Primary production agriculture 1929-2019

Materials covered in building stock 1929-2019

arable crops, trees, vines and other cultivation classes from 1929 to 2019 in hectare

Detailed cultivations 1993-2013

Domestic Material Consumption 1929-2019

economic activity in 3 main sectors from 1971 to 2011

This dataset showcases energy imports and electricity consumption for Samothraki during the years 1929 till 2019. The various types of imported fossil fuels mentioned include petrol, diesel (for cars, ships, and electricity generation), machine oil, heating oil, and liquid gas for cooking. Also, the dataset presents electricity consumption on the island, providing understanding into the island's reliance on imported fuels and overall energy use.

fish catch coastal fisheries and trawlers 1929 - 2019

Wood extraction 1929-2019

Materials covered in infrastructure 1929-2019

livestock production modelling data 1993-2019

Livestock production based on statistical data 1993-2013

extraction of non metallic minerals 1929-2019

Waste flows Construction and Demolition Waste / Municipal Solid Waste / Waste exports 1929-2019

This spreadsheet contains data on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) composition or other waste types (household, plastics) compiled by Jasmine McHugh under the supervision of Dr. Simron Singh (University of Waterloo, Canada) between September and December 2025.

We studied the origin of elements of an undisturbed stream basin during the dry season as derived by atmospheric inputs and lithological processes. Α mass balance model was applied taking into account atmospheric (rain and vapor) inputs and their origin from marine aerosol and dust, as well as the contribution of rock mineral weathering and dissolution of soluble salts. The model results were enhanced using element enrichment factors, element ratios and water stable isotopes. Weathering and dissolution of bedrock and soil minerals contributed the main element portions, besides sodium and sulfate that chiefly derived from wet deposition. Vapor was shown to contribute water to inland waters of the basin. However, rain was the main source of elements compared to vapor, with marine aerosol being the only atmospheric chloride source, contributing also over 60 % of atmospheric sodium and magnesium. Silicate derived from mineral weathering (mainly plagioclase and amorphous silica), while soluble salt dissolution contributed the main portions of the rest of major elements. In headwater springs and streams, element concentrations were more affected by atmospheric inputs and silicate mineral weathering was more intense, contrary to lowland waters that were more affected by soluble salt dissolution. Effective self-purification processes were mirrored in low nutrient levels, despite the significant inputs from wet deposition, with rain being more important contributor than vapor for the majority of nutrient species. Relatively high nitrate concentrations in headwaters were attributed to increased mineralization and nitrification, while the downstream nitrate diminishing was due to prevailing denitrification processes. The ultimate goal of this study is to contribute in establishing stream elements' reference conditions using mass balance modeling approaches.

This dataset showcases agricultural and fisheries data for Samothraki, Greece, between the years 1929 till 2019. It includes land area and primary production by type of cultivation (arable crops, trees, vine, and others), crop residue quantities, and fish catch volumes from both large and small-scale fisheries. The data offers an overview of the island’s resource use and productivity in the primary sector.

This dataset provides an overview of material and energy consumption in Samothraki, Greece during the period of 1929 till 2019. It includes Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) and Domestic Energy Consumption (DEC), both in total and per capita terms. The materials included are categorized as biomass, fossil fuels, metals, minerals, and other products, while energy sources include livestock feed, human food, biomass combustion, fossil fuels, renewables, and waste incineration. The dataset reflects the island's material and energy consumption.

This dataset provides the Domestic Processed Output (DPO) for Samothraki over the period 1929–2019, focusing on both waste generation and emissions. It includes data on construction & demolition (C&D) waste, municipal solid waste (MSW), dissipative use of products, and dissipative losses, along with total waste output. Also, it showcases emissions data from biomass and fossil fuel combustion, MSW combustion, and respiratory emissions. The dataset offers an overview to the environmental outputs related to material and energy consumption on the island.

