Cyprus: Greening in the Dead Zone

Abstract

The Green Line Buffer Zone that has divided the island of Cyprus since 1974 is often referred to as the Dead Zone. It is not a line, but a swathe of land that acts as a buffer between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. Patrolled by the United Nations, it is a ‘thick border’ according to the categories of borders described by Michel Butor, ‘a corridor of death, desolation and barbed wire’ (which) holds the possibility of softening to ‘become the very image of the crossing of frontiers’ (Butor et al. 1989). Similar to other military enclaves, the Buffer Zone is trapped in a status quo that has frozen the development and exploitation of the land, allowing unexpected natures to flourish. This has resulted in the softening of the deadly rift through a rich landscape of biodiversity that hosts a number of endangered species in Cyprus. The preservation of this precious flora and fauna, as well as associated ecological and cultural initiatives, offer a building block for collaboration between the communities on both sides of the dividing line and an opportunity for new narratives and strategies of reconciliation based on a common, sustainable future. This chapter describes a project being developed by the author to make the ‘Green Line greener’, envisioning the transformation of the military fault line into an ecological seam through the web of environmental and cultural initiatives that are taking place across the Green Line.

As part of a research project with the Harvard Program on Conflict Research based on her PhD dissertation, Anna Grichting developed a plan for greening of the dividing line between Greek and Turkish Cyprus. The site of intense fighting during the 1970s, this former red zone has become a dead zone for humans but a green zone for biodiversity. Grichting proposes a vision for the future whereby cooperation in conserving biodiversity and other natural and cultural resources becomes a means for reconnecting the Greek and Turkish communities.

Introduction

At its maximum of defiance, the frontier doubles itself inevitably into two lines, each turned toward the exterior, but which must also protect the interior against the threat not only of the other but also of this intermediary interstitial region, the no-man’s land, this geographical expression of misunderstanding, of rift, at first a corridor of death, desolation, and barbed wire, but which can sometimes soften and become the very image of the crossing of frontiers when that finally begins to occur (Butor et al. 1989).

The Green Line that divides the island of Cyprus is often referred to as the Dead Zone. Crossing the island from east to west for a length of 180 km, it is not a line, but a swathe of land that acts as a buffer between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. Patrolled by the United Nations, this ‘thick border’ can be described as a ‘corridor of death, desolation and barbed wire’ – yet it can also be viewed as a space that holds the possibility of softening to ‘become the very image of the crossing of frontiers’ (Butor et al. 1989). The linear military enclave is imprisoned between the de-facto ceasefire lines that define the two territories according to the agreement that came into effect on 16 August 1974, putting an end to the fighting that opposed the two communities. While the area is highly militarized, it is not considered a hot conflict zone or an insecure, hostile red zone (see Tidball and Krasny, Chap. 1, this volume). It is more often described as a Dead Zone, where villages, agricultural fields and infrastructures like the Nicosia Airport, have been damaged, destroyed or abandoned, and where the United Nations Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP), who control and patrol the Buffer Zone, are mainly engaged in preserving the status quo – that is, in ensuring that the cease fire lines are respected and that nothing is moved or removed. Albeit, Nature does not recognize nor respect the status quo and while man-made structures have been frozen in time, wildlife and spontaneous vegetation have flourished in this No-Man’s land, taking advantage of the lack of human interference and activities. The result is a softening of the deadly rift through a rich landscape of biodiversity that offers a haven for a number of endangered species in Cyprus. The frozen status quo and the inertia of the Cyprus Problem are also resisted by Cypriots on both sides. They have been collaborating across the border on cultural, social and environmental issues, with the aim of building a sustainable and reunified future for Cyprus. Initiatives to preserve the precious flora and fauna of the Green Line, associated with similar cross-border ecological and cultural projects, are foundations for constructive collaboration between the communities on both sides of the dividing line. These initiatives open the way for new narratives and strategies of reconciliation based on a common and shared sustainable future (Fig. 33.1).

This chapter describes a project being developed by the author to make the ‘Green Line Greener’, which envisions the transformation of the military fault line into an ecological seam through the web of environmental and cultural initiatives that are taking place across the Green Line. Situated between the lines, this project is intended as a means to cross the chasm between the torn Cypriot societies. The conceptualization of a sustainable spatial plan for the future development of the Green Line was developed through an applied research project by the author that resulted in a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University (Grichting 2008). The project was first presented to governmental and non-governmental organizations and various stakeholders in Cyprus in July 2006 (Grichting 2006) under the Harvard Program on Conflict Research and has been communicated at a number of conferences in Cyprus and worldwide. The project is now being developed in collaboration with Friends of Nature Cyprus (FoN), a bi-communal NGO working on the environment, as well as with the German-Cypriot Forum (DZF), a platform for dialogue that supports the rapprochement process between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.

