in, euthenise unwanted healthy animals. 60,000 animals are euthenised in Cyprus annualy. The internet has given a pathway for people in other countries to connect to welfare organisations in Cyprus, to give a home to a Cyprus dog. CyprusBeagles have sent a dozen dogs to England this year. The abandoned beagle on the saltlake is due to go next month. Germany, Sweden and many of the Scandanavian countries rehome Cyprus dogs as their nationals living in Cyprus make the necesary connections with dog sanctuaries in their own countries. But the problem within Cyprus seems insoluble. The dog population will eventually find some equilibrium, as the population declines, but unless there is intervention from government to force neutering, and restrict breeding, the population will just grow again until there is another crisis. In good times hunting dogs, like the saltlake beagle, fetch money. In bad times they have nowhere to go. (links to some animal welfare organisations are on our links page}
At the moment the fox is protected in Cyprus. The reason for its protected status is that the fox was shot to near extinction when hunting was permitted. A fox cannot be hunted for sport. If it can be shown that a fox has killed livestock or damaged crops then, under the present hunting laws, a fox can be destroyed with permission from the ministry of agriculture. Pressure is now growing to allow the fox to be killed for sport. The argument from the hunters is that, first the fox has no natural predator and so has no natural control on its population and second, that the hare, one of the animals that the fox kills for food, is becoming scarce. The fox does have a natural predator - in man. Foxes are killed on the road and poisoned on the farms. It is a delight to catch sight of a fox as sightings are so rare. If hare numbers have reduced there is no evidence at all that the fox is responsible for this. If indeed the hare population has been reduced, then the fox would have to hunt over a wider area to find food and this may have led to an increase in sightings that has given weight to the argument that its population has increased. As the fox is a very shy animal and usually will only show itself after dark, it would be very difficult to make a count to provide proof of population increase or decrease. The more credible reason that fox hunting is on the political agenda is that there are votes in it. There are over 50 thousand registered hunters in Cyprus. 50 thousand guns have blasted away so many hares and other animals that there are just not enough left in the woods and fields to shoot. There are only 17 mamal species in Cyprus, of which five are already endangered.The largest mammal is the moufflon, the smallest is the shrew, with bats, rats, mouse, hedgehog and hare in between. If the red fox comes into the hunters's sights, then this beautiful animal will likely disappear from Cyprus as it very nearly did when hunting was allowed in previous years. It was the introduction of the law preventing its hunting that saved it. Repealing this law will put the fox in danger of extinction on the island once again..The only way to protect it is to show that as many people want the fox to be protected as there are hunters who want to shoot it.This is a petition to continue legal protection for the fox. Sign it. Then send the link on to your friends. www.change.org/petitions/we-demand-the-protection-of-the-cyprus-fox
Cyprus has an annual rainfall of 48 cms, which equates to four and a half million tonnes of water. Annual rainfal in a more northern European country, England for example, would be 450 cms. Although a long way from desertification, (rainfall in the Sahara is 2.5 cms a year), parts of Cyprus are arid and almost vegetationless. This is part due to the rather low rate of rainfall collection, only 5 percent. The remaining 95 percent does not go entirely to waste, some falling on fields and forests irrigating crops and trees but too much water is flushed away unused. On the mountains the percentage of water collected is far higher than the average. About 40 percent of rainfall seeps into the aquafers. It is for this reason that rainfall over the mountains is so vital. A person uses 300 tonnes of water a year. Four and a half percent of annual precipitation is used by people in the towns and villages, not leaving very much for anything else. 10 thousand tonnes of water each day is used by the hotels along the south coast in the height of the tourist season. Agriculture needs water, and the remaining one half percent is not going to be much use. Pipes and cement gulleys do bring water to the fields from the reservoirs but agriculture draws most of its water from underground streams fed by the Winter rain over the mountains. Wells are dug down to the water table and water piumped onto the fields. But as water levels fall, the wells need to be dug deeper and deeper, until they begin to draw saline water. Once saline water is mixed with clear water the table is polluted and their is no going back. So water is the limiting factor in all the plans that Cyprus may wish to make for its future. Desalination plants provide exta water for the towns, but they use a large amount of energy, which may also be in short supply. All natural surface streams are dammed and the water stored. There is no hope that rainfall will increase, in fact the effects of planetary warming is set to reduce rainfall even further. The only variable left that can be managed is water collection and recycling. Gullys are being built alongside roads to direct water run off to the reservoirs.The towns streets are being excavated to lay new plastic pipes and replace leaking cement and iron pipes. This should provide an extra 10 thousand tonnes of waste water every day which which can be treated and reused. But this takes investment and money is now another limiting factor. (A detialed survey of water supply in Cyprus was written by Brian Ellis in 2009 and the full report is available on our pdf page.)