This dataset outlines food consumption patterns in Samothraki between 1929 till 2019. It includes the total and per capita consumption by category (e.g., dairy, cereals, meat, vegetables, beverages). It also compares local food consumption with imports, and provides a human endosomatic model detailing biological inputs (food, oxygen) and outputs (CO₂, waste, etc.), offering insights into the metabolic flows that drive human nourishment.

This dataset outlines food demand and rations for different livestock species in Samothraki between 1929 till 2019. It includes animals like horses, donkeys, cows, sheep, and pigs. The dataset provides specific feed rations for each livestock type, as well as a livestock endosomatic model that showcases the inputs and outputs, providing an overview into livestock metabolism on Samothraki.

This dataset provides data on livestock numbers and the human population of Samothraki, from 1929 to 2019. It provides an overview of the island's animal and human demographics.

This dataset provides information on the material stocks in different infrastructure sectors on Samothraki, between 1929 to 2019. It showcases detailed quantities on the construction materials used in buildings (e.g., cement, sand, steel, wood, bricks), ports (sand, gravel, cement), and sewage systems. Additionally, it details the materials in machinery stocks and provides an overview on the total stocks including per capita figures for materials currently in use.

This dataset provides a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) of Samothraki between 1929 to 2019. It involves key indicators such as Domestic Extraction (DE), Imports, Exports, Direct Material Inputs (DMI), and Domestic Material Consumption (DMC). It also covers waste management, emissions, and overall material throughput, providing a comprehensive view of the island’s resource use and environmental impact.

This dataset provides the Physical Trade Balance for Samothraki, during 1929 to 2019. It showcases the net flow of materials like biomass, fossil fuels, ores, minerals, and other products. It also puts materials into groups such as crops, animal biomass, wood, fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, gas, peat), ores, metals, minerals, and various products, providing an analysis of the island’s trade and material structure.

This dataset showcases construction and demolition waste (CDW) and municipal solid waste (MSW) on Samothraki, between 1929 to 2019. It breaks down CDW by materials used in buildings and roads, such as concrete, wood, steel, plasterboard, and bitumen. While the MSW data includes categories like organic waste, paper, metals, plastics, and glass, along with information on MSW exports, providing a view on the island’s waste sources and management.

Domestic Energy Consumption (DEC) 1929-2019

dissipative use and dissipative losses 1929-2019

Emissions from fossil fuels, biomass combustion, respiration and composting in CO2, CH4, N2O, NH3 from 1929-2019

Imports and Exports 1929-2019

Sedentary extensive small ruminant farming systems are highly important for the preservation of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland. Both the abandonment of grazing and overgrazing have led to environmental degradation in many Mediterranean regions. On the Greek island of Samothrace, decades of overgrazing by sheep and goats has caused severe degradation of local ecosystems. The present study highlights the importance of regional contexts for national and EU agricultural policies in regard to sustainable development of sedentary extensive livestock systems. By utilizing the conceptual framework of socio-ecological systems research, we analyze the interdependencies of environmental, economic and social factors on a local island level. Results show that between 1929 and 2016, the livestock and land-use system of Samothrace transformed from a diverse system towards a simplified system, solely used for small ruminant production. Total livestock units increased from 2200 in 1929 to 7850 in 2002, declining to 5100 thereafter. The metabolic analysis conducted for the years 1993–2016 shows that 80–90% of the feed demand of small ruminants was covered by grazing, exceeding available grazing resources for at least a decade. The regional implementation of CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) continues to support excessively high animal numbers, while farmers are highly dependent on subsidies and find themselves in an economic deadlock.

This dataset showcases the demographic and reproduction data of sheep and goats in Samothraki from 1993 to 2016. It includes the fertility rate of adult females, their productivity (based on offspring and milk production), as well as the death rates of lambs/kids, and other animals. It provides an overview throughout the years of demographic changes and reproductive data for both goats and sheeps on the island.