Fig. 33.1

The Dead Zone of Cyprus. Frozen architecture and flourishing nature. A Greek checkpoint along the United Nations Buffer Zone near Nicosia (Photo: Anna Grichting)

PeaceBuilding and Environmental Cooperation

Environmental threats that ignore political boundaries, such as water scarcity and loss of biodiversity, are often the cause of tension between nations and the source of territorial dispute. Recent developments in research and policy are beginning to view these environmental challenges as opportunities for cooperation and peace building. Likewise, the unexpected natural developments that emerge in the confined areas of boundaries and military buffer zones are being recognized as unique reserves of biodiversity, as backbones for sustainable development and as potential catalysts for peace. Environmental planning that unites the natural and social sciences therefore has an important contribution to make to peacebuilding – where resource scarcity and environmental protection can in fact be catalysts for resolving otherwise intractable disputes (Ali 2003). A shared vital resource can become the keystone for building bridges between parties who would otherwise not sit at the same table (Halle et al. 2002). Environmental cooperation can enhance trust, establish habits of cooperation, forge cooperative trans-societal linkages, and create shared regional norms and identities (Conca et al. 2005). Civil society is an essential, yet underutilized component in environmental peacemaking and if peace is to be achieved, it must be between societies as well as governments. A successful and sustainable peace strategy should therefore be achieved through both intergovernmental as well as inter-societal pathways, engaging a broad community of stakeholders by combining environment, development and peace-related concerns (Conca et al. 2005). Nevertheless, we must be aware of the possible collision of the rights of local communities with the interests of nature preservation, and the risk of the weakening of local resource claimants against the strengthening of state control over the resources (Peluso 2004). Any project that aspires to build sustainable peace and preserve nature, such as the project for the Green Line of Cyprus presented here, needs to identify and anticipate possible sources of conflict that may arise in the planning and peace process.

Green Lines and Unexpected Natures: The Boundary in Movement

In areas of conflict, a Green Line is used to designate a military dividing line or provisional demarcation line that separates the warring territories. The first reference to a Green Line can be traced to a defense line of the German Army in Italy during World War II, which ran along the summits of the Apennine Mountains. Several years later, in 1949, the armistice line between Israel and the Arab nations was designated as the Green Line, as was the disputed border between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch marshlands, which open up into the Arabian Sea. During the period of the civil war in Lebanon (1975–1990), Beirut was separated by a strip of derelict land that formed between the front lines of the Christian East and Moslem West, which became known as the Green Line. In Cyprus, the Green Line was first established in Nicosia in 1963, extending across the island in 1974, as a result of the military coup by the Greek Junta and a responding intervention by the Turkish Army.

The military origins of the designation Green Line remain vague. While the Israeli and Cypriot Green Lines have been attributed to the green pencil markings drafted on a map, Beirut’s Green Line is said to be the result of the spontaneous vegetation that developed during the years of the conflict between the militias’ front lines. It is precisely this wild growth within the boundary that is of interest to us, the resilient Nature that softens the thick frontier, the boundary in movement which can engender a crossing of the frontier (Butor et al. 1989) becoming a catalyst to deconstruct the mental and physical walls that entrench the communities on both sides. The Boundary in Movement (a neologism of the author) is inspired by the Garden in Movement – a landscaping strategy developed by the French horticultural engineer and landscape architect, Gilles Clément – which accommodates and orchestrates these spontaneous natures, extracting or enhancing certain species to create an evolving landscape shaped by the historical, cultural and ecological conditions surrounding the site. In contemporary questions of landscape, these dynamic or unexpected natures have become increasingly recognized for their ecological value and for their contribution to the preservation of biodiversity. Clément describes these marginal sites and neglected areas abandoned to nature as Third Landscapes – as the undecided pieces of the Global garden where biodiversity thrives and as the earth’s genetic reservoir. These refuges for ecological diversity are lying fallow waiting for new programs, political decisions or – in the case of the Cyprus Green Line – a peace plan. In the interstices of time, of indecision, of status quos, they develop their own programs with nature, gaining new ecological value.

