Cyprus

9 Municipalities had declared themselves GMO-free zones since 2005: Nicosia, Ayios Athanasios, Engomi, Larnaca, Germasogeia, Strovolos, Latsia, Ayios Dometios and Yermasoyia.  In addition, all Natura sites in Cyprus are GMO-free areas.  The Cyprus Communities Union issued a declaration advising its members to declare their territories to GMO-free areas, as the Cyprus Municipalities Union did in 2006.

On the 4th of December 2008 the Council of EU Environment Ministers took a very important decision in favor of small countries like Cyprus enabling them to be declared as a GMO free country. The Council indeed ‘’Points out that in accordance with Community Law, which includes the Precautionary Principle, regions with particular agronomical and environmental characteristics, including small isolated islands, may require different case-specific management or restrictions measures, including prohibition measures for GMO cultivation’’. This decision was made possible due to the efforts of the Cyprus Government and the lobby of FEO.

In 2008 FEO collected 78 226 signatures from Cypriot citizens to ban GMOs in Cyprus (Cyprus total population is 749,200).

Updated in June 2014: Information provided by Federation of Environmental Organizations of Cyprus (NGOs)