Agricultural Heritage Landscapes of Greece: Three Case Studies and Strategic Steps towards Their Acknowledgement, Conservation and Management (original) (raw)
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Landscape Research, 2010
Landscapes are made from different components and elements, some of which are characterized through their presence and patterns. The assessment of this character is performed via the identification of landscape characteristics. For agricultural landscapes, such characteristics can be natural elements or elements of farming systems. Their preservation can be of great importance in Europe today, and agri-environmental measures have been used towards this goal. One such characteristic in Greece is cultivation terraces, today widely neglected, as the cultivations they supported are abandoned or modernized. This paper discusses the effectiveness of an agri-environmental policy measure for the reconstruction of cultivation terraces in Greece, with regard to existing practices of farmers. A picture for the whole country is presented and farmers' practices are discussed with greater detail through research with farmers that have been supported on the island of Lesvos. Findings from Lesvos reveal that only part-time and ‘hobby’ farmers have participated and that they acknowledge the productive, conservation and symbolic value of terraces. In this context, although these farmers are actively farming the fields, terraces appear to have lost their original functional role in agricultural production and they are mainly maintained as a decorative element of the form of the landscape by farmers who can afford such concerns.
Environmental Science & Policy, 2006
2 The former refer to months or years and include land use changes, management practices changes, fires and other natural disasters, etc.; the later refer to decades and centuries and include erosion and deposition, population change, technology changes, etc. . 3 Economic factors may include land value, products, industry, imports-exports, etc.; political can include local power structures, ownership and inheritance patterns, etc.; cultural may include tradition, local values, etc.; and social may include social organization, age structure, population change, etc. 4 This list of references is far from exhausting and Mediterranean oriented. 5 With the exception of some reliable population estimates like the ones offered by Houliarakis , and . 6 The sample included 304 farmers stratified according to landscape zone (see next section) and age. In each strata, selection was random according to the spatial distribution of farms from the 1991 farm census. Questions included land use, landscape features abundance on farms and management practices. For more details see .
The Status of Arable Plant Habitats in Greece – The Cradle of Arable Farming in Europe
2020
Nowhere in Europe had agriculture been practiced earlier than in Greece. In the Thessalian lowlands as well as in other fertile plains of the mainland and the Aegean Islands, Neolithic agriculture developed more than 8000 years ago. This long history of agriculture, in conjunction with an often relatively low level of cultivation intensity in cereal production, is reflected in a high species diversity and abundance of arable plants that includes rarities of the East Mediterranean and even regional endemics. However, since about the 1980s agricultural intensification has increased rapidly in Greece and the cropland area under traditional management has been declining. This development has been associated with a dramatic decline in arable plant populations especially on the plains, the focus areas of agriculture. Unfortunately, the arable flora in the Eastern Mediterranean region is, even more than in Central Europe, a largely neglected issue, a 'Cinderella of nature conservation' and there are far too few in-depth investigations of the local variation and hot spots of phytodiversity. To date there are hardly any conservation measures in traditional low-intensity agro-ecosystems. To safeguard the unique arable flora of Greece we suggest mandatory remuneration of traditional farming methods by implementation of performance-linked agri-environment schemes (AES) at the national and European Union level.
Environmental Management, 2008
Agricultural landscapes illustrate the impact of human actions on physical settings, and differential human pressures cause these landscapes to change with time. Our study explored changes in the terraced landscapes of Nisyros Island, Greece, focusing on the socioeconomic aspects during two time periods using field data, cadastral research, local documents, and published literature, as well as surveys of the islanders. Population increases during the late 19th to early 20th centuries marked a significant escalation of terrace and dry stone wall construction, which facilitated cultivation on 58.4% of the island. By the mid-20th century, the economic collapse of agricultural activities and consequent emigration caused the abandonment of cultivated land and traditional management practices, dramatically reducing farm and field numbers. Terrace abandonment continued in recent decades, with increased livestock grazing becoming the main land management tool; as a result, both farm and pasture sizes increased. Neglect and changing land use has led to deterioration and destruction of many terraces on the island. We discuss the socioeconomic and political backgrounds responsible for the land-use change before World War II (annexation of Nisyros Island by the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Greece; overseas migration opportunities; and world transportation changes) and after the war (social changes in peasant societies; worldwide changes in agricultural production practices). The adverse landscape changes documented for Nisyros Island appear to be inevitable for modern Mediterranean rural societies, including those on other islands in this region. The island’s unique terraced landscapes may qualify Nisyros to become an archive or repository of old agricultural management techniques to be used by future generations and a living resource for sustainable management.
