A row has erupted in Cyprus after a community leader threatened to dig up the nests of protected turtles because his village is missing out on land development compensation.

On Thursday the authorities said his "inexcusable" threat would undo decades of conservation efforts if it went ahead.

Yiangos Tsivikos, leader of the Ineia community in the Akamas region in the west of the Mediterranean island, posted a video on YouTube on Wednesday saying he would dig up turtle nests on the nearby Lara beach.

He claimed that nest markings there were fake, and called on the agriculture minister and media to go to Lara beach on Sunday to watch him dig up the nests.

"Residents are ready for war," Tsivikos said.

The fisheries department warned Akamas residents that Cyprus sea turtles and their eggs have been protected by law since 1971.

Conservationists estimate the number of turtle nests in Lara at around 2,000 in 2021. Lara is a habitat of enormous ecological importance for both loggerhead and green sea turtles.

Akamas residents have been protesting over the government's Akamas development plan which they claim prevents them from commercially exploiting their land.

Environmentalists also oppose the plan, saying it endangers the eastern Mediterranean island's nature reserve, home to unique fauna and endangered species.

Ineia residents say that while the other villages will receive compensation under the plan, they will not.

Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis conceded on Wednesday that the community of Ineia and landowners in the area were most affected by the plan.

"Akamas should be preserved, but on the other hand, the area's residents should not suffer," he added.

Protection of the turtles' habitat, the Lara-Toxeftra Akamas area, was secured in 1989.

"Sea turtles are included in the Barcelona Convention for specially protected areas, and biological diversity of the Mediterranean ratified by Cyprus in 2001," the fisheries department said.

"They are also protected by the EU Habitats Directive, transferred into national legislation in 2003," it said, adding that actions to destroy or try to destroy turtle nests or eggs are prohibited.

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