This dataset showcases the feed intake of sheep and goats in Samothraki from 1993 to 2016. It includes the amounts of fresh grass, hay, crop residues, leaves, and grains consumed between sheeps and goats. The data provides an overview of the island's year-to-year feeding patterns for both animals.

This dataset outlines the feed demand and consumption patterns for livestock in Samothraki, including imported and locally produced feed, crop residues, leaves, and fresh grass. It also provides estimates of grazed biomass based on net primary productivity (NPP).

This dataset provides the livestock population and livestock units (LSU) on Samothraki island between 1929 until 2017. It quantifies various animals, including chickens, horses, cows, sheep, goats, and others, with their corresponding LSU values. This dataset provides an overview of livestock population and demographic data for the island on a yearly basis.

Population dataset Samothraki, based on census data (ELSTAT) and interpolated numbers 1921-2019

This dataset outlines the actual, potential, and total annual production of milk and meat of small ruminants, specifically for sheep and goats in Samothraki between 1993 -2016. It provides insights into livestock production and capacity on the island.

For the Greek island of Samothraki, the EU recovery and recycling targets for construction and demolition waste seem currently far out of reach. For many island communities dealing with waste represents one of the major challenges towards a local sustainable development (Eckelman et al. 2014). The EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) demands from EU member states a 70% recovery and recycling rate for construction and demolition waste (CDW) by 2020. With the implementation of the 2018 Circular Economy (CE) package the significance of recycling and reuse even increased (European Commission 2016; 2018). The present study introduces a case about the small and remote Greek island Samothraki that due to numerous reasons is currently far away from meeting these targets. Since the construction of a new port in the late 1960s, the island experienced an unprecedented era of infrastructure expansion accompanied by new and complex challenges regarding CDW. With no proper management system for CDW in place, material output was so far used for backfilling or simply dumped illegally somewhere on the island or into the sea. Buildings and infrastructure provide important services to society and depending on their lifetimes can shape material demand and waste generation for a long time due to inherent path dependencies (Fishman et al. 2015; Haberl et al. 2017). By applying a dynamic bottom-up stock modelling approach (Tanikawa et al. 2015; Stephan and Athanassiadis 2018), this study aims at establishing a comprehensive analysis of drivers and quantities for resource consumption and CDW generation on the island of Samothraki for buildings and infrastructure from 1971 to 2016.

This dataset seeks to determine the amount of material waste generated by buildings and roads in Samothraki between the years 1971 till 2016.

This dataset showcases the amount of CDW (Construction and demolition waste) produced in the island of Samothraki between the years 1971-2016.

Livestock numbers and Livestock Units from 1929-2019

This database showcases the material flow analysis (MFA), helping assess resource use by tracking what enters, is used, reused, and exits the island’s system. The categories described include imports, exports, recycling, and material outputs.

This dataset showcases the total material requirement per capita within the Samothraki Island from 1971 to 1976. It is measured in tonnes per person per year (t/cap/yr). The database is divided by infrastructure stocks (buildings, roads, ports), construction and maintenance flows, and resource inputs (imports and local extraction). The data explain how much needed material was consumed annually to support the island's share of infrastructure and resource consumption.

Connectivity and affluence provide communities on small islands with opportunities and challenges. Both factors drive the expansion of material stocks which in turn determines future waste generation. For islands with limited waste treatment options an effective waste management strategy is inevitable. For the Greek island of Samothraki, construction and demolition waste (CDW) represents a new phenomenon. The advent of tourism, EU funding, labor migration and the construction of a new port in the 1960s led to an expansion of the built environment unprecedented on the island. As a consequence, new types and expanding quantities of CDW put the island community increasingly in the need for action. The European Waste Framework Directive, reinforced in 2018 with the Circular Economy Package, demands from EU member states at least 70% recycling and recovery rate of CDW until 2020. In this study, a mixed methods approach enabled the integration of data from official statistics, field surveys and interviews into a dynamic stock-driven model for different infrastructure and buildings types on Samothraki from 1971 to 2016. Our results show that the material stock expanded from 175 t/cap to 350 t/cap in the given period, leading to a 15-fold increase of annual CDW generation. With a recycling rate of only 14%, the island is currently far away from meeting the recycling and recovery targets of the EU-WFD. This study provides a systematic and dynamic analysis for developing policy and management options on reducing, re-using and recycling of CDW on islands where waste treatment options are limited.