Birds and other animals build up complex interpendancies over time. Food chains link large predatory birds like the falcons who take the smaller birds like the swallows as they swoop back and forth gathering up insects. The system maintains balance, holding populations at a sustainable level. Unless this is disrupted by other factors. From a Cyprus population of about 840 thousand, there are 50 thousand officially licensed hunters, and quite a few more unlicensed, almost exclusively male, each with a small arsenal of shotguns. In the shooting season, and often not in the shooting season, bands of men gather together and bond, roaming the hills and forests with their dogs, shooting almost everything that moves, each others dogs and each other. About 40 to 50 accidents on average are reported on the opening day of the hunting season each year. But the real victims are the populations of birds. The chuckar is the hunters prey of choice, but in lieu of these birds any bird no matter how small becomes a target. Large falcons are shot, left wounded to die of starvation. Small native breeding birds like the coal tit are shot. Breeding populations, already small, are reduced even further. Food chains are destroyed, and the balance between predator and prey dismantled. Hunting season starts for a few days in August and in September around the coast, then starts again in earnest November through to Febuary, on Wednesdays and Sundays only and in principle resticted to game birds with a limit on each hunter. The intention is to maintain a balance between the hunters appetite and the bird popuation levels, and to protect birds during the breeding season and migrating seasons. There are areas where hunting is prohibited, considered too valuable for wildlife to be destroyed by hunters, where birds should be safe. But shotgun blasts are audible here as everywhere throughout the year. Official enforcement of hunting regulations is derisory. Individual enforcement is impossible. Who will confront a group of men with shotguns as they trample through your fields. The defense for hunting is twofold. That it leads to an enrichment of the environment, as hunters need to sustain bird populations so that they can better blast them out of the sky, and that it is a pastime rooted in the Cypriot culture, rather like staking out limesticks and mistnets to entrap migrant birds.The bottom line is that hunting is not looked upon with any sympathy in Northern Europe, and this is the scource of Cyprus tourist industry.
The change in climate that is effecting the planet has a effect on Cyprus as well. Generally temperatures are inceasing and rainfall is decreasing. Startling figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, who for the first time this year have published monthly figures for temperature and precipitation gathered from six stations around the island confirm the trend. During March and April a general incease in temperature over the average of 2-3 degrees were recorded. Rainfall over the mountains, where temperature differences were highest, fell by 60mm in March from an average of 145.5mm to 84.3mm, and by 110mm in April, from an average of 120.4mm to 10.3mm. These figures may be adjusted as more data is put into the model, but as the mountains are the gathering point for the island's rivers even a small drop in annual rainfall is worrying. These figures are in line with previous statisics. The highest temperature ever recorded in Cyprus was in August 2010 and was 45.6 degrees. Average temperatures, measured in Nicosia, from 1970 to 2000 compared to 1900 to 1930 show an increase of just under 1 degree, from 18.9 to 19.7 degrees. Rainfall comparisons for the same periods show a decrease of 17 percent. In the last ten years, there was a severe drought (70% normal precipitation) in 2004-5, a drought (71-80%) in 2005-6 and low precipitation (81-90%) in 2004-5. This is in the context of 6 years of severe drought in the last century, 12 years of drought and 11 years of low precipitation. In each subsequent decade average precipitation figures are lower than the decade before. For full comparison of data visit the min of agriculture website on our links page.
