INTRODUCTION

Ecosystems in Greece (and more widely in the Mediterranean) co-evolved along with a human presence in them, for at least the last 10,000 years, when domestication of wild animals began. Many stochastic (random) factors have played and continue to play a guiding but also a decisive role in the differentiation of landscapes. Extensive grazing, the cultivation of mountainous/semi-mountainous fields, uncontrolled logging, but also small-scale natural or man-made forest fires, had created - especially in the semi-mountainous zone - landscapes of single or scattered islets of dense forests, sparse forests, scrublands, small and larger plots, and meadows. In this mosaic of landscapes, open areas dominated because of extensive livestock activity, as can be seen from old aerial photographs. Today, the mountainous agricultural economy has drastically shrunk in Greece and many other European countries, with the direct consequence of forest expansion and the homogenization of the once heterogeneous rural landscapes (e.g. San Roman Sanz et al. 2013). The abandonment of the traditional rural economy is directly linked to the loss of critical habitats for biodiversity and the potential to provide multiple ecosystem services and goods to humans (e.g. Queiroz et al. 2014). The positive relationship between landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity conservation is now scientifically documented (Schindler et al. 2013).