Connectivity and affluence provide communities on small islands with opportunities and challenges. Both factors drive the expansion of material stocks which in turn determines future waste generation. For islands with limited waste treatment options an effective waste management strategy is inevitable. For the Greek island of Samothraki, construction and demolition waste (CDW) represents a new phenomenon. The advent of tourism, EU funding, labor migration and the construction of a new port in the 1960s led to an expansion of the built environment unprecedented on the island. As a consequence, new types and expanding quantities of CDW put the island community increasingly in the need for action. The European Waste Framework Directive, reinforced in 2018 with the Circular Economy Package, demands from EU member states at least 70% recycling and recovery rate of CDW until 2020. In this study, a mixed methods approach enabled the integration of data from official statistics, field surveys and interviews into a dynamic stock-driven model for different infrastructure and buildings types on Samothraki from 1971 to 2016. Our results show that the material stock expanded from 175 t/cap to 350 t/cap in the given period, leading to a 15-fold increase of annual CDW generation. With a recycling rate of only 14%, the island is currently far away from meeting the recycling and recovery targets of the EU-WFD. This study provides a systematic and dynamic analysis for developing policy and management options on reducing, re-using and recycling of CDW on islands where waste treatment options are limited.

Grazing management practices can be erosion abatement actions for lowering soil loss and the subsequent sediment pollution of surface water bodies. Process-based Geographic Information Systems models provide the opportunity to identify critical areas and hence better target such actions across the landscape. This study implemented the SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) hydrologic and catchment management model to estimate the soil loss vulnerability of the nearly pristine but highly erodible Greek island of Samothraki in the North Aegean Sea, with a typical Mediterranean climate and steep topography. Model parameterization and evaluation were carried out by taking advantage of previous modeling experience on areas with data limitations. Inter-annual and intra-annual soil loss variability and the most critical areas (subbasins) of soil loss to waters were adequately identified and grazing management scenarios, including livestock reductions by 50% and 100%, grazing period reduction, and a combination of them, were formulated and applied to investigate the degree to which soil loss could be reduced. The annual reduction results varied between scenarios in the range of 10% to 25% for the entire island, and in wider ranges for its individual subbasins, showing a high potential for reducing the vulnerability of the most pressured ones. However, due to the high importance of the natural factors of rainfall and land slopes, the erosion vulnerability of the island overall could be significantly altered only if grazing management was integrated within a vegetation regeneration plan that included reforestation.

In the search for sustainable food systems, the Mediterranean diet occupies a prominent place, from the point of view of health, by standards of ecological sustainability and as promoting a culture of moderation and conviviality. Focusing on the Greek island of Samothraki, this chapter tells the story of a community which finds itself in the middle of a dual transition, socio-metabolically, from a traditional agrarian lifestyle to a modern industrial society, and nutritionally, towards a westernization of diets. We aim at understanding current dynamics and identify potential leverage points for sustainability, from a socio-metabolic perspective. Despite an increasing dependence on imports, our findings highlight the significant role of agricultural self-provisioning and informal food networks, as an example of “quiet sustainability”. We propose to reinforce these sustainable elements of local tradition by associating them with values that find resonance within the community, such as health, localness and quality. There is the potential to support a better utilisation of local produce and make adherence to the Mediterranean diet and culture more attractive and economically viable.

