AFFORESTATION AND BIODIVERSITY

The sharp decline in livestock activity has resulted in the afforestation of small or larger forest gaps in the Dadia NP, the reduction of landscape heterogeneity and severe impacts on local biodiversity (Poirazidis 2017). According to Triantakonstantis et al. (2006), only 46% of the Dadia NP was covered by forest in 1945, reaching 54% in 1973 and 72% in 2001. The densification of forest areas (with a corresponding decrease in open areas) has shown a continuous upward trend in recent years and is found throughout the entire area of the NP, regardless of the degree of protection of each part of the area (Figure 3).

An example of the effects of forest densification on the birds of prey habitats is the case of the lesser-spotted eagle (Clanga pomarina). According to Poirazidis et al. (2019), the species maintained a relatively stable population of 15-20 pairs for the whole 1979-2012 period in Dadia NP (Figure 4). However, notable changes were observed in the areas of its breeding habitat, with a loss of suitability of the entire semi-mountainous western zone of the Dadia NP and a concentration of the breeding population mainly in the eastern region in the immediate vicinity of agricultural crops (Figure 5). The reduction of suitable habitat led the species to less

Figure 3. Change in the values of the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) vegetation index in the Dadia NP in the period 1985 - 2022 (with shading, in the centraleastern part, the burned area from the fire in late July 2022).

© Kostas Poirazidis

optimal areas for breeding, with a large population decline already recorded in the 2020 periodic surveys (monitoring data from the Management Unit of Evros Delta and Dadia National Parks – Bakeas et al. 2021). Successive forest fires in 2011, 2020, 2021, and especially in the summer of 2022 burned almost all of its current breeding area, with unknown consequences for maintaining its population (Figure 5).