The last surviving chestnut trees on Mt. Ohi, Evvia Island.
The ancient Greeks...
celebrated nature in art, literature, religion, and scientific thought. Clear skies, dramatic landscapes, and wildlife all inspired and encouraged ancient Greek civilization and philosophy. In remnant wild areas this natural heritage still survives.
Yet the historical prominence of Greece continues to overshadow both the country's unique natural wealth and its modern ecological crisis. Human greed and neglect have deeply scarred the Greek landscape. Today's Greece, burdened by socio-economic problems, pursues massive economic development. In the process the rich, natural environment that gave it root is being destroyed.
One of the hundreds of rare varieties of wild flowers, the yellow lily (lilium albanicum).
UNIQUE ECOLOGICAL WEALTH
Greece, a small Mediterranean country, retains a uniquely rich natural environment. Greece, in comparison with other European countries, supports an unequalled wealth of biodiversity. This is due to the country's geographical position, its varied climate, and its contrasting landscapes. Greece is located at a biological crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa where the patterns of life of three continents blend. The country's landscapes consist of a mosaic of islands and mountains where a remarkable variety of distinct ecosystems have evolved.
The long-legged buzzard, one of 26 raptors which exist in Greece.
The natural habitats of Greece range from Cretan palm groves and rock-rose scrublands to Norway spruce forests and alpine bogs. The country's plant life includes more than 6,000 different native species. Greece has more wildflower species than are found in all of Canada. Over 760 species of plants are endemic to Greece; they grow nowhere else on earth. Many endemic plants, including the aromatic thymes, chamomiles, and sages, have a multitude of medicinal, culinary, and traditional dyeing uses. Other endemic species such as the wild tulips, peonies, and orchids are especially beautiful, and several of them are endangered. Completely dependent on Greece's varied flora is its equally diverse and unique fauna.
Greece is home to a variety of rare animals, many of them on the brink of extinction in Europe. The Aegean islands, for example, support the world's largest breeding populations of Mediterranean monk seal, Cretan wild goat, and Eleanora's falcon. Most of Greece's rare wildlife survives in very small numbers, often confined to relic wild areas. Although Greece's coastline is over 15,000 kilometres long, only a few tens of kilometres of it are still suitable as breeding refuges for loggerhead sea turtles and certain rare seabirds. Nevertheless, many areas in Greece still support important, yet dwindling, populations of globally threatened species. These include magnificent birds of prey, such as the imperial eagle, Bonelli's eagle, and also gigantic old world vultures with three metre wingspans, such as the Eurasian black vulture and bearded vulture.
A short-toed eagle soars above Tembi ravine, lower Mt. Olympus.
Many smaller animals that often go unnoticed are either endemic to Greece or are subtropical species whose entire European distribution is restricted to Greece. Greece's endemic fauna includes over a dozen fresh water fishes, unique reptiles such as the Greek legless skink and, on the islands, several species of snakes. Notable among the native species which originated in Asia and Africa are a large number of colorful marine and terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates, including Middle Eastern butterflies, Luschan's salamander, agama lizard, Ottoman viper, Persian squirrel, Cretan spiny mouse, cinereous bunting, and others.
The most biologically productive ecosystems in Greece are its wetlands. Greece has some of the most bird-rich wetlands in the Mediterranean. Over half a million waterfowl winter in Greek wetlands, and millions of other birds depend on these habitats during their migrations. In total, more than 300 bird species breed, feed, or rest in Greek wetlands. Several, including the nearly extinct slender-billed curlew, Dalmatian pelican, and pygmy cormorant, are critically endangered, as are the wildest wetlands they inhabit. Today, wetlands are themselves so scarce that even small remnants, especially in drier southern Greece, are crucial oases for rare plant communities and wildlife.
The wildest remnants of Greece's original ecosystems survive in the mountains. Greece's rugged highlands are broken by gorges, tunnelled by a labyrinth of caves, and crowned by alpine peaks. The most inaccessible mountain reaches are natural fortresses for fauna and flora. Wild valleys still retain extensive forests while a few steep mountain slopes support small relic stands of old-growth ancient forest. The wildest mountains of northern and central Greece are refuges for primeval forest animals such as the Eurasian brown bear and wolf - the last surviving symbols of wilderness in Europe. Many mountain forest denizens, such as the Balkan chamois, Tengmalm's owl, grey-headed woodpecker, and the massive capercaillie grouse, find their southernmost distribution in Europe in remnant wild areas of Greece. On a continent moulded beyond natural recognition by more than a millennium of human technology, Greece still retains precious relics of the past: remnants of wild nature.
