PARTICULARITIES OF THE AGROFORESTRY HABITATS

All the above-mentioned species need specific structural characteristics of the agroforestry landscapes, such as single old trees and scattered bushes mixed with farmland, hedges, stone walls and creeks, or even some small burned areas. For example, the roller (Coracias garrulus), which retains 40% of its global distribution in Europe, is gradually and slowly decreasing, to a rate of 5-20% during the last 30 years, because of the removal of old trees at large scales from farmland landscapes, where it nests (BirdLife International 2017).

Another threatened species that nests in single trees growing in Mediterranean agroforestry areas is the woodchat shrike (Lanius senator) which has a strong preference for locations with low vegetation that are grazed. Also, the woodlark (Lullula arborea) is a species which uses both forest and open habitats and benefits from the length of forest edge, which is particularly high in agroforestry landscapes (Zakkak et al. 2016, Panagiotopoulou et al. 2017).

Additionally, the red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) is a species preferring the ecotone and is currently threatened either by land reclamation works that destroy hedges, by intensive agriculture and the use of agrochemicals, or by abandonment of periodic farming and animal raising at small scale, that leads to natural afforestation and eventually to the loss of open habitats such as nesting spots with sparse small trees and thorny bushes (Tsiakiris 2000, Zakkak et al. 2015).

Agroforestry landscapes include protective and/or sacred forests, which offer nesting spots for many species, as they preserve aged trees with many cavities (Avtzis et al. 2018). They are primeval forests which are managed locally and comprise valuable islets for many species, mainly for woodpeckers, like the balkan woodpecker (Stara et al. 2015).

In all cases the spatial heterogeneity in agroforestry systems is the fundamental characteristic for the conservation of farmland birds and biodiversity (Zakkak et al. 2016, Panagiotopoulou et al 2017). Since agricultural intensification or abandonment of marginally productive lands is the main threat for 21% of protected birds in the EU (EEA 2020), low recovering rates of farmland birds are possibly due to the fact that coverage of Special Protected Areas (SPA’s) is inadequate for these species, or that their habitats within SPA’s have not significantly improved (EEA 2020).