To mark this year’s World Environment Day, UNFICYP personnel joined forces with the Athienou Municipality in the Larnaca area and along with a group of youth rolled up their sleeves clean up parts of the buffer zone in the area.

While some areas of the buffer zone are well-preserved havens for wildlife, other parts have turned into illegal waste dumping grounds. All kinds of rubbish, including plastic, construction and household waste, lie on the patrol tracks and even in agricultural fields, harming nature and constituting an eye sore. 

As custodians of the buffer zone, UNFICYP jointly organized the occasion with the municipality of Athienou, in a stride to take action on World Environment Day.

Acknowledging that illegal waste dumping is one of the main environmental challenges within the buffer zone that mostly affects the area, other representatives of the local community also joined the initiative which aims to contribute to awareness raising and prevention of this illegal activity. 

The participants in the cleanup activity met next to the Athienou Town hall on Saturday morning and made their way to the buffer zone where they collected all sorts of waste for an hour.