INTRODUCTION

Century-old isolated trees stand as characteristic figures of many agroforestry landscapes. Such trees, as living guardians of history and time, can drive us on a journey into the past and help us to understand both the recent history of Greece’s cultural landscapes and the long-lasting interaction between human societies and natural ecosystems that is mirrored in them (Figure 1). The term “agroforestry landscapes”, if given without further explanation, sounds rather unfamiliar to non-specialists. However, if we think of iconic or even imagined landscapes in modern Greek literature and Folklore, we will easily understand how familiar they are; the royal oak, queen of the stories of Alexandros Papadiamantis (1851-1911); the isolated pine in the plain of Zacharias Papantoniou (1877-1940); the oaks that grew from the blood drops of a dragon mortally wounded by St Donatos, to ensure safe access to drinking water in Thesprotia (W. Greece), all these lead to the same image of open landscapes where centuries-old trees dominate.

Figure 1. Centuries-old Macedonian oaks in the community forest of Mesovouni, Zagori, which functioned as a community pasture, shade trees and for collection of acorns for animal feed, © Kalliopi Stara.