Environmentalists have called for a thorough investigation into the felling of 28 mature palm trees in Paphos following a complaint from a local resident.

“We insist that municipalities follow the correct procedure before cutting down trees,” Andreas Evlavis, Green Party representative in Paphos, told the Cyprus Mail on Thursday.

“Every mature tree must be examined and measured by the forestry department before it is marked for felling, as felling trees without a permit is illegal,” Evlavis said.

The Greens condemned the logging that took place on Monday morning in Rue Napoleon, calling it a "massacre".

“By 9am the trees had already been felled, so the workers must have attacked at dawn,” Evlavis said.
When forestry officials arrived to investigate the complaint and take the necessary measurements, only five of the original palm trees remained.

"We were told that three of the remaining trees met the protection criterion of a trunk circumference of more than 40 cm, but there was no information about the other two," Evlavis said. He also raised concerns about the forestry authority's practice of measuring a tree's circumference at a height of 1.3 meters rather than at its base.
The Paphos Mayor's office was not immediately available for comment, and municipal officials declined to comment on the matter.

This is not the first time that mature palm trees have been cut down in the municipality. While some ecologists debate the value of palm trees in urban environments - arguing that they are less effective than other species at sequestering carbon and mitigating climate change - Evlavis insisted that cutting down mature trees is the wrong approach.

Communities in parts of the United States with climates similar to Cyprus have already banned the planting of new palm trees, preferring instead other species that provide more shade and absorb significantly more carbon.
Research from the University of Florida has shown that mature trees with large crowns can store almost 100 times as much carbon as palm trees with more limited fronds.

Despite this argument, according to Evlavis, cutting down mature trees of all kinds is a misguided tactic.
"Seedlings take years to establish and have higher water requirements. In addition, the decision to remove trees should not depend on personal aesthetic preferences. The palms that were cut down had been growing for 40 to 50 years, and it takes decades for new trees to reach a similar stage of maturity and provide equivalent environmental benefits - assuming replanting is even intended," he said.

Beyond the ecological debate, Evlavis stressed, it is also about responsibility. "The point is that spontaneous actions like this cannot be tolerated. A permit was required to cut down these trees, but it was not granted," he said.

Source: CyprusMail.com

Author: Iole Damaskinos