Cyprus participates through the AKTI Center for Studies and Research and the Municipality of Athens in the new European research program NURISH, to strengthen climate resilience and the sustainable development of rural areas and small urban communities in Europe, through natural, technological and circular solutions based on nature. The ambitious project is fully financed by Horizon Europe within the framework of the HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01 initiative, has a duration of 54 months and is implemented with the participation of 28 partners from 10 countries, under the coordination of the National Technical University of Athens.
AKTI is leading the creation of a Resilience Center in the Municipality of Athienou for the circular management of green waste through an innovative, economically viable and socially just solution. AKTI comes to provide a solution to the critical problems of desertification, the reduction of soil fertility and the management of prunings and manure, creating a complete co-composting system of agricultural/municipal prunings and animal manure in Athienou, turning them into high-quality and low-cost compost. The scheme will be co-managed by AKTI and the Municipality of Athienou, with the aim of improving the health, moisture and fertility of the soil, reducing CO₂ emissions from the transport of prunings, reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and creating new green jobs.
Although a semi-arid region, Athienou is an important agricultural center of Cyprus, producing 10% of the grain and 45% of the country's livestock products. However, a significant part of the island's agricultural soils contain less than 1% organic matter, when fertile soil should exceed 3%. At the same time, the region – like most rural areas in Cyprus – faces challenges in the management of municipal prunings, which accumulate in green areas, agricultural prunings, which are burned in the fields and manure piles from livestock facilities, which cause urban and environmental nuisance.
AKTI's approach is based on the Circular Symbiotic Green Waste Management Scheme, a model that connects waste producers, farmers and local government in rural and particularly remote areas, through a system of cooperation and common benefit. This circular system, originally developed by the Research-Consultants company Isotech Ltd and now implemented by AKTI adapted to the needs of the Municipality of Athens, introduces a social and technological innovation: farmers participate as "co-owners" of the system, providing their organic residues and receiving ready compost in return, reducing their costs and actively contributing to reducing the environmental footprint of the activity them. Through real data, ground measurements, the identification of local challenges and the co-formation of solutions, the model will be able to be replicated in other rural areas of Cyprus and Europe.
Over the next four years, the project will establish four Resilience Centres, in Cyprus, Greece, Finland and the UK, which will act as regional centers of knowledge and innovation. The Centers will work closely with local communities, farmers and policy makers to develop and implement practical solutions for climate change adaptation, circular agriculture, sustainable water management, biodiversity restoration and agricultural economic diversification.
The opening meeting of the program was recently held in Athens, bringing together all the partners, to define the cooperation framework and discuss the next steps for the implementation of the actions in each country. In Cyprus, AKTI and the Municipality of Athienou will proceed with the mapping of local stakeholders, the collection of data on the existing infrastructure and practices of green waste management, but also the preparation for the implementation of the Circular Symbiotic Green Waste Management Scheme in the Municipality of Athienou.
NURISH supports the EU's long-term vision of stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040, contributing to spatial cohesion, innovation, green job creation and skills development in the agricultural sector.
