THE TRADITIONAL AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF MOUZAKI

The Municipality of Mouzaki, located in the western part of the Regional Unit of Karditsa (Figure 1), is considered as representative of the Region of Thessaly, occupying plain, semi-mountainous and mountainous areas. In addition, residual agroforestry systems are mainly found in the mountainous and semi-mountainous areas, but also in the lowlands.

The Municipality of Mouzaki occupies an area of 31,326.97 Ha and includes 27 Local Communities (LCs) with a total population of 13,768 permanent residents (census 2011). Silvoarable lands occupy 556.38 Ha (1.78%), silvopastoral systems (tree cover 10-40%) 3815.39 Ha (12.18%), agricultural crops 35.57%, grasslands 7.68%, forests (tree cover >40%) 33.75%, sparse shrublands (shrub cover 10-40%) 1.61%, dense shrublands (shrub cover >40%) 2.51%, urban areas 4.65% and bare lands 0.27% (Figures A1-A2, APPENDIX).

Within these areas, mainly of the LCs of Vatsounia and Ellinopyrgos-Agios Akakios, extensive but abandoned silvoarable systems are found, which were gradually installed from 1960 onwards as hedgerows, as attested by oral testimonies from local residents. The trees featured in these systems were walnuts (for fruit and wood), mulberries (for berries, leaves for fodder and stakes to support local varieties of climbing beans), cherries, apples and local varieties like “firiki” (small apples), figs, cranberries, hazelnuts, pears and oaks. Trees were combined with crops such as cereals, a local variety of dry maize, chickpeas, lentils, Vicia varieties, potatoes, clover for seed production and grapevines usually combined with pear and oak trees.

An application of the CLUE-S spatiotemporal tool shows that rapid economic growth favors the expansion of agroforestry systems over a 20-year time frame, a fact that helps decisively the maintenance of today's traditional systems

As part of the AGROTHES research project (2018-2022), the residents of the LC of Vatsounia reported that in the 1970s, an attempt at establishing poplar plantations was made, but these did not thrive and were consequently abandoned. These agroforestry systems housed a considerable number of species of fauna, most of which are no longer found, such as common quails (Coturnix coturnix) in the cereals (which after the appearance of baling machines disappeared), common wood pigeons (Columba palumbus spp. palumbus), northern lapwings (Vanellus vanellus), Eurasian woodcocks (Scolopax rusticola), common blackbirds (Turdus merula), Eurasian skylarks (Alauda arvensis), hares (Lepus europaeus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Unfortunately, these traditional systems are in danger of collapsing due to the expected natural afforestation, leading to the reduction of agricultural crops; for this reason, it was deemed necessary to study the changes over time in the agricultural landscape of the territory of Mouzaki.