Livestock keeping and food production from grasslands play an important role in the Mediterranean region, where grazing has a long tradition and still is a key livelihood strategy. Yet, in many places widespread degradation (caused by overgrazing) severely threatens the natural resource base and prospects for future food security and sustainable development. On Samothraki, a Greek island, several decades of continuous increase of the local livestock population, exceeding not only the local food base by far but also the local farmers’ ability to provide supplementary feed, led to a socio-ecological tipping point turning the dynamics downward. Still, in the face of very restricted marketing opportunities, we find local farmers in an economic deadlock of relying on CAP subsidies as a main source of income and on still too high animal numbers for maintaining an ecological balance of their land while lacking the labor power (due to large-scale migration to Germany in the 1950s and 60 s) to apply adequate management practices. In this paper, we present a feed balance (feed-demand and supply) for sheep and goats from 1970 to 2012 and discuss causes and effects of the excessive growth in animal numbers, as well as reasons for their downturn in the last decade. We describe the island’s groundcover and symptoms of soil degradation, and underline our findings by reference to a remote sensing approach. Our findings recently gained in prominence as in September 2017, a state of emergency had to be declared on the island when a major weather event triggered a series of landslides that severely damaged the main town, a number of roads and bridges and even the 700 years old Fonias Tower, a marker of Samothraki tourism.

In recent decades the Greek island of Samothrace has suffered a series of environmental, social and financial hardship, but there are reasons to hope. The film "WINGS OF SAMOTHRAKI – Pathways to Sustainable Development" follows and documents an ambitious research project that aims to assist the island's inhabitants in establishing a vision of a sustainable future for Samothrace. The research project, led by the Austrian Professor Marina Fischer-Kowalski and supported by an international research team depends on the active participation of the local community. It aims at addressing current challenges by developing long-term strategies to maintain a balance between economic and social well-being and the preservation of the island's environmental and cultural assets. This example can inspire similar efforts around the world. The film had its premiere on 18. October 2018 in Filmcasino in Vienna. Length: 52min Language: eng/greek with subtitles Idea & concept: Doris Habeler, Armin Faymann Directed by: Armin Faymann Produktion: kipos production

The consequences are a wide variety of environmental but also social problems which the island community is currently facing. One of the major threats is the sharp increase in free roaming small ruminants since the 1960s, which has led to overgrazing, soil erosion and infrastructure destruction (Biel and Tan 2014). This development threatens the conservation goals of the large NATURA 2000 sites and future core area of the planned UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Fischer-Kowalski et al. 2011), covering more than two thirds of the mountainous island and parts of the adjacent marine area (Fig.1). In this presentation, we focus on our work with the local farming community in order to reduce grazing pressure on the island’s ecosystems and restore areas highly afected by erosion.

