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Cyprus Fishing and Forestry
Fishing has been of small importance to Cyprus
throughout
history. The intermittent nature of the rivers inhibits
natural
propagation of freshwater fish, and the surrounding waters
are
generally deficient in the nutrients and associated
plankton
essential to the growth of a large marine fish population.
The Turkish invasion resulted in the loss of some of
the better
fishing areas. By the second half of the 1980s, loans and
subsidies
from the Department of Fisheries had secured the existence
of a
fishing fleet of several hundred small vessels, and annual
catches
exceeded those preceding 1974. In 1989 the catch totaled
2,600 tons
at live weight.
The 1980s also saw saltwater and freshwater fish farms
come
into operation. Much of their production was exported. An
experimental fish farm was scheduled to open in the 1990s
at
Meneou, near Larnaca.
Forestry played a very small role in the Greek Cypriot
economy.
In the period 1986-1988, its value added was 0.01 percent
of the
agricultural total in all three years.
Nearly all of the south's forests were owned by the
state,
which had long managed an active and sophisticated program
for
their care and improvement. The Turkish invasion of 1974
damaged
the island's forests extensively, but by the 1980s
reforestation
projects had repaired much of the harm. The College of
Forestry,
established by the British in the colonial period, enjoyed
an
international reputation for excellence.
Data as of January 1991
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