Role of Grazing in Mediterranean Rangeland Ecosystems

Abstract

. Ms } -any of the rangelands surrounding the Mediterranean Basin are commonly viewed as degraded landscapes, the end result of short-sighted exploitation over thousands of years (Zohary 1973a, Le Houerou 1981). This view was expressed as early as the fourth century BCE by Plato, who stated that the hills around Athens were ...like the skeleton of an old man, all the fat and soft earth wasted away and only the bare framework of the land being (Attenborough 1987). Indeed, from its beginnings, the so-called cradle of civilization has had to bear the brunt of intensive human activity: wood cutting, land clearing for cultivation and settlement, grazing, fire, and, in recent years, pollution, pesticides, and other biocides. These activities have all left their marks on the ever-changing Mediterranean landscape (Pignatti 1983). Grazing, particularly heavy grazing (popularly termed overgrazing)