In the Mediterranean Basin land cover and land use are tightly coupled (e.g. Aranzabal et al. 2008; Röder et al. 2008; Plieninger et al. 2011). Grazing is a main contributor to the semi-natural Mediterranean landscape. Land cover change is highly and sensibly linked with alterations of local grazing management (e.g. Verburg et al. 2009). The north-Aegean island Samothraki shows alarming signs of inadequate grazing (Fischer-Kowalski et al. 2011; Biel & Tan 2014; Fuchs 2014). Patterns of overgrazing and accompanying erosion are obvious. Local LC-dynamics seem to put the island's sustainable development at risk. Samothraki may torpedoes its own future possibilities and final intention to become a member of UNESCO’s Man-of-Biosphere Programme. In this sense, a multiple remote sensing approach was employed to assess spatio-temporal land cover information and former dynamics of ecosystem properties on the small island. Present land cover types were combined with time series data of ecosystem properties (NDVI) of the last three decades (1984-2015). LANDSAT-footprints provide high-resolution data (USGS (United States Geological Survey) 2016b). The available open-source dataset was reviewed, adequate data selected and pre-processed. A Maximum-Likelihood-classification delivered discrete vegetation-information of nine LC-types (Congedo 2015). Satellite-calibrated NDVI-values were calculated for 16 data-points. Kmeans-clustering was applied to finally assign NDVI-TS-data to five trend categories that indicate specific increase, decrease or non-dynamics of NDVI. Qualitative on-site assessments of ground-truth LC validate the classification outcomes and document areas that show high dynamics of NDVI. The TS-analysis shows that during the first investigation period vast areas suffered a substantial downturn trend of the vegetation state (hotspots of grazing). Since 2003 most parts of the island experienced a slightly increasing land cover. On the one hand, the course of local land cover dynamics can be explained by highly fluctuant and heterogeneous grazing pressure on Samothraki. Furthermore, Ground-truth assessments highlighted that areas that have once undergone degradation of vegetation cover, are now prone to be affected by irreversible soil erosion. On the other hand, undesired shrub encroachment and weed invasion result in a wide-spread increase of local vegetation during last years. The results were embedded and discussed in the local process framework (e.g. Lasanta & Vicente-Serrano 2012) of the island’s specific grazing regime. Samothraki’s grazing system was strongly influenced by basic land use transitions at greater scales. First the local mode of livestock breeding underwent intensification processes (e.g. Kosmas et al. 2015), accompanied by a general disregard of the local rangeland state (e.g. Kizos et al. 2013) and followed by an effort-minimising style of farming that offers hardly any prospects for local breeders. This assessment reveals that concentrating grazing (e.g. Zervas 1998; Röder et al. 2007) of unregulated livestock as well as abandonment of labour-intensive management practices (e.g. Kizos et al. 2013; Giourga et al. 1998) occurred on the island. Although vegetation cover re-increases, related potentials of general increases in pasture productivity seem to be unused. Rather land abandonment processes influence the landscape development of Samothraki Island. Today accelerating bush encroachment and the loss of top soils are the main limiting factors of re-obtaining a sufficient local grazing capacity. Current land use patterns indicate great missing potentials in terms of a worthwhile grazing- and land-based livelihood in the future. Finally, the applied remote sensing approach can serve as an essential monitoring tool for future LC-dynamics of Samothraki Island.

We highlight the importance of island research that aims to achieve sustainability transitions. All too often, developmental priorities are largely defined by economic policy imperatives, and island research either ignores or masks such normative connotations. This article reports on ten years of transdisciplinary socioecological research on the Greek island of Samothraki. We sequentially: (i) introduce socioecological thinking and the conceptual framework of social ecology, and show how this is operationalised and applied on this case study, and (ii) highlight the importance of a transdisciplinary research approach, in promoting island sustainability. We conclude with a plea for more transformative research and citizen research in the direction of sustainability within island studies.

On the Greek island of Samothraki an unconventional story unfolds, where under the rubric of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme, the Biosphere Reserve (BR) concept has been employed in order to propose and implement an alternative vision of local development from the bottom-up. After several years of research and communication efforts, an idea in the minds of regular visiting scientists was scrutinised by the local community and gradually shared with a wider group of inhabitants and the local authorities. The community council has endorsed an application to UNESCO and committed to pursue an operational plan in the direction of sustainability, inspired by and pertaining to the BR philosophy. From a policy perspective, this –still ongoing– process has generated a unique opportunity to pre-structure, observe and reflect on a process of evolving decision-making and management towards a sustainability transformation of an island.

The very ‘insularity’ of islands makes them excellent focal points for sustainability studies that systematically analyze the interactions between human activities and the environment. In this chapter, we seek to explore the factors that cause island societies to prosper and sustain themselves and those that lead to collapse. A number of historical cases of collapse have occurred on the island we investigate (Samothraki, Greece) in the sense of a breakdown of social complexity and rapid population decline. At present, there is a fragile situation of slow population decline and ecological challenges that might be brought to a ‘tipping point’ by the impacts of the Greek economic and governance crisis and by climate change. The island community has decided to make an effort to turn the whole island into a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO standards. Building upon a sociometabolic understanding of socioecological systems and using systems thinking (and, to a certain degree, modeling), we attempt to identify environmental and social ‘tipping points’ for Samothraki. Moreover, in line with the Long-Term Socioecological Research (LTSER) tradition, we argue that analyzing society-environment relations for different phases of the island’s history and gaining insights from past collapses can help to identify threats and possible ailments. Finally, this chapter will reflect not only on the outcome but also on the process of performing transdisciplinary research, that is, research that aims to achieve a practical outcome.

