AROUND 7,000 olive trees are facing possible death under tarmac as construction on new roads in Kyrenia and Karpasia gets underway, Kyrenia-based olive tree protection activist Cahit Basaran told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

Basaran’s warning comes despite assurances from the north’s ‘communication and works ministry’ that all the 7,000 olive trees lying in the path of the new roads would be replanted in municipal “greening projects”, schools and universities in the north.
“I don’t believe the government will do the job properly. Trees they moved earlier this year are already dying,” Basaran said.

While praising the north’s authorities for their good intentions in wanting to save the trees, Basaran says the road building company charged with uprooting the trees, and those who will receive them, have little or no idea how to keep them alive after relocation. Of 30 trees uprooted and replanted under the administration’s road building programme, around 20 are beyond rescue because of woodworm, while others were planted so deep they will die from lack of water, Basaran said.

Basaran is at loggerheads over the issue, having earlier presented a proposal to the Turkish Cypriot authorities offering to help replant the trees. Although he and his small-scale operation have relocated 155 olive trees in the past year, with the loss of only one tree, the authorities have refused to work with him, preferring to do the job themselves.
“It’s like leaving the fox in charge of the chickens,” said Basaran yesterday in reference to a contract signed between the ‘communication and works ministry’ and METZ, the Turkish company that will build the two new roads.

“When you transplant a tree you lose around 70 per cent of the roots, and if you don’t prune the tree back, all the water is sucked upwards and the tree dries out. They don’t know this. You also need to apply a special adhesive that prevents the tree drying out and pesticides against spider mite and woodworm,” he warned.

But yesterday ‘communication and works minister’ Salih Usar strongly rejected Basaran’s claim that thousands of trees were in danger.

“All the trees will be replanted. We have made arrangements for all of them, and if there are any left over we will find homes for them too,” he told the Cyprus Mail.

Usar also criticised Basaran’s willingness to criticise the authorities by saying, “What we are doing is out of love for the tree and Cyprus’ heritage. We know very well how to treat the trees and we don’t use bulldozers when we are uprooting them”. He added his belief that Basaran was interested more in the commercial value of the tree than in their preservation.

However, Basaran, whose olive tree replanting operation has received funding from UNOPS and the British High Commission, insisted his aim was neither to make money from conservation, nor to criticise the authorities.

“I don’t mind who does the job, as long as it is done properly,” he said. He added that his suspicions the job would not be done properly stemmed from the authorities’ lack of determination in implementing laws against those who destroy trees for firewood or to clear space for building.

“According to the law, you can go to prison for three years for cutting down an olive tree, and for six years if you cut it down to sell commercial firewood. But as far as I know, no one has ever been prosecuted,” he said.

Quoting official figures, he said last year 10,000 olive trees were destroyed in the north.
“That constitutes 200 per week, or one per hour,” he said.