Case studies Cyprus
Action plan for creating community gardens in Cypriot towns
Allotment gardens and generally urban agriculture in Cyprus are important parts of the cities’ green infrastructure despite their informal and unplanned nature. A preliminary field research revealed three main patterns of urban agriculture in terms of land ownership:
Public or community land: neighboring residents informally cultivate parcels of these areas as extensions of their private gardens,
Small public green areas abandoned, having the completion of the landscaping pending for years Turkish Cypriot land: empty plots enclosed in the fabric, abandoned by their owners due to the political conflict, being distributed by the public authorities to professional heirless farmers,
Small private residential plots: parts of none constructed private housing programs, cultivated by their owners, friends, relatives or neighbors.
The actual size (as a proportion of the built fabric) and the significance of urban agriculture in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainable urban development have not been estimated yet. The recent economic crisis can be an incentive for urban agriculture, while it gives food production alternatives; reduce dependency on the established food production system, enhancing social cohesion and community notion. In this context, some more formal and organized modes of urban agriculture among new social groups are surely benefited.
Organization:
The Commissioner for the Environment of the Republic of Cyprus is promoting an initiative for spreading community allotment gardens in a more formal and community oriented mode. The critical issues for the success of this attempt are:
to activate willing and motivated local social groups and organizations for monitor the projects,to find low or no cost land in a proximity to the urban farmers residence,
to promote water reuse policy and irrigation with recycled water
to train candidate farmers in Organic Gardening,
to assure the utility of their products,
to provide support in terms of gardening tools and practices, design, planning and social working,
to advertise and disseminate good agricultural practices.
Research Focus:
The research group is designing and supporting the first formal allotment garden in Cyprus at the Mountainous Larnaka Environmental Centre. This garden will function as a pilot project in order to disseminate the initiative to municipalities at the larger urban centers of the island. This project needs further and wider documentation in order to support its mission. In this frame, the research will deal with the following issues:
- What is the range, the significance and the benefits of the current modes of informal urban agriculture in Cyprus in terms of economy, society and the environment?
- Which are the fields of failure or success for the organization of the pilot project, regarding management, training and motivation?
- What is the potential role of urban agriculture in Cyprus regarding community development?
- What are the hot spots regarding environment and gardening practices with respect to particular no climate attitudes and social patterns in Cyprus?
- What are the threats and opportunities for future projects in other locations?
- How local communities could be motivated in order to participate in similar projects?
- Can similar projects lead to the formation of a social entrepreneurship in local level?
The major aim of the research is to conduct a road map that rationalizes policy, environmental, social and design parameters, proposing specific police measures for fostering the creation of an urban agricultural culture in Cyprus.