Livestock husbandry in mountainous areas: from european directives to local realities

Since the creation of CAP, rural Europe has been submitted to radical changes. The Greek mountain areas are not an exception to the rule. CAP aims to regulate the world market. The directive 75/268 and the regulation 2078/92 established the compensatory payments to European farmers, as a recompense for a possible partial loss of their income. The results of the abovementioned directive and regulation to the Mediterranean mountains areas- most of them are also classified as LFA-, were ambiguous. The characterisation LFA increases the possibilities of EU’s subsidies but the former application of EU’s agricultural and rural policies didn’t presupposed ecological dimensions. From now on, their application takes into account ecological factors. That is why forest policy concerning pasture in Greek mountains areas should be revised, taking into account not only the environmental but the social and cultural utility as well.