The Cyprus Environmental Studies Centre is a project of Terra Cypria (formerly the Cyprus Conservation Foundation), a registered charity (Council of Ministers decision, June 1994).   It was  founded by four Cypriots who had been closely involved with the Laona Project (1989-1994), the earliest environmental NGO project ever to be funded by an European Union assistance programme. The aim of the Laona Project was to demonstrate that there is an alternative to mass tourism, and that the economic regeneration of the rural communities on the Laona plateau could be achieved through principles of sustainable development.  The project tried to help local people understand that it was in their interests if the Akamas Peninsula were preserved and protected as a nature park, than if it were sacrificed to yet more coastal development*.

Extensive involvement with the local communities in the Laona area and with local and government officials, made the project team aware of the wide-spread need to sensitise Cypriot society generally to environmental concerns.  The Cyprus Conservation Foundation (CCF) was thus established as a trust in 1992.  Its current trustees are journalist and author Mrs. Barbara Lyssarides, Mrs. Myriam Leventis,  Mr. Costas Kleanthous, a UK-based businessman, Mr. Lakis Zavallis and Mr. George Galatatriotis, local businessmen.

Our trustees emeritus are Mrs. Androulla Vassiliou, former memeber of the house of representatives and former first lady of Cyprus and Mrs. Stella Souliotou, former attorney-general and minister of justice of the Republic of Cyprus

The  overall aim of Terra Cypria is to promote environmental educational awareness within Cypriot society, thereby protecting the island’s  natural resources and heritage, and facilitating the island’s harmonisation with European environmental legislation and standards.

Our objectives are two fold: to sensitise the decision-makers of today through seminars and other activities directed at specific target groups within the community; also to pass on an environmental message to the citizens of tomorrow, i.e. school pupils and students, so that they, in turn, may deal with the earth and its resources more responsibly.  With a view to meeting these objectives and particularly the second, viz. environmental education for children, and young people, the Cyprus Environmental Studies Centre was set up, in the disused school of Kritou Terra, one of the Laona  Project villages. The restoration of the school and its furnishing as a field studies centre was funded by the A.G. Leventis Foundation. Its laboratory and other equipment was funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment.  This was done within the framework of a four-year environmental sensitisation programme for Cypriot society (1995-1999) undertaken by the Conservation Foundation, under the name Green Awareness.  The Centre has been in full operation since 1996 offering courses to local elementary schools, Greek and Anglophone secondary schools from Cyprus and the Middle East, and also to the University of Cyprus, UK universities, and institutes of higher education.  By special arrangement with the Ministry of Education, the training offered  at the Centre, has been designed to fit in with the curriculum for 10 to 12 year old pupils.

For more information about the Laona Project and the restored village houses available for rent please apply to Mrs. S. Symeonidou, the Laona Foundation for the Conservation and Regeneration of the Cypriot Countryside  tel. +357-25-358632, fax +357-25-352657, e-mail: info@terracypria.org.cy