Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
regenerated massively due to the cessation of grazing and tree felling (Motta
et al.,
2006).
In southern Italy, the abandonment of both cultivated areas and forest lands in the
mountains resulted in the concurrent urbanization and intensification of agriculture
in the lowlands and coastal regions between 1959 and 1984. In the Amalfi peninsula
of the west coast as well as in the Molise region of the east coast, forest cover greatly
increased between 1954 and 1974 (Mazzoleni
et al.,
2004a). In the Molise region,
transhumance of sheep and goats was an important activity in the past but over
recent decades it has dramatically reduced (Mazzoleni
et al.,
2004a; Susmel
et al.,
2004). In contrast, no significant land use changes occurred in the Iblei mountains
of Sicily between 1856 and 1990 suggesting that the landscape remained relatively
stable over this period (Di Pasquale
et al.,
2004).
8.4.6 Greece
Recent land use changes in the Greek mountains were initiated in the 1950s and
especially in the 1960s when the rural population, mainly its active members, started
to emigrate to the urban centres and abroad. Between 1961 and 2000, arable land
in the mountains was reduced by 27% (Papanastasis, 2007). For livestock grazing,
there was a decline of transhumance. Numbers of sheep and goats, the animals that
traditionally underwent this ancient practice, sharply decreased (by 40%) between
1961 and 1971, as the ethnic groups involved (e.g. the Saracatsani and Vlachs)
became permanently settled in the lowlands (Ispikoudis
et al.,
2004).
In the Portaikos-Pertouli valley of the central Pindos mountains, stretching be-
tween 200 and 2060 m asl, a diachronic study of land use changes based on aerial
photographs taken between 1945 and 1992 has shown considerable transformation,
with an impressive decrease in arable lands, grasslands and very open shrublands
and forests corresponding to an equally impressive increase in abandoned agricul-
tural land and open and dense shrublands with forests (Table 8.1). Meanwhile, the
active population of the mountain villages decreased by 32% and the number of
sheep and goats fell by 18% between 1961 and 1991 (Chouvardas, 2001). Simi-
lar changes were also found in the Tymfi mountains of western Greece (Epirus)
between 1945 and 1995, occurring especially between 1969 and 1995 (Zomeni
et al.,
2008).
In the Lefka Ori of Crete, not only arable lands but also shrublands such as phry-
gana, garrigue and maquis declined in favour of coniferous forests, which expanded
and became denser. Specifically, coniferous forests consisting of brutia pine (
Pi-
nus brutia
) and cypress (
Cupressus sempervirens
) increased both in size and den-
sity between 1945 and 1989 (Papanastasis and Kazaklis, 1998). In the meantime,
the human population decreased while sheep and goat numbers increased between
1961 and 1991 (Lyrintzis
et al.,
1998). The Psiloritis mountain of Crete, in contrast,
saw a decrease in dense shrubland and forests between 1961 and 1989 in favour
of grasslands and especially the very open and open shrublands (Table 8.2). In the