The Dead Zone: From Military Fault Line to Ecological Seam

The Green Line of Cyprus is commonly called the Buffer Zone, no-man’s land, or the Attila Line. It is referred to by locals as the Dead Zone – a name which evokes the many lives that were lost and the continuing perils of venturing into the Green Line unauthorized. The term also refers to the state of decay of the buildings and infrastructures lying within it. The United Nations Buffer Zone (UNBZ) – as it is officially referred to – varies in width from 3.5 m in the historic center of Nicosia to 5 km in the area surrounding the former airport, one of its widest sections. It delineates a border between the de jure Republic of Cyprus (which still defines the whole island as its territory) and the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey. Since 2004, the Green Line also marks the border of the European Union.

With its irregular form, the Green Line divides the capital city Nicosia, disrupting the perfect geometry of the Venetian fortifications, meandering along what was formerly the bed of the Pedios River before it was diverted around the city walls to create a moat. Linking a unique succession of sceneries, the Buffer Zone constitutes a cross-section of the different landscapes and ecologies of the island. From the deltas and sandy beaches of the East coast (Famagusta-Varosha), it connects with the rocky shores of the West coast (Kokkina enclave), passing through wetlands, fertile plains and hills, and abandoned copper mines, following the crests of mountain tops. It is traversed by many rivers that flow from the Troodos Mountains into the plains and connects with a patchwork of national forests and future Natura 2000 sites (Fig. 33.2).

Fig. 33.2

Map of the Green Line Buffer Zone (light green) with the state forests (dark green) and the location of the different landscapes and programs of the Green Line Vision Plan (Anna Grichting)

The Dead Zone is riddled with landmines and other negative forms of pollution. It holds deep in its soil the traumatic memories of the identified victims and the unidentified missing persons, encapsulating almost 50 years of communal strife. On a more positive note, this marginal landscape has been extracted from rampant developments and intensive agricultural exploitation, allowing Nature to flourish. Similarly, the Demilitarized Zone in Korea has been described by scientists and nature lovers as a Garden of Eden or a ready-made paradise park (Grichting 2009; Grichting and Kim, Chap. 15, this volume). This highly militarized, 4 km wide corridor that divides the Korean peninsula has become a lush landscape hosting a rich collection of endangered species of flora and fauna. The Iron Curtain, which once divided Europe and the World, was similarly a dehumanized strip of land, covered by sand and weed killer and it was only after the fall of the Wall that the process of recolonization by nature began (see Cramer, Chap. 34, this volume). The recognition of the death strip as a potential life line or ecological corridor running through Europe prompted environmental organizations and NGOs to initiate a project to conserve the Iron Curtain as a Green Belt running from the North to the South of Europe (IUCN).

In Cyprus, a polarized political and physical landscape still divides the Greek and Turkish communities and the (de-facto) Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continues to suffer from an economic and political embargo, despite incentives by the European Union to dis-enclave the Turkish Cypriots in anticipation of a solution to the Cyprus problem. Since 2003, movement between the two communities has been permitted through five checkpoints along the Green Line. This opening of the boundary, accompanied by the continued efforts of the United Nations as well as several NGOs in Cyprus, has encouraged and facilitated environmental cooperation and peacebuilding initiatives on both sides, regardless of the political stalemate that followed the public refusal (in 2004) of the UN Annan Plan for a settlement of the Cyprus Problem.

Many NGOs and associations are building bridges across the Green Line. These include cultural organizations, such as the Bi-Communal Choir and the recently formed Bi-Communal Jazz Band; NGOs centered on questions of environmental preservation and sustainable development – focusing on water, biodiversity, renewable energies, and organic farming – which include Friends of Nature Cyprus, the Bi-Communal Cyprus Organic Advisory Group, Birdlife Cyprus, and the Cyprus Wind Association, to name but a few; as well as NGOs working on social issues of missing persons and historical dialogue. The positive developments that are occurring within, and across, this enclaved territory – this web of cooperative actions and initiatives – lay the foundations for the Vision Plan which proposes the Green Line as a backbone to reclaim a biologically and culturally diverse Cyprus.