Das Viehhaltungssystem der griechischen Insel Samothraki befindet sich in einem ökologisch und ökonomisch nicht nachhaltigen Zustand. Die Fördergelder der Gemeinsamen Europäischen Agrarpolitik boten den Landwirten Anreize, die Größe der Ziegen- und Schafherden zu steigern und so die ökologisch determinierte Grenze, natürliches Weideland, zu überwinden. Die Steigerung der Herdengröße und die Entkopplung vom primären Produktionsfaktor Weideland resultieren in einer erhöhten Abhängigkeit von externen Betriebsmitteln. Die Arbeit zeigt die Entwicklung des ehemals Weide-basierten Viehhaltungssystems der kleinen Wiederkäuer auf Samothraki auf und diskutiert die Rolle europäischer Agrarförderungen für das Ansteigen der Tierpopulation. Zusätzlich wird die Nachhaltigkeit auf betrieblicher Ebene durch den interdisziplinären MESMIS-Ansatz operationalisiert. Eine Verlängerung der Wertschöpfung sowie die Reduktion der Herdengröße führen zu einer Verbesserung der betrieblichen wie ökologischen Parameter.

Die Insel Samothraki (180 km2, knapp 3000 Einwohner) liegt im Nordosten des Ägäischen Archipels. Sie zeichnet sich durch archaische Schönheit aus und durch landschaftliche, ökologische und kulturelle Besonderheiten. Das zentrale, 1600 Meter hohe Gebirge, das circa zwei Drittel der Gesamtfläche einnimmt, ist seit 2001 Natura-2000-Schutzgebiet; vor kurzem wurde auch noch ein Meeres-schutzgebiet eingerichtet. Samothraki ist bis jetzt dem Phänomen des Massentourismus entgangen. Mit nur 0,5 Tourismusbetten pro Einwohner liegt die Insel in einem Vergleich am unteren Ende der Skala (Spilanis/Vayanni 2004). Selbst in der (sehr kurzen) Hauptsaison beträgt nach unseren Ermittlungen (offizielle Statistiken sind irre-führend) die Zahl der Besucher der Insel (Familienangehörige, Touristen, Sai-sonarbeiterInnen und ZweithausbesitzerInnen) pro Tag nur etwas mehr als das Doppelte der Einwohner. Dennoch beläuft sich ihre Zahl auf knapp 40.000 Per-sonen jährlich. (Berechnungsmodus: Fischer-Kowalski et al. 2011: Tab.1). Grün-de dafür sind die isolierte Lage der Insel (Samothraki kann nur durch eine zwei-stündige Überfahrt von Alexandropoli, der östlichsten Stadt auf dem griechi-schen Festland, erreicht werden), dass sie nur über Kiesel-, keine Sandstrände verfügt, und der Umstand, dass wegen der wechselvollen Geschichte der Insel zwischen Griechenland und der Türkei Landbesitz rechtlich oft umstritten ist (was den Verkauf großer Grundstücke für die Errichtung touristischer Anlagen erschwert).

