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Conservation policy under a roadless perspective: Minimizing fragmentation in Greece

Authors:

Abstract

Land use change poses as the top threat for biodiversity decline, and road sprawl as a key driver behind it globally. According to the recent Landscape Fragmentation Indicator (LFI), Greece is less fragmented than the rest of Europe but presents higher rates of fragmentation increase. We developed the Roadless Fragmentation Indicator (RFI) to monitor fragmentation in more natural ecosystems. The RFI calculates the percentage of land that is covered by roadless areas (RAs), defined as land patches over 1 km2 that are over 1 km away from the nearest road. We produced the roadless map of Greece, concluding to 1115 RAs ranked by size (1–256 km2) and to a national RFI of less than 5%. The RFI reflected naturalness, was significantly higher in the Natura 2000 network, and was more sensitive in less fragmented zones. Six mountains (0.51% of Greek land) have remained largely roadless (RAs ≥ 50 km2) and should be protected as such. We call for a straightforward roadlessness policy under a “European Roadless Rule” that would legally protect at least 2% of European land as road-free area. We also call for no further unjustified road sprawl in more natural and least fragmented ecosystems, as a measure to be integrated in all sectors of EU policy and particularly in the spatial planning of development projects. We recommend a five-step roadlessness guideline to be implemented in the European Union, including Greece, as a measure to effectively address biodiversity decline.
Biological Conservation 252 (2020) 108828
Available online 17 November 2020
0006-3207/© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Policy analysis
Conservation policy under a roadless perspective: Minimizing
fragmentation in Greece
Vassiliki Kati
a
,
*
, Christina Kassara
a
, Maria Psaralexi
b
, Olga Tzortzakaki
a
, Maria Petridou
a
,
b
,
Antonia Galani
b
, Monika T. Hoffmann
b
,
c
a
University of Ioannina, Department of Biological Applications & Technology, University Campus, Ioannina 45500, Greece
b
Pindos Perivallontiki Non-Prot Organization, Metsovou 12, Ioannina 4522, Greece
c
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Mickiewicza 33, 31-120 Krak´
ow, Poland
A R T I C L E I N F O
Original content: V. Kati, C. Kassara, M.
Psaralexi, O. Tzortzakaki, M. Petridou, A.
Galani, et al. The roadless map of Greece
Mendeley Data, v1 (2020), p. 1,
10.17632/s6zh89fb5c
Keywords:
Fragmentation
Mountains
Natura 2000
Policy
Roadless areas
Spatial planning
A B S T R A C T
Land use change poses as the top threat for biodiversity decline, and road sprawl as a key driver behind it
globally. According to the recent Landscape Fragmentation Indicator (LFI), Greece is less fragmented than the
rest of Europe but presents higher rates of fragmentation increase. We developed the Roadless Fragmentation
Indicator (RFI) to monitor fragmentation in more natural ecosystems. The RFI calculates the percentage of land
that is covered by roadless areas (RAs), dened as land patches over 1 km
2
that are over 1 km away from the
nearest road. We produced the roadless map of Greece, concluding to 1115 RAs ranked by size (1256 km
2
) and
to a national RFI of less than 5%. The RFI reected naturalness, was signicantly higher in the Natura 2000
network, and was more sensitive in less fragmented zones. Six mountains (0.51% of Greek land) have remained
largely roadless (RAs 50 km
2
) and should be protected as such. We call for a straightforward roadlessness
policy under a European Roadless Rulethat would legally protect at least 2% of European land as road-free
area. We also call for no further unjustied road sprawl in more natural and least fragmented ecosystems, as
a measure to be integrated in all sectors of EU policy and particularly in the spatial planning of development
projects. We recommend a ve-step roadlessness guideline to be implemented in the European Union, including
Greece, as a measure to effectively address biodiversity decline.
1. Introduction
We are experiencing the most critical era of human-induced biodi-
versity loss, altering the functioning of ecosystems and imperiling their
capacity to provide goods and services to human systems (Ceballos et al.,
2015; Díaz et al., 2019; Cardinale et al., 2012). Our progress to halt
global biodiversity decline and achieve the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets
is poor to moderate, compromising our ability to meet the relevant
Sustainable Development Goals as well (az et al., 2019). Land use
change, including habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, has been
recognized as the top threat for biodiversity loss in terrestrial ecosystems
globally, with at least 70% of the worlds land surface to be signicantly
altered (Díaz et al., 2019).
It is not by coincidence that the biodiversity crisis era happens at the
same time with the most explosive road sprawl in human history (Ibisch
et al., 2016; Laurance et al., 2014). With the length of paved roads
projected to increase at a magnitude of 1423% (Meijer et al., 2018) up
to 59% (Dulac, 2013) by the year 2050, road sprawl is a key driver
triggering or accelerating land use change and is an underlying threat to
biodiversity per se. On one hand, road infrastructure is recognized to
promote economic growth and human welfare: it encourages the pro-
liferation of new development projects, reduces transport cost, increases
gains in agricultural productivity, and delivers social benets, though
not always (Cigu et al., 2019; IPBES, 2019). On the other hand, besides
land use change, roads cause a suite of often irreversible negative effects
to ecosystem functioning (e.g. chemical pollution, hydrological disrup-
tion, soil erosion) and to species (e.g. wildlife vehicle collisions, over-
exploitation, alteration of gene ow, animal behavior change, noise
disturbance, facilitation of biological invasions) (Trombulak and Fris-
sell, 2000; Laurance et al., 2014; Ibisch et al., 2016). Such serious effects
are well-documented for the European biodiversity (Torres et al., 2016;
Garcˆ
es et al., 2020; Konstantopoulos et al., 2020) and evidence is also
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: vkati@uoi.gr (V. Kati), cristina.kassara@gmail.com (C. Kassara), mpsarale@gmail.com (M. Psaralexi), olgatzortz@gmail.com (O. Tzortzakaki),
petridoulc@gmail.com (M. Petridou), toniagalani@yahoo.gr (A. Galani), Monika.Hoffmann@hnee.de (M.T. Hoffmann).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Biological Conservation
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108828
Received 18 June 2020; Received in revised form 5 October 2020; Accepted 16 October 2020
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Greek abstract of PhD thesis entitled: "Wolf ecology and predation behavior: a conflict minimization strategy towards sustainable livestock breeding" (in english). Η παρούσα διατριβή εξετάζει τη σύγκρουση μεταξύ λύκου και ανθρώπου, η οποία προκύπτει κυρίως από τη θήρευση κτηνοτροφικών ζώων, αποτελώντας σημαντική απειλή τόσο για τη διατήρηση των λύκων όσο και για τον κλάδο της κτηνοτροφίας. Για να επιτευχθεί η βιώσιμη συνύπαρξη λύκου και ανθρώπου, απαιτείται πλήρης κατανόηση των οικολογικών και κοινωνικών παραγόντων που την επηρεάζουν. Η παρούσα διατριβή υιοθετεί μία διεπιστημονική προσέγγιση, διερευνώντας τις τροφικές συνήθειες των λύκων, τα χωροχρονικά του πρότυπα σε σχέση με τις ανθρώπινες δραστηριότητες, την επίδραση των κτηνοτροφικών πρακτικών στα επίπεδα θήρευσης από τον λύκο, καθώς και τις προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν οι κτηνοτρόφοι σε περιοχές με παρουσία λύκου. Στο παράπανω πλαίσιο, η διάρθωση της διατριβής είναι η ακόλουθη. Το Kεφάλαιο 1 παρέχει μια γενική εισαγωγή στο θέμα και τις κύριες έννοιες της διδακτορικής διατριβής. To Κεφάλαιο 2 εξετάζει τις τροφικές συνήθειες του λύκου σε μια περιοχή της Κεντρικής Ελλάδας, με έντονη ανθρωπογενή παρουσία. Ειδικότερα, αυτή η περιοχή χαρακτηρίζεται από υψηλή διαθεσιμότητα κτηνοτροφικών ζώων και περιορισμένους πληθυσμούς άγριων οπληφόρων. Το Κεφάλαιο 3 διερευνά, με τη χρήση αυτόματων υπέρυθρων καμερών, τα χωροχρονικά πρότυπα δραστηριότητας του λύκου, των κυριότερων άγριων θηραμάτων του, και άλλων σαρκοφάγων θηλαστικών στη Βορειοδυτική Ελλάδα. Παράλληλα εξετάζει τη σχέση αυτών των χωροχρονικών προτύπων με τις ανθρώπινες δραστηριότητες. Το Κεφάλαιο 4 εστιάζει στον ρόλο των κτηνοτροφικών πρακτικών στα επίπεδα θήρευσης από τον λύκο στη Βορειοδυτική Ελλάδα και παράλληλα παρουσιάζει μια επισκόπηση των τάσεων στις απώλειες που προκαλούνται από τον λύκο σε εθνικό επίπεδο. Το Κεφάλαιο 5 εξετάζει τις προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν οι κτηνοτρόφοι που δραστηριοποιούνται σε περιοχές στη Βορειοδυτική Ελλάδα με παρουσία λύκου. Επίσης, αξιολογεί τις απόψεις τους ως προς τον αντίκτυπο που έχουν οι λύκοι στο επάγγελμα τους.
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