Ghandi said that a people can be judged by how they treat their animals. In Cyprus cats are everywhere and despite their complex and sophisticated character many Cypriots regard them as pests. Many others make efforts to house and feed them. Principal amoung them are the cat protection societies based in the major cities. In Larnaca the Animal Cyprus Support managed by a team of volunteers does its best to help the feral cat population. A truly feral cat will live, on average, for only two years, while domesticated cats can live for more than fifteen years. A toll is taken from road kills, disease, poor diet, male cat fights which can be fatal, and from poisoning. Although solitary by nature, cats collect at feeding time when kind people may bring them food. Other people may take advantage to lace the food with lannate, an illegal insecticide banned in the EU but still available in Cyprus, and wipe out the colony at a single stroke. Estimates of numbers exceeding five thousand cats are poisoned in Cyprus every year. Poisoning cats is not only cruel, as lannate inflicts a painful death, but also largely ineffective in controlling numbers, as other cats will soon move in to form a new colony. A female cat will normally produce two litters in a year, in March and September, with a average of four kittens a litter. Nomally a population will be limited by the availability of food. Animals generally will not breed if their litter is likely to starve. But this natural limit may still provide for too many cats. A more effectve method is to neuter the dominant toms and release them back into their colony. The Cyprus government used to fund a neutering prorgamme but it was abandoned two years ago. The Animal Cyprus Support runs its own neutering programme financed by donations. Their volunteers collect predominantly female cats and bring them to a vet. They are then released back where they were found. In this way they spey around ten cats each week. This work is invaluable and unappreciated. A neutering programme is the most humane and effective method of controlling animal populations, but a neutering programme needs to be Cyprus wide and funded by government. Thanks to Christos Karoullas, president of the Animal Cyprus Support, for his input. The link to Animal Cyprus Support is in our links page.
The proliferation of mists nets and lyme sticks is the one single issue surrounding autumn migration. Most people see migrating birds as no one countries property and should be given free passage over all the countries they flyover. But some southern mediterranean countries trap the birds and sell them on as a culinary delicacy. Trapping migrant birds is breaking the law, also in Cyprus.It is a cruel death for the birds, glued by their wings or feet for hours to a branch. Mosy of us are ok to see bolts shot through large animals brains to provide the meat we eat, so it is hard to moralise to others who may see trapping birds as a way to earn a few exta euros in hard strapped times. Small migrants, particularly warblers, mark the start of summer as they arrive back in northern Europe, and the onset of winter when they leave. They have a very special place in most Europeans hearts. In England alone there are over a million people affilated to birding soceties, spread across northern Europe more than ten million. When all these people see news items like the one shown on German tv (the u tube link is available on our links page) they make a decision not to holiday in Cyprus. For each illegal euro made by the trappers, one hundred euros is lost to the men and women working in the the tourist trade. As the German film shows, enforcement of trapping laws is lax. It is difficult to arrest a person on Monday you hunted with on Sunday. Enforcement cannot be left to local police. As the purchase and distribution of the birds is a nationwide organisation, policing of the trade needs also to be nationwide.For detailed statistics on bird trapping visit the CABS and the Birdlifecyprus website. The links available on our links page.
The griffon vulture is Cyprus largest bird. Their population used to be counted in the 100's as recently as the 1960's. Now their population has been reduced to 6 to 8 birds. They feed from carrion, dead animals left to lay where have fallen, and the principal reason for their decline is the lack of carrion. Shepherds no longer leave their goats and sheep where they fall. Hygiene has been to the our benifit but disastrous for the griffon vulture. Where carcasses are left out, they are the result of poisoning, dogs and foxes. The poison transfers to the vulture when it eats the carcass and it dies as well. With a small population the variety in the gene pool is reduced which leads to fewer sucessful hatchings and weaker chicks, many of whom are not strong enough to survive their inaugural flight. So the prognosis for the griffon vulture in Cyprus does not seem too rosy. In other Mediteranean islands however it is doing well. In Crete the population is over 400. So the Gypas project, devised in Oct 2011 between Game Fund, Department of Forestry and Birdlife Cyprus has brought Griffon vultures from Crete to Cyprus. Six birds arrived in June this year and are being held in a holding station in the Paphos forest while they acclimatise to their new home for a year or so, before being released into the Cyprus valleys. This is just the start of the Gypas project. The birds will be monitored after their release to see how they fare and if all goes well more vultures will be introduced from Crete. In conjunction to these introductions, feeding station are being set up, where carrion is left out for the vultures to feed, and most difficult of all, efforts are being made to give teeth to the current laws outlawing laying poison baits. Thanks to Martin Hellicar for info.
For more information see the Gypas project website on our links page and look at our pdf page for a survey on griffon vultures carried out in 2004.
The Cyprus Turtle Conservation Project was started in 1976 by Andreas Demetropoulos and Myroula Hadjichristophorou, when they were working in the fishery department. Both have now left the fishery department to continue with their work with turtle conservation. The Turtle project is now an independent NGO financed by the Cyprus Wildlife Service.
Beaches on the western side of the island are protected by several European conventions, which aim to conserve turtle habitats, by managing breeding beaches and protecting them from development. Andreas and Myroula suffered a personal cost for their interest in the turtles when their car was firebombed as a warning to stop protests against illegal development on Lara beach.
