Environmental Commissioner Maria Panayiotou on Friday took part in a tree planting event held in Tseri, outside Nicosia.

The event marked the start of a series tree planting initiatives under the auspices of the LIFE AgrOassis project, co-funded by the European Union. The endeavour will focus on areas undergoing desertification due to climate change.

“Today we’re not just starting a routine tree planting. Today, we are implementing an innovation developed for the first time in Europe, leading to the growth of deep-rooted seedlings adapted to aridity, right from the nursery,” Panayiotou said.

“Academic institutions and relevant public departments, supported by environmental office, have joined forces with volunteers to plant these deep-rooted seedlings.

“Our goal is to create vegetative barriers in degraded agricultural areas threatened by desertification that are anticipated to become even more vulnerable due to climate change. This is a collective effort aimed at bringing measurable positive outcomes and specific best practices contributing to our adaptation to the effects of climate change,” Panayiotou said.

She added that the initiative has “a triple objective”, namely, to plant 11,000 deep-rooted trees and shrubs by 2026, to regenerate our degraded agricultural land, making Cyprus’ agro-ecosystems more resilient to climate change, and to engage people in the process.

“Only through these steps, we will be able grasp the significant role trees play in ecosystem balance and securing a healthy and sustainable future,” Panayiotou concluded.