The EU commission has signed an agreement with a Polish based consortium to draft plans concerning how to manage and protect six of the most important and fragile environmental sites in Northern Cyprus.
The first planning and assessment meeting between experts from the Polish NIRAS consortium, the EU Commission as well as North Cyprus will be held at the Saray hotel on Monday.
According to a statement issued by the European Commission, the 6 sites to be prepared within the framework of a 1.5 million Euro contract signed with the polish consortium will most likely be declared a NATURA 2000 area as and when a political settlement is found to the Cyprus Problem.
A baseline study will be carried out for each of the six sites, to reflect the current situation with respect to its physical environment, including enumeration of the relevant ecological features such as habitat types, fauna and flora species that need to be protected in each area, before a management plan for the protection and management of these sites are drawn up in line with NATURA 2000 directives.
The statement also said that the overall objective of the project is to achieve effective systems of nature protection in North
Cyprus, in compliance with the requirements of the acquis communautaire on Habitats and Wild Birds Directives and all related EU requirements and policies
The project is being financed by the EU’s 259 Million Euro Financial Aid package allocated to the Turkish Cypriot community.