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Self-sustaining agro-pastoral terraced system of the olive groves of the town of Cres - a good practice example

Olive grove terraces of the island of Cres are the largest homogenous traditional olive grove area in the Croatian Adriatic. This extremely dense and legible dry stone wall terraces and enclosures are a unique example of a self sustaining agro-pastoral system where sheep have the function of maintenance and fertilization of olive groves thereby almost replacing human labor. Even though recognized within the spatial planning documents as especially valuable cultivated landscape, in reality this area is not subject to convenient management. Accordingly, main aim of this research was obtaining comprehensive knowledge of this area for the purpose of its implementation in the Local development strategy. Furthermore, research objectives were: defining present and past state of agricultural use, analyzing land use structures and organisation characteristics, describing historical and present agro-pastoral practices. Research involved combined desk and field work conducted from 2015 onwards on the area of 10 km2 surrounding the town of Cres and counting more than 250.000 olive trees. Main methodological principle was linking landscape character assessment and ethnographic approach. It involved analysis of literature sources regarding landscape factors, GIS integral analysis, geophotos and semi-structured interviews, which resulted in elaboration of land use temporal analysis, dry stone walls GIS map, classification of terraces and enclosures and definition of agricultural practices regarding olive growing and sheep keeping, but also regarding construction of dry stone walls. This research has established a base for the elaboration of a Guide for maintenance and establishment of Cres olive groves as part of Local development strategy, but also as tool for the education of local community and visitors. In the context of Croatian Adriatic it should serve as an example of documenting and researching the dry stone wall landscape, as prerequisite for integration in various sectoral tools bringing Cres olive grove terraces to light as an agro-pastoral role model.

Mediterranean agro-pastoral cultural landscape, Island of Cres, Croatian Adriatic, dry stone wall landscape classification

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