Envisioning the Green Line as a catalyst for reconciliation articulated around environmental preservation and sustainable planning is posited as an alternative to the fractured landscapes and ruptured communities of Cyprus. It can serve as a catalyst that could help in shifting the focus from polarized territorial claims to the potentially unifying aims of protecting the environment, and to the building of a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable future. In order to implement this vision for the Green Line, it should be communicated to the Cypriot populations that, in the face of increasing environmental threats and diminishing resources, collaboration and planning across both communities, as well as with regional and global actors and organizations, is necessary. This vision will also need to be translated into a set of policies and planning instruments in a process that brings together all the stakeholders. It will be constructed through the interweaving of the matrix of collaborative approaches and the overlaying of the multiple landscapes emerging within the Green Line.

Landscapes of the Green Line

A Landscape of Biodiversity

The first scientific attempt to assess the flora and fauna of the Buffer Zone was undertaken in 2007 by a team of 14 scientists from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities funded by the US Agency for International Development. This study unearthed the existence of rare, endemic and vulnerable flora and fauna species, and confirmed the hypothesis (put forward by the author) that the Buffer Zone was a haven of biodiversity. It also provides information concerning locations of wildlife habitats and corridors that will be valuable in prioritizing conservation planning for key endemic or endangered species, and is a first step towards a more detailed mapping of the habitats in the Green Line, such as the habitat mapping that was undertaken in the German segment of the Iron Curtain Green Belt (Schlumprecht 2007).

Eight study sites were selected across the width of the buffer zone, covering different habitat types, including river, coastal, farmland, wetland, and forest. The findings include rare plants, hedgehogs, hares, foxes, an endemic mouse (Mus cypriaca), vulnerable bird species, and reptiles and amphibians such as the Mediterranean chameleon, the blunt nose viper and the green frog. Around 200–300 Cyprus mouflon were observed around the abandoned hillside village of Variseia. The mouflon is a wild sheep and a national symbol, which has been on the island for several thousand years. It was on the verge of extinction a decade ago and it is now believed that there are around 3,000 mouflons in the Buffer Zone (Gucel et al. 2007). More recently, another endangered species on the Red List, the Mediterranean monk seal, was spotted by Turkish soldiers in the areas where the Buffer Zone extends into the sea off Kokkina on the West Coast of the island. Kokkina was a place of intense confrontation between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities during the inter-communal struggle of 1963–1964 and is a therefore a key site for nature preservation, reconciliation and commemoration within the Green Line.

A Landscape of Memory and Forgiving

Our common pain is our common future (Uludag 2007).

There are numerous sites of memory along the Green Line, many of them painful memories of the ethnic clashes of the 1960s and 1970s. Abandoned cemeteries, ruined churches, centennial olive trees, individual memorials, collective monuments, traces and relics all articulate landscapes and sites of remembrance. Yet there are still people grieving on both sides for the hundreds of men, women and children who disappeared without a trace during the height of the conflict. According to UN data, more than 1,400 Greek Cypriots and 500 Turkish Cypriots are listed as missing and some 270 remains have been unearthed on both sides of the cease-fire line. While it may not be possible to locate all the missing persons and their graves, it is important that they be honored and remembered as this remembrance and grieving will help to heal the wounds between the two communities. Sevgul Uludag is a journalist and peace activist who founded the NGO Hands Across the Divide in 2001 to promote peace in Cyprus. Uludag has investigated the issue of missing people and mass graves in Cyprus, uncovering the fates of thousands of people who disappeared during Greek-Turkish clashes in the 1960s and 1970s from mass executions, abductions and targeted assassinations. Her work has allowed families to mourn and commemorate their dead, and it also reveals that both Greek and Turkish Cypriots saw themselves as the victims of the conflict, showing them that all Cypriots are both perpetuators and victims.

The families of the Missing on both sides are the walking wounded whose aching hearts and souls need to be comforted. This can only happen when we realize that there is still even more to lose by not embracing each other’s needs now, by not trying to forgive even if there are things that are so hard to forgive (Uludag 2007).

A Social and Cultural Landscape

A number of obsolete copper mines are located on either side of the Green Line near the West coast of the island – the Greek mines of Skouriotissa and the American owned Cyprus Mining Company and Lefka-Mavrovouni-Xeros area. These copper mines belong to the cultural history of Cyprus and it is said that the very name of the island derives from the Latin name for copper, Cyprium. The Skiouritissa Mine produced copper ore for more than 4,000 years. In Roman times, the mines were leased to King Herod. These mines also served as sites for acts of solidarity between Turkish and Greek Cypriot miners, who joined forces in their struggle for better wages and working conditions. A 4-month long strike occurred in 1948, in which the ‘unity, heroism, discipline and self-sacrifice of the miners (Greeks and Turks alike) and their families, wrote one of the greatest chapters in the history of the labor movement’ (Varnavas 1998). Today, the proposed remediation of these mines is a bi-communal project that will unite Turkish and Greek experts in a newly established ‘think-tank’, an initiative of the Laona Foundation for the Conservation and Regeneration of the Cypriot countryside (Laona 2009). The objective is to elaborate measures for sustainable site rehabilitation, as it affects past and future licensees of mines and quarries, as well as the legal/policy framework (Cilliers 2008; Fig. 33.3).

