Acceleration and Relocation of Abandonment in a Mediterranean Mountainous Landscape: Drivers, Consequences, and Management Implications

Diogenis A. Kiziridis, Anna Mastrogianni, Magdalini Pleniou, Elpida Karadimou, Spyros Tsiftsis, Fotios Xystrakis and Ioannis Tsiripidis
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Diogenis A. Kiziridis: Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Anna Mastrogianni: Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Magdalini Pleniou: Forest Research Institute, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation “Demeter”, 57006 Vassilika, Thessaloniki, Greece
Elpida Karadimou: Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Spyros Tsiftsis: Department of Forest and Natural Environment Sciences, International Hellenic University, 66132 Drama, Greece
Fotios Xystrakis: Forest Research Institute, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation “Demeter”, 57006 Vassilika, Thessaloniki, Greece
Ioannis Tsiripidis: Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: Land abandonment in European mountains threatens habitats shaped for centuries by low-intensity agriculture and grazing. Hence, it is important to identify spatiotemporal patterns in rural abandonment, and relate them to biophysical and socioeconomic drivers. We pursued these goals in the theoretical context of transitions from traditional to productivist and then to post-productivist agriculture. We conducted a case study in a representative of southern Europe sub-mountainous marginal area that was once traditionally exploited (Pindus range, Epirus, Greece). Land cover was mapped from the outset of abandonment (years 1945, 1970, 1996 and 2015), and we subsequently calculated landscape metrics. An Intensity Analysis facilitated the comparison of rates of land cover change between time periods. By employing random forest modelling, we related socioeconomic, physiographic, geological and climatic predictors to land type occurrence and succession intensity. We found that farmland decreased from 30% to 3% during the 70 years of the study period, and that forest increased from 22% to 63%. The landscape’s heterogeneity, ecotone diversity, and spatial aggregation decreased. Abandonment and succession accelerated and relocated to lower elevation, especially during the latest time period, which was related to a second depopulation wave and livestock decrease. The remaining lowland farmlands were of productivist agriculture, and no widespread post-productivist regime was found. Thus, our study supports the view that policies, which have been mainly based on the linear transition of agricultural regimes in northern Europe, must take into account southern European mountains, where widespread abandonment can coexist with limited intensification and extensification.

Keywords: cropland; pastureland; scrubland; shrubland; woody encroachment; rewilding; transhumance; livestock; urbanization; intensification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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