INTERNATIONAL WATER BIOTOPES PROTECTION DAY

The 2nd of February of each year is dedicated to the Water Biotopes Protection.
On this day, back in 1971, the Convention of the Protection of Water Biotopes was signed, in Ramsar, a Persian city on the coasts of the Caspian Sea. The International Water Biotopes Day was celebrated for the first time in 1977, making thus an encouraging start.

This year’s celebrations motto is “Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People”.
The Cyprus Green Party, honouring the International Water Biotopes Day, organises a protest against the construction of a petrol station in the area of Oroklini Lake demanding at the same time the inclusion of the Lake in the protected area’s list, on Sunday February the 3rd, at 12:30 p.m.
The protest is aiming to send the message that the important biotopes of Cyprus, as the lake of Oroklini, constitute a national, ecological wealth and a precious heritage, and their protection constitutes an imperative need. We, the Cyprus Green Party, call the authorities to proceed to all necessary actions for the protection of the Lake and its inclusion in the European protected regions list.

We cannot, of course, forget the case of Akrotiri water biotope which has been included in the protected regions of the Ramsar Treaty, but unfortunately the antenna’s area is not included in the protected area. The Cyprus Government’s proposal was to include in the RamsarTreaty the entire area.
The British antennas are located at the western side of the Salt Lake, in a sensitive territory of the biotope’s system. This territory offers the hydrologic connection between the fresh water marsh from the Akrotiri Salt Lake.

Cyprus Green Party believes that resident’s health and the quality of their lives, as well as the protection of the entire area of the water biotope, will be established with the removal of the antennas and the abolition of the British Bases with all the catastrophic results of their action in the island.