Biodiversity Conservation and Agricultural Terraces: A Case Study on the Island of Kythira (Greece)
Third International Scientific Conference ITEMA Recent Advances in Information Technology, Tourism, Economics, Management and Agriculture, 2019
Agricultural terraces and terrace walls are a conspicuous feature of the Mediterranean landscapes. The aim of the study is the contribution of agricultural terraces and terrace walls in the biodiversity conservation of the Kythira island. Analysis of the literature from the main academic resources databases and personal interview surveys indicate that agricultural terraces and terrace walls provide various goods and services, which are vital, and they are potential and interesting resources for the development of this area. It is noteworthy that agricultural terraces and terrace walls are an important habitat for biodiversity. Consequently, these landscape elements should be preserved and exploited as favor the components of biodiversity which are the source of our food and medicines, fibers, fuels and industrial products. The direct uses of the components of biodiversity contribute substantially to the economy and tourism development.
Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, 2011
Agricultural landscapes are valued with different sets of criteria by different actors and stakeholders, including farmers, whose opinions and attitudes can vary greatly. In this paper, farmers' attitudes and opinions towards small scale landscape change in different areas of Greece (Koropi, Zagori and Lesvos) are presented. The areas are very different in terms of landscape and the driving forces of landscape change, with intense urban sprawl in Koropi urbanization in Mytilini and abandonment in Kentriko Zagori. The comparison of the attitudes, the evaluations and justifications farmers offer for landscape change is used to understand the dynamics of this change. Findings indicate that although common threads run through all the cases, conflicts between the different roles are evident and the attitudes reveal an antithesis between deep attachment to the land and farming traditions on the one hand and market pressures on the other, with important implications for rural and land use policies that have to encourage a better balance between these different roles.
Space, pressures and the management of the Greek landscape
ABSTRACT Landscapes are the result of the interaction of natural and human factors, with many dimensions; they are part of natural and cultural heritage and an important component of the quality of life. Greece has heterogeneous and mixed landscapes issuing from both geomorphology and the impact of complex human systems. Despite the existence of many and early legislative efforts, Greece has a relatively poor history of spatial planning and landscape has been particularly neglected. The adoption of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) in 2010 provides an updated strategic context for integrating landscape in spatial planning. In this article, we seek to contribute to the discussion of landscape policies and the inclusion of the landscape level in the spatial planning national framework. We identify the dominant landscape types by categorizing landscapes at the national scale with reference to the (combined) presence of three different components: geomorphology, land cover and coasts/islands. Then, we investigate the most important processes of change for each type and link these processes with spatial planning policy. The identification of these dynamics sheds light on current and future trajectories of the changes of Greek landscapes, thus providing challenges for its management in the context of the ELC. The case study concerns the regional level; we focus on Attica, Thessaly, Epirus and the Cyclades and identify the principal characteristics according to the proposed landscape typology.
Land
A cultural landscape is a complex and integrating concept with both material–physical and immaterial substance. Nevertheless, even today, the strategies for the protection and promotion of cultural landscapes are concentrated only at their material cultural elements, separated from their immaterial existence, or even from the natural environment in which they are placed. This study investigates the correlation of the tangible historical and natural heritage of a cultural landscape with its intangible content, as a spatial planning tool for its sustainable development. The proposed methodology was applied in the region of the Mani Peninsula, located in the southern Peloponnese, in Greece. During the documentation stage, literature research and fieldwork provided descriptive information, which was classified through standardization processes. GIS management and analysis procedures were used among the different layers of data of the current preservation state and the existing developme...
Arable land and habitat diversity in Natura 2000 sites in Greece
Journal of Biological …, 2008
Agriculture is the dominant land use in Europe, with direct consequences for biodiversity. In the European Union, the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) focuses conservation efforts on the preservation of habitats. In order to elucidate the impact of agriculture on habitat diversity, we examined the effects of agricultural area and spatial configuration on the diversity of habitats of the sites proposed to be included in the Greek Natura 2000 network. The extent and fragmentation of agricultural land in a site had a weak effect on the diversity of habitats in the surrounding landscape. This effect was more significant in the case of freshwater habitats in lake ecosystems and even then, freshwater habitat diversity was positively correlated with agricultural area. Sites with high habitat richness of grasslands and/or with huge extent of grasslands were characterized by limited agricultural area. The diversity of habitat types designated as conservation priorities was not correlated with the spatial configuration of agriculture. The effect of agriculture on habitat diversity in sites undergoing agricultural decline and abandonment was different from the one in sites with more constant agricultural land use. In our study sites, agricultural practices do not diminish the potential of a site to host a diverse array of habitats, even those of conservation priority. In sites with a historic record of agricultural practices (e.g. around lakes), agriculture is not negatively related to landscape habitat diversity and so conservation efforts should not necessarily rely on agriculture restriction.