Apiculture: A challenge for the modern range management
Τhe natural pastures of Greece constitute important grazing places for domestic and wild animals, they have crucial environmental, aesthetic, ecological, touristic etc. importance and are used for grazing from millions of bees, producing valuable for the economy of Greece products. Lately the number of the beehives has doubled. This is also due to the demographic changes in the mountainous areas of the country. In order to ascertain the preferences of the bees in plant samples of honey from 40 beehives in the area of Sithonia where analyzed. It was discovered that the greatest part of pollen in the samples derives from, families of rangeland plants while the dominant colors of the flowers was yellow, blue-violet and white-yellow. This particular preference or ability of vision of the bee towards these colors is possible to create positive or negative sequences in the landscape. The presence of the new european beehives with dominant the yellow and the blue color, aesthetic doesn’t fit to the landscape. Because of the fact that the development perspectives of apiculture are auspicious it is necessary to organize the research towards this direction, as well as special administrative studies to estimate the bee-carrying capacity of the range landscapes in order to avoid negative sequences, and the appropriate apiarian species in reforestations or other revegetation activities.
Rangeland forest-technical installations and the contribution of ranges to the development of mountainous regions
The rational and effective management of ranges, as a natural resource, implies infrastructure works. Among these works as first priority are rated the rangeland forest-technical installations (forest-rangeland roads). The aim of this paper is the construction of rangeland roads within the frames of a compromise between user demands and the rangeland environment towards an economic, functional, materializable and compatible to the rangeland environment, infrastructure. There have been assessed (a) the expenditures for the constructions of rangeland roads in respect to the factors affecting them and (b) the impacts rangeland roads on the environmental resources. Useful conclusions were drawn out for the construction of rangeland roads and more widely for the rational development and utilization of mountainous regions.
Certification of sustainable rangeland management: Socioeconomic consequences
As far as the protection of nature is concerned, there is a plethora of international treaties (Ramsar treaty, Rio treaty etc.) signed by Greece, whereby it is obliged to abide. The most recent ones are the two EU directives for the preservation of nature: the 79/409, also known as Instruction for birds, and the 92/43, also known as Instruction for ecotopes (Natura network 2000). On the other hand, the management of forests and forest areas should be conducted in such a way that the following are ensured: a) environmental protection, b) social benefit and c) financial viability. Under this framework, the exploitation companies and the industries concerned with the processing of forest products will be obliged to apply the emerging international institution of certification and labeling of the products originating from sustainable management. The same will definitely apply to the livestock products, which should be similarly originating from ranges undergoing sustainable management. The latter procedure will lead to a series of consequences, of mainly financial value, which will affect all participants in the livestock business and not only. These consequences will be particularly evident in low and semi-mountainous areas, which are subjected to overgrazing.
Analysis of brown hare (Lepus europaeus) habitat based on SPOT imagery and GIS in Epirus region, western Greece
The brown hare (Lepus europaeus) is a widely distributed species in Europe, especially in agroecosystems. In Greece, its distribution covers mainly meadows and forests and shrublands with openings. Hare is absent or at extremely low densities in farmlands. This situation is typical for Epirus region, Western Greece, where a 3-year research project (1998-2000) concerning hare ecology and management was carried out. The basic tools for spatial analysis include technologies, as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and spatial statistics. In this work the habitat diversity is connected to the hare distribution in the region of Epirus based upon the methodological and technological developments of spatial analysis. Initially, a mosaic of SPOT multispectral images is generated covering the total hare distribution in Epirus. The classification of the resulted image identifies and describes relatively homogeneous basic units of the landscape. The hare habitat and density are input to GIS environment in thematic layers as polygons. Furthermore, the classified areas and hare distribution are overlaid and analyzed. The preliminary results of this research project showed low hare densities in a significant part of Epirus area, especially in farmlands and low elevation areas. However, another part of hare range supports medium hare densities. The characteristics of areas with medium hare densities is extracted in order to be used as the basis for habitat improvement actions in the rest areas. Management guidelines for hare habitat were prepared to supply the competent authorities of Greek Ministry of Agriculture.
Rangeland and development of the mountain areas of the West Thessaly
This paper examines the importance that rangelands could have on the development of the mountain areas of the west Thessaly. The results based on economic analysis indicated that the prefecture of Trikala is the more mountainous in Thessaly. During the period 1961-2001 the agricultural population, the cattle breading and the livestock production of the mountain areas to the west Thessaly decreased. The cattle-breading sector contributes a lot to the total regional sector.