The soft sand beaches that the turtles need to bury their eggs are also the most desirable beaches for tourists and there is a constant tug of war between the forces of development and conservation. The European conventions to which Cyprus is a fully paid member, prevent development and other destructive uses of the turtle nesting beaches. The illegal café on Lara beach that led to the infamous car burning has since been removed. So Cyprus does seem to take its responsibility seriously.
Undeveloped beaches on the British bases at Akrotiri and Dekelia are also turtle beaches and are protected by environmental officers. Beaches on the north of the island are also protected turtle beaches.
18 countries around the Med are signatories to the various conventions protecting turtles. No country can let the others down as all strive to conserve turtle populations as they swim and feed around the Mediterranean, returning twenty to thirty years after their own hatching to their home beach to breed and to lay their eggs. The numbers of turtles returning to Cyprus beaches this year reflect hatching sucesses of thirty years ago, and the sucess of breeding progammes today cannot be properly assesed until thirty years have passed. There are three turtle species that nest on Mediterranean beaches, but only two that nest in Cyprus. There are larger numbers of loggerhead turtles. The green is much rarer. Both are protected.
Read the pdf download for more information.
Cape Greco was declared a National Forest Park in 1993. This gave priority for 1. protection of landscape, nature and biodiversity 2. promotion of recreation and tourism 3. conservation and management of wildlife. So here cafes and recreational activities, like waterskiing are allowed as long as they do not effect landscape or biodiversity. There are popular bathing beaches on the cape and motor boats and waterskiing. Mostly these activities are confined to the western side. Cape Greco is home for a rich variety of flowers, bushes and trees, many found only in Cyprus. It is this rich biodiversity that makes it such a special place. . As a reserve Cape Greco is protected from hunters, but the animals and birds do not have to wander too far inland before they become legitimate targets. As a resting ground for migrant birds the cape is still a mecca for illegal trappers. Around half a million song birds were trapped and killed in Cyprus in 2011, a 9% increase over the previous year. These birds are on their way to their breeding grounds and their premature death has a huge impact on population numbers. When the parent dies their unborn chicks are dying with them.
Lanaca saltlake is designated as a wetlands site of international importance (Ramsar) as it is a "very important site for wintering waterbirds and a resting place for many species of waterbirds, waders and passerines during migration.' (Birdlife International) It is one of two sites of this importance in Cyprus, the other is the saltlake at Akrotiri. The responsibilty for managing the lake lies ultimately with the Ministry of Agriculture, with most of the day to day maintenance carried out by the Forestry Department. Policy is decided by a committee made up of representatives from The Min of Ag, the Forestry Department and the local Larnaca council.
There have had some sucesses.
In 2004 a study by Myroula Hadjichristophorou for the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, led to the shutdown of the shooting club on the s.w bank of the saltlake and the scraping away of all the topsoil around the shooting club. This was made urgent by the death of 52 flamingoes from lead poisoning over the winter 2002/3, as a consequence of digesting lead shot as they fed from the lake. Since the removal of the topsoil there have been no more flamingos poisoned. The saltlake and its banks have a recreational value for Larnacans and is an attraction for visitors, as well as being a place for animals and plants. Access to the lake has been made easier by a path built along the east bank which is now very popular with walkers, runners and cyclists. It runs for about 2 kilometres from the airport road to the aquaduct. A bird hide, half way along the path, gives birdwatchers an elevated view of the saltlake. It is lovingly rebuild, every time it is burned or vandalised. An act of faith on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The water around the saltlake is very close to the surface and with heavy rainfall basement garages are flooded. This has lead to Larnacans pumping water out into the saltlake to empty their basements. Some of this grey water is polluted with the waste from septic tanks and this is not so good for the lake, leading to algal buildup on the banks. It may also lead to viruses amoung the flamingoes. On the plus side the marshes on the n.e side of the lake have take on a new life, with marsh plants flourishing and waders visiting, like the black winged shrike and the spur winged plover, that would normally prefer less salty conditions. There are plans to legally pump filtered grey water from the Kamares aquedust, which should maintain the marshes. Farmers cultivating the fields around the lake still use fertilisers and pesticides, which run off into the lake effecting the oxygen levels of the water. This is an issue as yet unresolved. A budget of one and a half million euros was put aside for an information centre for the saltlake.It was to be built last year but postponed as finances evaporated. There is still a hope that it will be build this year.
(Thanks to Costas Kokkinos, environmental health officer with Larnaca council responsible for ecology, for his input.)
