Fire Prevention & Response Programme

June 2022

As part of the SupportCY Environmental Year, Bank of Cyprus and the Bank's SupportCY businesses and organizations joined forces and supported the Forest Department in the prevention and protection of Cypriot forests.

Prevention measures and actions related to public awareness on the protection of forests as well as fire protection programmes in the forests of Cyprus, were launched in the summer of 2022. Based on official statistical surveys, prevention is the most important factor in the protection of forests. In the last 20 years, the causes of 84% of the fires that we know are due to anthropogenic factors. Of these, 33% are intentional and 67% due to negligence.

"It's up to us to never let it happen again", therefore, through SupportCY a series of forest patrols has been programmed by the SupportCY Volunteers Corps and the Crises and Disasters Centre. Concurrently, educational and informative actions have been planned in shopping centres and rural municipalities with the collaboration of the Forest Department.