Fig. 33.3

Aerial view of the Skouriotissa and Lefke Copper Mines on either side of the Green Line (Photomontage: Anna Grichting)

A Landscape of Cooperation

The Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (ADHR) is recognized as an exemplar of how productive cooperation, creative ideas and respect can contribute to overcoming the divide. Since its foundation, the association has enlisted members from various ethnic, linguistic and professional backgrounds working in education in Cyprus. Its aim is to engage them in a productive dialogue on the pedagogies, uses, and abuses of history in relation to the conflict. The Association has not only created a network across the divide to transform the polarized histories and divided narratives of the conflict, but has also initiated a project to create a physical space – ‘A Home for Cooperation’ – to facilitate peacebuilding projects by civil society. The project is based on the conviction that the major obstacles faced by civil society in Cyprus are the limited infrastructure for multi-communal activities and the lack of skills in identifying and securing institutional support. The effort is supported by a number of international donors.

The building that will house the Association was constructed in the 1940s and will be renovated to host exhibitions, archives, research, training, and public events. Located in a symbolic space close to the Venetian Walls and opposite Ledra Palace – a former hotel built during colonial times, which is now used by the UN – it will act as a catalyst to reactivating an abandoned area of Nicosia’s Dead Zone. Over the years, Ledra Palace has become a space for many of the bi-communal meetings, including the numerous international talks aimed at finding a solution to the political situation. Before the opening of multiple checkpoints in 2003 and of the Ledra Street crossing in the heart of Nicosia in 2008, Ledra Palace checkpoint was the only crossing point in Nicosia reserved for pedestrians, UN personnel and diplomats.

Friends of Nature Cyprus (the Cypriot partners of the Green Line Vision project mentioned above) will be one of the tenants of the Home for Cooperation. Within the general concept to transform the Buffer Zone into a backbone for ecological planning in Cyprus – which includes preserving biodiversity, developing ecotourism and organic farming, addressing water issues and storm water management, and creating landscapes of memory for the victims and missing persons – it is also envisaged to create a Green Building Code for landscape, urban planning and constructions within the Buffer Zone. By applying these codes, the project for the rehabilitation of the building and surrounding landscape for the Home for Cooperation can become a catalyst for the implementation of the Green Line project. For example, a green roof could be combined with water-collecting devices and the building could further be adapted with water and energy saving devices as well as for showcasing and promoting different aspects of recycling. The surrounding landscape will be designed with plantings that become part of a healthy environment, requiring little water, fostering biodiversity, as well as providing shade for the public spaces. In this way, the area surrounding Ledra Palace could remain a site of unique historical importance for peacebuilding activities in the future, as well as becoming an incubator for the Green Line Vision project (Fig. 33.4).

Fig. 33.4

Map of the Walled City of Nicosia with the Venetian Walls and Green Line Buffer Zone, indicating the location of the Home for Cooperation and the Ledra Palace (Map: Anna Grichting)

The Nicosia Master Plan: A Precedent for Collaborative Planning and a Model for the Green Line Vision Plan

Verdant nature and endangered species offer one form of resilience to the negative effects of the division. Another form of resistance is provoked by the topography, that is, the natural slope of the terrain, which affects the flow of water and waste both over and underground. The free and fluid movement of water and sewerage, like nature itself, disregards the dividing line, coercing both sides to collaborate on the development and maintenance of these vital infrastructures, thereby creating a co-dependent system.

The Bi-Communal Nicosia Master Plan is a unique and award-winning example of collaborative planning in a divided city. It originated from a project to resolve the sewerage problem and evolved to become a plan for the rehabilitation of the walled city. The plan emerged from the realization that it was impossible to plan and intervene on the sewage network of the entire city without the technical cooperation of both sides. The Master Plan was initiated in 1979 by the two mayors of North and South Nicosia, Lellos Demetriades and Mustafa Akinci respectively, and was born from an ambition to overcome the politics of division despite the continuing difficulty of establishing formal relations between the administrations of both communities. With funding from the United Nations and the European Union, the plan evolved to include the renovation of public and religious buildings (mosques, churches, markets, caravanserais) and the rehabilitation of two neighborhoods situated along the Green Line – an Ottoman neighborhood in the Turkish sector and a traditional Greek neighborhood in the Greek sector – as well as the complete restoration of the Venetian Walls surrounding the city.

