**1. Introduction**

238 Sustainable Forest Management – Case Studies

Xunta de Galicia. (1992). Plan Forestal de Galicia. Consellería de Agricultura, Gandería e

Xunta de Galicia. (2001). *O Monte Galego En Cifras*. Dirección Xeral de Montes e Industrias

Xunta de Galicia. (2010). Produción e Industrias. Subastas. Date of Access: July 26, 2011.

<http://mediorural.xunta.es/es/areas/forestal/produccion\_e\_industrias/subastas/>

Forestais, Consellería de Medio Ambiente, Xunta de Galicia

Compostela, España.

Available from:

Montes. Dirección. Xeral de Montes e Medio Ambiente Natural. Santiago de

Sustainable forest management is conceptualized as a management system which attempts to conciliate economic, ecological, and social dimensions (Maes et al., 2011; Vierikko et al., 2008). In this direction, sustainable forest management will have to foresee mechanisms and institutional arrangements for resolving trade-offs among multiple actors with conflicting interests (Bernués et al., 2005; Van Gossum et al., 2011). Decisionmaking schemes that involve a variety of interest groups might lead to increased complexity due to the societal demand for rational and transparent deliberation processes (Brechin et al., 2002; Wolfslehner & Seidl, 2010). A major challenge to sustainable forest management is to handle this complexity as well as confront uncertainty, which originates from changes in positions of stakeholders, scientific theories, and social institutions (Foster et al., 2010).

One response to complexity is to employ adaptive management, which presupposes feedback mechanisms and reflexive learning processes as necessary prerequisites to cope with an undetermined future and the core issues of risk and uncertainty (Plummer & Fennell, 2009; Von Detten, 2011). However, social aspects of sustainability are frequently downplayed even in adaptive management configurations. Previous studies showed that conventional methods of social science research and widely implemented management policies might underestimate the social heterogeneity at the local level to a substantial extent (Berninger et al., 2010; Sugimura & Howard, 2008). This inadequate handling of the social context might be expressed in matters of environmental governance. For instance, when local communities are represented by spokespersons adhering to majorities, minority positions are excluded (Hovardas et al., 2009; Hovik et al., 2010).

In the present paper we will approach the notion of sustainable forest management critically by examining the case study of the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park (DNP) in Greece. Our basic objective is to exemplify how forest management in a protected area can succeed in guaranteeing viable population sizes of endangered species but, at the same time, how it can eventuate in new risk situations regarding fire suppression and ecotourism development. Next, we will present a mixed-motive perspective formulated by local

Can Forest Management in Protected Areas Produce New Risk Situations?

(Poirazidis et al., 2004; Skartsi et al., 2008).

including the celebration of the Annual Birds' Day.

**2.1 Fire suppression in DNP** 

2004; Vasilakis et al., 2008).

A Mixed-Motive Perspective from the Dadia-Soufli-Lefkimi Forest National Park, Greece 241

the Balkans (Skartsi et al. 2010). The two cores have 85% cover of pinewoods and mixed pine-oak woods and are crucial as nesting sites for the black vulture (Poirazidis et al., 2004). Maps of probability of occurrence for the nest sites of black vultures showed that nests are very likely to fall within the cores of DNP (Poirazidis et al., 2004). While the population in 1979 amounted to no more than 5 breeding pairs and a total of 26 individuals, the number of birds counted today in the park may range between 70 and 80 individuals, including about 20 breeding pairs (Skartsi et al., 2010). A number of projects implemented by WWF-Greece supported the increase of the population of the black vulture (Adamakopoulos et al., 1995; Poirazidis et al., 2002), for instance, vulture food supplement is provided in a feeding table that has been landscaped in the big core of the study area. Together with vulture food supplement, prohibition of hunting as well as strict control of forestry activities and road access that may lead to breeding failure have enabled the recovery of the black vulture

When the protected area was established in 1980, local people opposed fiercely the suspension of logging in the core zones of the forest reserve, since the loggers' cooperative in Dadia included more than 70 members, namely, about one-tenth of the total population of the village (Catsadorakis, 2010). This negative stance gradually shifted to an acceptance of the environmental conservation regime principally due to ecotourism development (Hovardas & Stamou, 2006a; Svoronou & Holden, 2005). The primary sector is currently decreasing in terms of employment, while the tertiary sector, including services and tourism, is gaining importance in the local economy (Liarikos, 2010). Ecotourism has been developed around wildlife viewing. Visitors are transferred to a Bird Observatory in full view of the vulture feeding table, where they can watch vultures feeding on carcasses (Hovardas & Poirazidis, 2006). The annual number of visitors has risen from less than 2000 in 1994 to more than 40000 today and infrastructure was gradually expanded to cover the rising demand (Hovardas, 2005). Apart from supporting ecotourism development, WWF-Greece has launched since the 1980s a series of environmental awareness campaigns

The biodiversity in DNP has to be attributed to a highly heterogeneous patchwork of habitats which are the result of traditional activities such as livestock grazing, small-scale agriculture and logging, as well as the use of fire (Grill & Cleary, 2003; Kati & Sekercioglu, 2006). However, many of these anthropogenic activities have either diminished or are undertaken rather infrequently (Schindler, 2010). Analogous socio-environmental trends have been reported for other Mediterranean mountainous regions (Álvarez Martínez et al., 2011; Badia et al., 2002; Bernués et al., 2005; Tàbara et al., 2003). In accord with the regulation of logging activities after the designation of DNP, the developments that have been described above have resulted in forest expansion and a decrease of forest clearings (Triantakonstantis et al., 2006), which comprise a crucial structural component of the foraging habitat of vultures (Catsadorakis et al., 2010; Gavashelishvili & McGrady, 2006). Therefore, protected area managers in DNP call for an urgent restoration of traditional activities with special reference made to grazing, which can halt the accumulation of dry plant biomass and reduce the risk of a wildfire (Catsadorakis et al., 2010; Poirazidis et al.,

residents, who take advantage of the new risk situations encountered in the area and aim at the renegotiation of forest management and building a new social consensus. Finally, we will attempt a philosophical grounding of the mixed-motive perspective and we will discuss its potential contribution in promoting a new conceptualization of sustainability in forest management.
