Major drivers of main land degradation processes
The main drivers of land degradation in Crete are: EU and national policies, financial markets, as well as cultures and climate variability. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) through its structural policies support an adequate income to farmers, contributing to the development of regional economies and the maintenance of landscapes, especially in less favoured areas. Furthermore, the economical support under the CAP accelerates the intensification and specialisation process in agriculture. Higher farm prices under the CAP encourage farmers to produce more or to keep larger number of animals in degraded areas. Large densities of animals leads shepherds to control undesirable growth of vegetation by wildfires, a common practice in Crete for simulating the growth of palatable grass. Although Mediterranean vegetation is well adapted to fire and usually grows back after burning, it can be destroyed if burning is combined with overgrazing. Several studies have shown that the combination of wildfires and overgrazing are the main cause of rangeland degradation and desertification in the Mediterranean Europe
The EU production subsidies are highly important, sometimes become even more important than agricultural prices. This is because without these subsidies farmers would not be able to carry on with their activity. Income determines the capacity of the farmer to invest in infrastructures and labour (including conservation practices) in the farm. Farmers try to maximise their farm income, so their decision on land resources management is directed to those crops that can provide better prices or assure higher income (such as from subsidies). Hence the area under subsidy can also explain many of the changes in cropping regime and therefore in the cultivation practices.
The higher profitability of irrigation farming and the low profitability of dry farming due to the climatic conditions (mainly the low rainfall) convince farmers to change land use and land management practices. There are great differences, in terms of income, between irrigation farming and dry farming. If dry farms border an irrigated area, this can have an effect on the farmers' decisions because farm income can increase if they use irrigation. Most of the small dry farms are still worked only by older farmers because of tradition, and these farms are often abandoned when the farmers retire. Young people from rural areas are much more attracted by the increasing tourist activity of the coastal areas than by farming. When it is possible (if there is a way for obtaining water) some farmers change the land uses into irrigation activities. This, however, is not always compatible with soil resources, even if technology makes it possible.
The low prices of dry farming products and competition from other countries make it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain adequate incomes. Farmers then adopt different cultivation methods in order to obtain public subsidies or change to more profitable crops, even though the soil conditions may not be suitable. They might also decide to clear natural vegetation and to grow olives or vines to increase their income. This process is favoured by the large fragmentation of the land. Land parcels become smaller and smaller because of the division of the land when passed from father to son, or when some parcels are sold. This leads to the new farmer treating farming as a secondary or a weekend activity, so putting much less effort into it, and sometimes not enough effort to maintain soil conditions or soil conservation practices.
Fragmentation of land leads to less profitability, as land parcels become increasingly divided, they provide less and less income to the farmers causing the farming activity to become secondary. This way farming is more likely to be abandoned. In addition, new generations are more likely to sell the land than their parents, since they sometimes feel less linked to the land, or just work somewhere else for a living, often far from rural areas. Furthermore, new generations often move for education in urban areas and other more profitable opportunities apart from farming are available for them so they remain in urban areas in other economical sectors. As a result, farmers get older and finally, when they cannot carry on farming, land is abandoned.
Parallel employment in tourist business assures some incomes for the farmer but also affects land management, since less time and effort is available for farming activities. On the other hand, the change in economic conditions due to tourist industry put more pressure on the land resources.
Climatic conditions are one of the most important determining factors affecting agriculture, in Crete. Under irregular rainfall with long dry period and high summer temperatures, farmers plan cultivation practices in order to store more much rainfall into the soil or reduce soil water evaporation by tillage. Such practices in hilly areas greatly contribute to high erosion rates due to surface water runoff and tillage operations. Farmers consider that the understory vegetation competes with their crops for rain water, so they remove it by chemicals or by cultivating the soil.
In the last few decades the landscape of Crete has experienced a dramatic explosion of new activities, such as mass tourism, growing urbanization and intensive irrigated agriculture, extensive single cropping, all leading to a progressive decline in traditional agriculture. In some dry areas farmers sell their land for building new tourist infrastructures. The low incomes from farming activities, and the high prices offered for tourist activities motivates farmers to change land use, reshaping landscape and altering resources.
