PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Based on current projections of climatic models for the Mediterranean islands, summer aridity is expected to rise, leading to prolonged droughts, increased frequency of forest fires and aggravated pressure on already vulnerable and scarce water resources. Severe rainfalls and flooding are likely to increase, exacerbating soil erosion and land degradation. The situation is expected to impact the local ecosystem’s resilience and the most important economic sectors on the islands – agriculture and tourism.
The cultivation of drystone terraces has constituted the most significant comprehensive human intervention on the landscape of the Aegean Islands since the emergence of civilisation. Until the mid-1960s, cultivation terraces provided almost the only network supporting primary production on the islands (farming, livestock raising and beekeeping). They supported the island ecosystem services by improving rainwater percolation, reducing soil erosion and favouring local biodiversity (harvest plants and associated animal species, as well as wild plants and animals). Recent abandonment of cultivation terraces has caused the end of self-sufficiency of the islands in primary goods and has made the island ecosystem more vulnerable and susceptible to climate change impacts.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE TERRACESCAPE project aimed to demonstrate the use of drystone terraces as green infrastructures resilient to climate change impacts on the Aegean Island of Andros. The project sought to promote climatic adaptation by mobilising scientific knowledge, traditional farming and land stewardship (LS) practices for a large-scale revitalisation of island terrace farming. By addressing climatic and environmental extremities and supporting a modern, extensive and climate-smart agricultural sector for the Mediterranean islands, extensive benefits for local societies, economies and biodiversity were expected to accrue.
The specific project objectives were to:
- demonstrate climate adaptation of island landscapes using innovative farming methods to highlight the significance of terraces as key green infrastructure elements;
- establish for the first time in the country an operational LS scheme and a smart local products cluster involving multiple stakeholders;
- demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale (>150 ha) restoration and re-cultivation of abandoned terraces in Andros;
- produce climate-smart products by establishing a smart local cluster of farmers, food and tourism businesses to contribute to the sustainability and continuation of the approach;
- promote the transferability of the approach to other Aegean islands, through a strategic adaptation plan for agriculture, improving the islands’ resilience to climate change impacts;
- increase awareness of target groups and encourage behavioural changes towards climate-responsible attitudes.
RESULTS
In an overall analysis, the project objectives were built on two main pillars, namely:
- the cultivation and rehabilitation of terraces as adaptive means to climate change impacts;
- the deployment of the Land Stewardship approach in sustaining and replicating the terraces utilisation as green infrastructure for climate change adaptation.
The first pillar, on the utilisation of terraces for building up climate change resilience, has been successfully implemented, since:
- a large area had been cultivated (>115 ha) for four cultivation periods, based on cultivation and good practices guidelines developed for the purposes of the project, and utilising the cultivation equipment purchased by the Green Fund;
- structural interventions took place to rehabilitate drystone wall elements;
- a strategic plan and a Decision Support Tool (DST) had been developed to facilitate replication to other islands;
- extensive monitoring had taken place to establish baseline results and evaluate end of project impacts of terraces cultivation, for several ecosystem services (e.g., soil fertility, fire risk, biodiversity);
- a variety of dissemination and communication means had been deployed to communicate the importance of terrace cultivation for Andros and the Aegean Islands, with excellent communication material produced (30-minutes TV documentary awarded in Film festivals, booklets, e-game for school children, School Drawing Contest on terraces at a national level, two Drystone Wall Schools (DWS), and many others more);
- a funding instrument has been identified, for replicating this part of the project, on the cultivation of terraces all over the country.
As for the second pillar, namely the deployment of the Land Stewardship approach, the project has been only partly successful since:
- the Land Stewardship Organisation (LSO), a first for Greece, was established after overcoming several administrative obstacles;
- coordinating agreements with landowners for transferring management of their land to the LSO was extremely time consuming and demanding. This was partly due to the lack of a national land registry at the time;
- the process for establishing an LSO, the statute and contract templates for landowners and farmers were developed by the project. Some training workshops took place and Green Fund employees were trained on the Land Stewardship through previous LIFE project (LANDLIFE, LIFE10 INF/ES/000540) and the XCT (Xarxa de Custòdia del Territori) experts;
- the establishment of the ANC (Agri-Nutritional Cooperation) was a critical milestone of the project, for the sustainability of the LSO, which could not be achieved in the end. The extremely low production yields from the cultivations did not allow a thorough establishment of an ANC, which would help in trading products, thus financially contributing to the LSO. The reasons for the extremely low production yields are explained in the Final Report and encompass the low fertility of the abandoned terraces, the cultivation method applied, the high dispersion of small plots, the lack of resources (both human and particular equipment), the climatic conditions, the use of contractors due to lack of farmers, etc.;
- the Green Fund reports stemming from the lessons learnt in the project recommended launching a call for funding for sustainable LSO in other islands and areas of Greece.
The project implemented a large-scale cultivation scheme, reaching almost 115 ha of previously abandoned terraced land in the fourth and last cultivation year. This resulted in marginally improved soil fertility, and improved biodiversity for certain species with a preference in inhabiting drystone wall structures. Improved micro-climate was also confirmed for the cultivated plots during extreme heat days. The cultivated plots also resulted in reduced fire risk for the relevant areas.
Overall, the project has been completed having partly achieved its objectives, mainly those related to the terraces cultivation as means of adaptation to climate change impacts, but not through the LSO approach, which the beneficiaries did not manage to thoroughly implement.
Further to the factors affecting the production yields of the cultivations, the beneficiaries have carried out a valuable analysis for future actions included in the last pages of the Strategic Adaptation Plan. This analysis, along with the Decision Support Tool, the guidelines produced and the experience gained, are the legacy of the project, which could lead to its successful replication in the after-LIFE.
