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Ten years of co-management in Greek protected areas: an evaluation

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Abstract

The present study attempts an evaluation of the first co-management framework that has been adopted and implemented in Greece over the last 10 years for the management of its protected areas. To get insight as to how efficient it has been, we evaluate the performance and outcomes of the 28 management authorities of the protected areas of the country that substantiate it and the conditions under which they have been operating. The study involved a large part of the Greek conservation community. It was conducted via a questionnaire dealing with issues of financing and administration, environmental management and guarding, and connection with the local community. For co-management, it is essential that the actors involved undertake their share of responsibility, which should be clearly defined and delimited; this was not usually the case. Decentralization of the power of management requires capacity building locally and active involvement of the local community; these have been addressed and achieved only to a limited degree. Most importantly, the support and commitment to conservation of state actors were often missing. Funding discontinuities, delays in responding to needs associated with biodiversity monitoring and protection and inefficient guarding were the major problems resulting from the inadequacies detected. Despite its weaknesses, the co-management framework contributed considerably to the conservation of environmental values of Greece. We propose improvements and measures that can substantially increase its overall effectiveness towards nature conservation. However, under the severe crisis that the country has been facing, its future is currently unknown.

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Notes

  1. The ‘Natura 2000’ Committee is primarily responsible for coordinating, monitoring and evaluating policies and measures for the implementation of the Habitats directive (92/43/EEC) and the protection of biodiversity in Greece (law 3937/2011). Of the Committee (2000-2013) full and deputy members, 13 were Faculty or Research Institute members representing different environmental disciplines, 4 represented NGOs with country-wide operation and another 12 represented various ministries.

  2. The other categories of protected areas of the country are the strict nature reserves, the nature reserves, the natural parks (national and regional), and the protected landscapes/seascapes or protected natural formations.

  3. At that time, one MA had not hired personnel yet.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the presidents and other board members and the coordinators and other staff members of the 27 MAs who contributed to this research by filling up the questionnaire and offering helpful comments; we also thank WWF-Hellas, M. Anagnostopoulou, S. Vareltzidou, V. Tsiaousi, and G. Katsadorakis for their contribution in the development of the questionnaire and/or providing valuable information and comments; S. Koukoulas for the creation of the GIS-based map depicted in Fig. 1, and A. Valasiadou, A. Kesoglou and A. Banti for offering technical and administrative support. The study was financed by a grant from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change of Greece (49899/27.09.2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloníki, Greece

    Despoina Vokou, Athanasios Damialis, John D. Pantis & Antonios D. Mazaris

  2. Biodiversity Conservation Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81100, Mytilene, Lesbos, Greece

    Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos

  3. Department of Geography, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    Nikoleta Jones

  4. Department of Biological Applications and Technology, University of Ioannina, 45110, Ioannina, Greece

    Nikos Monokrousos

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  1. Despoina Vokou
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  2. Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos
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  4. Athanasios Damialis
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The Natura-2000 Committee (2010–2013) members

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Correspondence to Despoina Vokou.

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Communicated by Daniel Sanchez Mata.

Included are the members of the Natura-2000 Committee (2010–2013) that had an active role in this research. They are Stephanos Diamandisa, Panayotis Dimopoulosa, Ioulia Drossinou, Petros P. Ganatsasa, Konstantinos Gogosa, Demetres Karavellasb, Thanos Kastritisb, Polyxeni Ragkoua,b, Spyros Sfenthourakisa, Ioanna Stamatopoulou, Eleni Tryfon, and Christos Tsandilasa. Marked with (a) are Faculty or Research Institute members, whereas marked with (b) are representatives of environmental NGOs, namely WWF-Hellas, Hellenic Ornithological Society and Pan-Hellenic Network of Ecological Organizations. Non-marked members are from the public sector; they contribute in this research as individual scientists, not as representatives of ministries.

Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 5.

Table 5 Protected areas in Greece having management authorities and the year the latter were formed
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Appendix 2

See Table 6.

Table 6 Major issues, questions per issue, and specifications for answering the questionnaire distributed to the Management Authorities of protected areas of Greece; AB stands for Administration Board, MA for Management Authority, PA for protected area
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Vokou, D., Dimitrakopoulos, P.G., Jones, N. et al. Ten years of co-management in Greek protected areas: an evaluation. Biodivers Conserv 23, 2833–2855 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0751-1

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