In a long-abandoned village in the UN buffer zone that divides Cyprus, an endangered curly-horned wild sheep offers hope not only for wildlife but that bitter ethnic divisions might slowly be healed. The mouflon, a majestic breed endemic to the Mediterranean island, is one of many species flourishing in the no-man’s-land created when inter-communal strife sliced Cyprus in two in the 1960s. “Without human influence, the wildlife and plant life have flourished,” said Salih Gucel, director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Near East University in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

“It is like stepping back in time to what our grandparents would have seen 100 years ago,” Gucel said, after spotting an orchid growing amid the tumbled ruins of a farmhouse in the village of Varisha, some 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of the capital Nicosia. Cyprus has been split since 1974 when Turkish forces occupied the northern part of the island in response to a Greek-sponsored military coup. The buffer zone covers some three percent of the island, is 180 kilometers (112 miles) long and up to eight kilometers (five miles) wide.

Rare species ‘haven’

Many call it the “dead zone”, a tragic reminder of a frozen conflict where bullet-riddled buildings crumble back into the dust. Yet it is far from empty. Farmers with permits can enter, while United Nations peacekeepers patrol the line, monitoring soldiers, watching for smugglers or for refugees hoping to cross.  But it has also become a “haven” for rare plants and animals, a “wildlife corridor” linking otherwise fragmented environments right across the island, said ecologist Iris Charalambidou, from the University of Nicosia. “It’s an area where species can escape intensive human activity,” Charalambidou said, noting that there were some 200-300 mouflon in the Variseia area alone, a tenth of the estimated 3,000 population.

“These are areas where biodiversity flourishes... core populations of species that, when populations become larger, disperse to other areas.” Warily watching the rare human visitors, a pair of mouflon peer through an overgrown olive grove, turning tail long before wildlife experts-accompanied by Argentinian troops of the United Nations peacekeeping force-come close. The mouflon, a national symbol once hunted to the brink of extinction, is not the only species thriving here. Charalambidou said there were also threatened plants including orchids as well as rare reptiles and endangered mammals such as the Cyprus spiny mouse.

The experts said it shows how an embattled environment can recover if given a chance. “When human activity is not so intense in a certain area, you see that nature recovers,” said Charalambidou, a Greek Cypriot from the government-controlled south of the island. Gucel echoes her comments. —AFP