Since 2007, the Institute of Social Ecology (SEC) has been conducting socioecological research on the Greek island of Samothraki. Because research is not the only aim, the institute is simultaneously supporting the local population in a process of placing the island on a path towards a sustainable future by “transforming” it into a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Based on our research, administrative efforts and networking work, an application signed by the Mayor and unanimously supported by the municipal council has been submitted by the Greek National MAB committee to UNESCO. The application, currently under review, points at including Samothraki in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Within this framework, in October 2012, we organized a 1 week student excursion to the island of Samothraki during a crucial phase of the official application process. The objectives of the course were manifold: to (a) expose students to sustainability and development challenges in a local setting seen from the perspective of social ecology, (b) reflect and engage in the design of a management plan to include initial project ideas for the new Biosphere Reserve, such as sustainable tourism, land use, water, waste and energy systems, and (c) allow for the experience of a transdisciplinary research process by learning to interact with stakeholders and conduct interviews in a culturally challenging environment. Methodologically, during the excursion two main approaches were pursued: (a) focus group interviews with local stakeholders (such as fishermen, farmers, local professionals, elderly people in need of care etc.) in order to explore alternative visions for the future of the island and (b) distance sampling methods in order to estimate livestock densities in different area types. This was performed in order to assess the pressing problem of erosion and biodiversity loss due to overgrazing. The aim of the working paper is to provide insight into these methodological approaches and the outcome of research conducted during the course, while reflecting on some of the challenges encountered in this transdisciplinary process and those that might still arise.

The Samothraki 2014 project was intended to both facilitate data collection and offer research methods training for graduate students. The qualitative module entitled ‘Focus groups and visioning’ involved future-centred focus groups with people from Samothraki (Greece). Participants were asked to talk about their vision for the island in 2030 and to discuss steps to turn that vision into practice. The concluding part of the focus group involved a questions and answers session which provided opportunities for both participants and researchers to raise and answer specific questions. Six focus groups were conducted between 3-7 May 2014, involving 37 local people from diverse economic sectors and social groups, including farming, fishing and bee keeping, tourism, public sector administration and civil society. A particular effort was made to involve adults from all age groups. All groups were organised, facilitated and translated by local people. Across all groups participants raised a number of key issues that relate to 1) current challenges affecting the island, 2) hopes for the future of Samothraki in 2030 and 3) ideas how to achieve this desired future.

Samothraki land cover classes for 2012

The process of establishing a biosphere reserve (BR) under UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme on the island of Samothraki in the NE Aegean (Greece) is conceptualized as a case study of transdisciplinarity. The point of departure has been the wish to preserve an island with unique natural and cultural heritage from potentialy destructive pathways of transforming it into just another Greek beach tourist destination and to come up with an alternative development model. This has generated a unique opportunity to pre-structure, observe and reflect on a process of evolving decision making and management towards a sustainability transformation of an island. After several years of research and communication efforts, the mayor of Samothraki, with the unanimous support of the municipal council and the Greek National MAB Committee, submitted an application to UNESCO for Samothraki to be included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. A positive decision will make Samothraki the first post-Seville BR in Greece. After briefly introducing the study area, this report will discuss the opportunities of this new perspective, as well as the challenges that need to be faced, both on the ground and in people’s minds, for the island of Samothraki to become a true model of sustainable development in the wider region.

This research explored the feasibility of transforming the island of Samothraki, Greece, into a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The goal was to assess whether this would help to foster a sustainable socio-economic development and to preserve the unique natural and cultural heritage of the island. In recent years the number of seasonal residents and tourists on the island has been growing substantially, and so, too, have the demands upon facili ties and infrastructures. The number of livestock, primarily goats and sheep, has increased exponentially, enhanced by the agricultu ral policies of the EU. Overgrazing, in combination with the steepness of terrain, has led to severe soil erosion, even within the existing Natura 2000 conserva tion area. Such conditions made it apparent that a new develop ment model was needed, and an initiative was started to create a biosphere reserve. In a transdisciplinary process, the scientists gradually transferred ownership of this vision to local stakeholders. A biophysical and socio-economic assess ment showed that a biosphere reserve would be appropriate and be welcomed by the majority of stakeholders. The community council recently endorsed an application to UNESCO.