What do I mean? An ancient olive tree, maybe as old as Bellapais monastery itself, certainly growing before the Ottomans arrived! We think it to be between 700 to 800 years old!

"Isn’t there are a law against this sort of thing", I hear you ask? Sure there is. In fact there are two laws against such a thing.

We explained the situation to the Central Forestry Department, who confirmed that the tree was indeed a listed tree. They even showed us a photo of it on their PC. "That’s the one," I said. "But that’s a very old tree. Maybe 800 years old", they replied. "Yes, but the government has approved plans to put a road over it!"

Two weeks later after nothing happened, we moved it.

Was it a mistake? Should we have left it alone? Would it have survived without being moved? Shouldn’t the authorities have done something about it? Should we have blown the whistle still louder? Maybe.

The problem is I don’t have much faith in the authorities here. In fact, I have no faith in them at all. That’s because they are killing thousands of olive trees in Kyrenia and Tatlisu to build two new roads, regardless of their own laws. So, is my trying to save such a large tree that big a crime? I think not. Non Governmental Organisations, have the powers to take out legal action against the authorities to stop the olive tree genocide. But none of them have so far taken on the challenge. Pity.

This tree was moved from a Dogankoy roadside to the Sandstone Olive Tree Sanctuary in Bogaz and was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme’s "Action for Co-operation and Trust". After three months, it is alive and growing happily.