The sacred woods called “meadows” in Zagori, Pindos mountains, Greecev

In the mountains of Zagori, NW Greece the toponym “livadi” (literally ‘meadow’) occurs, in the vicinity of villages. These “meadows” have not the typical appearance of a grassland but of a woodland functioning mostly as a protective wood above villages Archive study and ethnographic research showed that these woods were considered as sacred by local communities in order to prevent use for private needs and to conserve them for the Community. Most of the times wood cutting was strictly prohibited or controlled by local Authorities and the Church, but grazing was allowed according to local covenants. Those pastures had the form of a savannah type woodland pasture. Such local systems of natural resources conservation functioned efficiently during the period of the Ottoman Occupation and lasted until the Second World War. However supernatural beliefs continue to protect ‘livadia’ in Zagori until today and as a result some of the oldest trees of the region occur there. Nowadays these locally adapted systems have a special scientific value for the study of ecological history, sustainable natural resources management and biodiversity as also for their aesthetic and historical values.