engleski

Eastern Adriatic: Lifestyle and Landscape Change over the Last Two Centuries

Eastern Adriatic shares many socio-environmental trends and trajectories with other Euro-Mediterranean regions in the last two centuries, especially since the massive pressure of littoralization, starting in the second half of the last century. Still, there are historical, socio-economic and environmental specificities of the region. Since the Antiquity there has been a continuity of a littoral developmental axis. Due to (mountain) relief and configuration of a coastal area, the immediate hinterland and the longitudinal island belt developed mainly as remote rural areas. Since the Early Middle Ages this is also a borderland area. These conditions often acted as push and pull factors, affecting population movements, lifestyle and land use change. Based on various historical sources, such as narratives and graphics, the research showed the dominance of the land use change and reforestation trend over the last two centuries. The research comparatively shows dominant processes in three longitudinal zones: hinterland, coastal zone and island belt, based on a number of case studies. The process of reforestation is partly spontaneous, mainly in the hinterland and island rural areas as a consequence of rural exodus at the beginning of the intensification of the littoralization process. The result is widely spread degraded type of Mediterranean forests, i.e. maquis. The process of reforestation is partly deliberate, mainly in the coastal zone, as a consequence of reforestation projects of degraded coastal areas. The result is massive spread of non-autochthonous forests of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.). Since maquis and Aleppo pine are both highly flammable, their dominance in the landscape is rising the fire risk. Furthermore, land use change, apart from reforestation, caused the vanishing some of the traditional cultural landscapes e.g. vineyards as a part of cultural heritage of the region.

Eastern Adriatic, landscape change, lifestyle, re-afforestation, cultural landscapes, degradation, islands, littoral, hinterland

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