Nature parks in Cyprus, from the Troodos forests to Akamas

When I think of nature in Cyprus, I think of forest first, and that’s no accident. The island has large national forest parks and a set of reserves within Natura 2000, the European network of protected sites. I sort them here using what each district’s tourism board publishes, which is the official source I have to hand.

Troodos National Forest Park

This is the best known. Limassol Tourism gives it 9,147 hectares around Olympus, from the summit of Chionistra down to 700 metres in Moni forest, and presents it as a place for walking, skiing, cycling, camping and picnics. It counts some 750 plant species, 12 of them unique to the park, and protected wildlife including the griffon vulture, Bonelli’s eagle, the Cyprus warbler, the Cyprus pied wheatear and the scops owl. The mouflon lives in the wider area. The board also points to its geology, an ophiolite formed in oceanic crust about 90 million years ago, visible from many trails and explained at the Troodos Geopark.

Within the mountains there are five nature reserves covering 1,408 hectares, all in Natura 2000. They are Chionistra, with black pine and Cyprus crocus, the presidential summer residence, Livadi tou Pashia, with meadows that flood in winter, Pikromiloudi, towards the Solea valley, and Madari, where you can walk the Madari ridge trail.

Machairas and Athalassa, near Nicosia

Machairas park, in Pitsilia, holds more than 600 plant species, 27 of them endemic, with Calabrian pine and golden oak. Limassol Tourism notes that the Pediaios and the Yialias, the island’s two main rivers, rise there, and the Nicosia Tourism Board puts it about 25 km from the capital. Beside it stands Machairas Monastery. Closer still, Athalassa covers 840 hectares south-east of Nicosia, with a lake of swans and ducks, a bird hide and about 20 km of paths.

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The west and the south

The Paphos tourism website describes Paphos forest as one of the largest reserves on the island, with over 20,000 hectares of pine and cedar and a refuge for the mouflon. In Akamas, the Aphrodite and Smigies trails and Avakas Gorge show a different landscape of limestone and coast. South of Limassol, the Akrotiri peninsula is in Natura 2000, and the Limassol board has opened an ecological trail with QR codes between the salt lakes and the environmental centre. In the west, Cedar Valley shelters the island’s endemic cedar, and in the south, Akrotiri salt lake is the peninsula’s great wetland.

Under water

The Larnaka board also counts a marine protected area at Voroklini, where ships were sunk to create artificial reefs. I cover it in diving in Cyprus.

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How I’d visit them

For me, Troodos deserves at least two days, with the routes in hiking in Cyprus and the waterfalls in Cyprus. The same rule applies in all of them, no fires outside designated barbecue areas, and between April and October the wildfire risk is high. From the west, the easiest way into Cedar Valley is via Lysos.

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