AKEL meeting with the Director and officials of the Forestry Department, the Union of Foresters, and former Directors of the Department

 

29 October 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

AKEL General Secretary St. Stefanou met today with the Director of the Forestry Department, Savvas Iezekiel, officials of the Forestry Department, a delegation from the Foresters’ Union, and former Directors of the Department. The main topic of the meeting was the decision by the Council of Ministers to transfer forest firefighting and part of the Forestry Department staff involved in forest firefighting to the Ministry of the Interior.

The Forestry Department expressed its opposition to this decision and made it clear that separating forest fire protection from holistic forest management is practically impossible and extremely dangerous. As Savvas Ezekiel explained, this practice was implemented in Greece and the results were disastrous.

On his part, St. Stefanou pointed out that AKEL considers this presidential announcement to be problematic. The government, St. Stefanou stressed, made announcements without conducting a study, without the formulation of a strategy, without preparation, without consultation with the Forestry Department and the Fire Service. In other words, without listening to those who have the operational experience and responsibility to implement any changes, those who bear the burden of crisis management. The Forestry Department has historically been a pioneer in the conservation and protection of our country’s forests, pointed out the General Secretary of AKEL, and this cannot be dismantled.

The meeting also discussed the issues of wildfires, fire prevention, preparedness, and containment, and the need to create infrastructures. In the midst of the climate crisis, we must prepare ourselves adequately, stressed the General Secretary of AKEL.

AKEL shares the concerns expressed at the meeting, which raise many important questions that demand answers. Towards this end, AKEL has submitted a motion to the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture so that the issue can be examined in its entirety during the debate on November 11.

The meeting was attended on behalf of AKEL by AKEL MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Yiannakis Gavriel, and Christina Nikolaou, Head of Environment Policy and member of the Central Committee of AKEL.