Selection Criteria
The selection and assessment of the most important natural areas are based on criteria emphasizing biological significance, ecological integrity, and proximity of areas to contiguous wildlands. These factors are considered important for the long-term viability of ecosystems and wildlife populations.More specifically, the following, widely-accepted criteria were used to assess areas for inclusion in this map and inventory.
BIODIVERSITY - species richness and ecosystem variability; biogeographic coverage of representative natural ecosystems
RARITY - occurrence of plant and/or animal species with restricted distribution or numbers; i.e., highly specialized species or species with a very localized distribution, including endemic species
WILDERNESS QUALITY - relative remoteness from settlements, difficulty of access, and the relative biophysical naturalness and aesthetic primitiveness of the area (naturalness refers to a low degree of ecosystem modification by human pressures)
EXTENT OF NATURAL HABITAT- relative size of remaining natural ecosystems; the larger the better
VULNERABILITY - degree of immediate threat to sensitive environmental attributes by human activities
WHY MAP? PURPOSE - METHODOLOGY - LIMITATIONS
Today, only a small fraction of the Greek landscape remains in a completely natural state. Fortunately, due to Greece's rugged topography, fragile remnants of important wildlife habitat still exist in isolated parts of the country. These natural and semi-natural remnants form a living patchwork which protects the most sensitive and rarest elements of Greece's natural heritage. Without these wild places, Greece's unique ecological wealth, and the spirit of its landscape, will be diminished forever. The public needs to know where the most important natural areas are so that they can appreciate and preserve them.
This is the first popularized map of the wild nature remaining in Greece. It shows the regions that support the most outstanding natural and semi-natural areas in the country. Sadly, although Greece is the birthplace of western civilization's first ecologists -- Theophrastus, Aristotle, and others - only a very small number of Greeks today study their natural environment. As a consequence of this, the public has remained largely uninformed about natural areas in Greece.
Many natural areas in Greece are still insufficiently inventoried or surveyed by modern ecologists. In view of the insufficient information about many relatively remote natural areas, this mapping project must be considered preliminary and dynamic, to be modified when more information becomes available and as conditions change.
Methodology
A holistic, biogeographical perspective was used to delineate the natural areas for this map and inventory. Several known sites of outstanding ecological significance were often combined where they possessed obvious biogeophysical interrelationships and were in close proximity. This was done to avoid the error of fragmenting areas having ecological connectedness. The areas delineated cover entire landscapes instead of isolated and fragmented specific natural sites, concurring with most ecologists' view that a bioregional landscape approach is the best way to delineate and conserve natural ecosystems.
The key determinants in delineating the areas' boundaries were: general vegetational cover, bioclimatic patterns, and distribution ranges of large wildlife and rare plant communities. In nature, sharply-defined boundaries do not exist, so the delineations are approximations useful for conservation management.
The areas outlined may contain some culturally modified ecosystems, areas with limited degradation, and small rural-based human population centres. But overall, these areas largely maintain a natural ecological character, with major regions dominated by natural vegetation, unmodified geological structures, and natural processes.
Room for Improvement
Three main limitations of this map/inventory are:
- a) Smaller natural areas isolated from contiguous wild areas are not adequately represented on the map, with the
exception of small wetlands. It was not possible to consistently delineate remnant natural areas on this small scale
map, especially on the islands, where natural ecosystems are very small and fragmented.
- b) Crucial dispersal corridors and buffers between important natural areas are not documented adequately.
These corridors of semi-natural habitat are often vital to the maintenance of biotic communities within fragmented
natural areas.
- c) The map's small scale limits the accuracy of the boundaries delineated.