Peter Hocknell, in his analysis of the Nicosia Master Plan, concludes that in order to move forward with cooperative projects, it is important that they can be elaborated in spaces that are extracted from the dominant ideologies and dogmas of either side, in areas of common issues (Hocknell et al. 1991). Hocknell posits the concept of superordinate goals (put forward by Mazerfer Sherif in 1958) that are compelling and highly appealing to members of two or more groups in conflict, but cannot be attained by the resources and energies of the groups separately (Sherif 1958). Superordinate goals differ from common goals, in that common goals can be achieved unilaterally. Hocknell suggests that technical, environmental, or economic cooperation may further develop in Nicosia and envisions the potential for this cooperation to spill over into political peace.

Greening the Dead Zone: A Pathway to Reconciliation

The proposed Vision Plan for the Green Line addresses the current environmental challenges that face the island of Cyprus, which include water pollution, water scarcity, coastal degradation and loss of wildlife habitats, amongst other – all of which could be articulated as superordinate goals (as described above) and which, it is hoped, will also build bridges and pathways to sustainable peace. Our proposal – to make the Green Line Greener – engages multiple stakeholders and civil society, harnessing existing environmental and cultural initiatives that are emerging from the ground up, that is, from the natural resilience of the landscape as well as from a bottom-up collaborative process involving the communities on both sides. The project will also seek to remediate the negative developments in the boundary zone, which include landmines, abandoned structures and copper mines, and aspires to preserve the positive developments in the Buffer Zone, in particular in the preservation of endangered species. In doing so, it seeks to provoke a shift from the narratives of disputed land rights to common issues of preserving the environment, thereby acting as a catalyst for the reintegration of the divided communities. As a backbone for the reconstruction and reconciliation process, it could become an opportunity for innovative environmental landscape and urban design and offer sites for the establishment of new organizations and institutions that will participate in overcoming the psychological rift. Building on environmental regulations that are being enforced by the European Union, it could benefit from international funding aimed at encouraging sustainable practices and policies.

Conclusion

In view of the many competing and diverging territorial claims that continue to divide the Cypriot population, the feasibility of a proposal for an ecological corridor and landscape of memory along the Green Line may be questioned. The question of land ownership will be one of the major obstacles. It is necessary to develop policies and instruments to implement the plan and that anticipate a future solution. In the event of a reunification, the forces of real estate will rapidly engulf the parcels of the Green Line. Such policy instruments include an Ecological Survey and Habitat Mapping as well as a plan for future Land Use in the Green Line that will project the future ecological and commemorative activities. One of the strategies put forward for the Korean Demilitarized Zone in the event of a reunification is to freeze development over a period of time in order to conduct the necessary research and develop an appropriate plan. Amongst the tools of urban and environmental planning, eminent domain is an instrument of expropriation that can be applied to acquire land for public works and this would require that the environmental qualities of the Green Line be valued as a public good. Friends of the Earth Germany have recognized that land purchase is one of the best ways to protect habitats from destruction in the long run and they have started to buy unique habitats that can be bought from private owners through a system of Green Share Certificates. For example, to this day, around 280 ha of the German Green Belt have been purchased through Green Share Certificates by more than 10,000 people, who have become symbolic shareholders of the German Green Belt (IUCN).

Continued comparative research as well as international and local collaborations can bring the necessary knowledge and tools for the implementation of this project for the Greening of the Dead Zone. This red zone is envisioned as a boundary in movement, as a future landscape of memory in becoming. Today, the Green Line stills exists – as a rift of division and past traumas – and we are proposing a vision of its transformation into a corridor of biodiversity and a space of reconciliation. This process of visioning a new landscape of peace is seen as a contribution to the building of capacity, trust, and forgiveness, and as a green light for the future of this red zone of conflict, bringing new life to the Dead Zone of Cyprus (Fig. 33.5).

Fig. 33.5

Visions for the future of the Green Line. Nicosia Airport Solar City (Concept and Photomontage: Anna Grichting)