The years 2022 to 2025 were catastrophic for Cyprus’s forests, with a sharp rise in tree deaths caused by consecutive drought seasons and bark beetle infestations, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou has told parliament.
Panayiotou made the remarks in a written reply to a parliamentary question from AKEL Limassol MP Marina Nikolaou, based on research conducted inside the forests.
Brutia pine — which covers around 90% of Cyprus’s state forests — accounts for the majority of trees being lost.
How the damage spreads
The minister said southern and eastern slopes of mountainous areas are typically the first to be affected during consecutive years of low rainfall and drought, with northern and western slopes following. Semi-mountainous and lowland areas are similarly affected, and tend to suffer more severely within broader forest zones.
Trees growing in riverbeds and stream valleys, particularly at lower elevations, show rapid water stress and are among the first to die. Water-stressed trees are then typically attacked first by bark beetles and later by wood-boring insects, killing them within a short period, the minister said.
What the Forestry Department is doing
The Forestry Department continuously monitors tree health, primarily in state forests but also in private forested areas where it has the ability to intervene, the minister said. Measures in place include:
- An extensive network of bark beetle traps to monitor population levels, with mass trapping carried out locally in some areas.
- Active removal of dead and dry trees to prevent local bark beetle population surges that could spread to healthy trees.
- Thinning of dense reforestation areas under the Rural Development Programme, removing weak trees so that available moisture is used more effectively by the remaining healthy plants — a forestry measure intended to improve vitality and resilience to drought and climate change.
- Replanting of low-altitude areas where brutia pine reforestation has died off, using drought-resistant shrubs native to each locality.
Removing dead and dangerous trees
The Forestry Department has established guidelines for the sale of timber and firewood from both standing live trees and dead or dry trees, the minister said.
Where timber volumes exceed 50 cubic metres, a tendering process applies. Licensed firewood sellers registered with the Forestry Department may purchase standing dry trees of up to 20 cubic metres through the department’s invoicing system. Members of the public may also apply to purchase standing dry trees for personal use, with an entitlement of three to five stacked cubic metres. The felling season runs from October to March, in line with the fauna reproduction period.
This year, given the large volumes of timber and firewood available and the high number of tree deaths, the department has halted the allocation of timber through the green felling tender process — covering standing live trees. The removal period for dead and dry trees has been extended to May, with the agreement of the Environment Department and the Game and Fauna Fund, following approval from the Ministry’s Environment Directorate General. Priority is given to areas where the risk of forest fire is considered particularly high.
Forest census every ten years
The Forestry Department conducts a forest census every ten years, specifically covering brutia pine, which accounts for nearly 90% of state forest land, the minister said.