Agricultural landscape dynamics in the Mediterranean: Lesvos (Greece) case study using evidence from the last three centuries

Landscapes in the Mediterranean have undergone many significant changes in the last centuries. ‘Traditional’ Mediterranean agricultural landscapes with features such as dry stonewalls and terraces are connected with the agricultural roots of most modern Mediterranean societies. Today, these characteristics are in decline when they are not destroyed, due to the changes in the land use management systems of the last 150 years, caused by developments in production and social structure. In this paper, the dynamics of the changes are examined on a specific Greek island. Lesvos, which has an economic and landscape history typical of many Mediterranean cases. Their economic development based on agriculture and food processing created a landscape with terraces and stonewalls, which is nowadays considered ‘traditional’. After some major political, economic and technological developments had reduced the competitiveness of Lesvos's economy, population declined and landscape characteristics were degraded. The examination of these changes with a descriptive model of landscape transformation offers some insight in the dynamics of landscapes and their characteristics in the Mediterranean today for present and future developments.