Ecotourism Revives Rural Communities

Mountains of the Mediterranean have been inhabited for centuries, and mountain villages have served as havens from pirates, disease, and oppressive invaders. These villages are characterized by difficult but enduring subsistence economies that have grown and declined in cyclical patterns, each time adjusting to population growth and abandonment as a result of war or famine. In Greece this pattern changed decisively in the 20th century. Throughout the century 80% of the population shifted from mountain villages to the lowlands or emigrated to the United States, Europe, and Australia, resulting in the massive abandonment of rural mountain areas. As depopulation increased, leaving only aging grandparents, schools and health services were closed, and forests recolonized the slopes traditionally kept open as grazing pastures for sheep and goats.The village of Dadia in the Rhodope mountains has experienced a reversal of this trend since the 1990s, thanks to major efforts by conservation organizations, the government, the European Union (EU), the private sector, and the local population to introduce ecotourism in the area. Thus, a remote mountain region with a rich history and unique cultural and natural diversity has become a model of successful nature conservation and economic revival.