Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Morocco
Algeria
Farmlands
Forest area
Tunisia
Italy
France
Spain
Portugal
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
%
Figure 8.7
Transformation of land uses in western Mediterranean countries between 1965 and
1976. Reproduced from Mazzoleni
et al.
(2004a), with permission
and Mendizabal, 1998. For the whole Mediterranean, di Castri (1998) reports that
the allocation of the total population of the countries bordering the Mediterranean
Sea was 66.7% in the north and 33.3% in the south in 1950, but by 1990 it had
become equal, and by 2025 it is projected to be 33.8% and 64.2% respectively, sug-
gesting the high potential growth in the southern Mediterranean. This is due to the
higher birth rate and the higher percentage of young people in the south compared
to the north.
The pressure that this high population growth rate exerts on the mountains of
the southern Mediterranean countries has led to intensification of land uses such as
arable farming, mainly with cereals, and livestock grazing. In contrast, the depopu-
lation of mountains in the northern Mediterranean countries has led to the extensi-
fication of land uses, such as mountain agriculture and livestock grazing, and land
abandonment. An intermediate or borderline case was recorded in the Iblei moun-
tains of Sicily where the landscape did not change for 100 years from 1897 due to
the lack of major social changes over the same period (Di Pasquale
et al.,
2004).
Also, the intensification of livestock husbandry on the Psilorites mountain of Crete
should be attributed to the lack of emigration of the rural people between 1961 and
1989 coupled by the increased numbers of sheep and goats due to EU subsidies
(Bankov, 1998).
On the other hand, the phenomenon of land abandonment is related not only to
social but also to economic factors. Agricultural land is abandoned when it ceases
to generate an income for its owner and the opportunities for adjustment of the farm
structure and practices are exhausted (MacDonald
et al.,
2000). In fact, mountain
lands are in general marginal due to their reduced soil fertility, remoteness from
settlements, steep slopes, high fragmentation and high labour requirements, which
limit their productivity and make their exploitation largely unprofitable. However,
even if arable lands in the mountains are profitable, their cultivation is suspended if
the owners are too old to continue cultivation, or they die, and no descendants are
