Do the mountain habitats of the brown bear and wolf in NW Epirus retain a sufficient amount of water?

About a year and a half ago the Boulouki team designed the objectives of the “Connectivity Conservation Initiative for Fresh Drinking Water” project. The process took into account the scientific data on the adverse changes the climate crisis will bring about to the mountainous ecosystems of the Mastorochoria area of ​​the Municipality of Konitsa/NW Epirus. However, the team could not have imagined that even just one year later water scarcity would create an urgent need to provide drinking water to wildlife in this area!

The conservation of ecological connectivity of the protected areas (Natura 2000 Koryfes Orous Smolikas – GR2130002, Koryfes Orous Grammos – GR1320002, Pyrgos-Vourkopotamos Wildlife Sanctuary) and Roadless Areas in Northwestern Epirus is an important interdisciplinary project within one of the PONT focus areas (CCA North-Western Greece). Biologists of the environmental organisation for Wildlife and Nature “Callisto”, hydrogeologists and geologists of the Hellenic Survey of Geology and Mineral Exploration and the project team of Boulouki (three architects and one environmental engineer) have been working closely with the PONT team since September 2023.

The first period of collaboration involved the collection of bio signs of brown bear and wolf (bear hair stuck on resin, bear marking on power pole, bear, and wolf scat) through successive field surveys in different seasons. Subsequently, using habitat suitability models, the ecological corridors of the wild animals were identified. According to the models, both species of interest prefer forest-dominated landscapes with low inclinations and elevation range. Furthermore, wolves are found at higher altitudes than bears and avoid human settlements.

At the same time, temperature sensors were installed in the ecological corridors in order to continuously collect data for the observation of annual temperature changes. Temperature, soil components and hydrogeological characteristics are being recorded in the ecological corridors which correspond to significant abiotic factors. These factors determine habitat quality and are most affected by climate change. Therefore, they are part of the applied research conducted in the project in order to design practical solutions to enhance the conservation of the ecosystem services in the connectivity area.

In addition, with the active participation of local communities, traditional ecological knowledge regarding the management of natural resources was recorded with a focus on water resources. The knowledge recorded by the field research concerned the mixed agro-pastoral economy and self-sufficiency, the organization of land uses around the settlements, the cultural landscape created by the processes of appropriation of nature, the ways of quarrying and stone processing, logging, and water management. Soon, this valuable knowledge will be incorporated into the partners websites as open-access content, creating an informative resource.

Ultimately, water supply is the most critical factor for biodiversity conservation and determines the movement of wild animals in the connectivity area. Therefore, the key conservation action of the project is the construction of small-scale water infrastructures to provide drinking water to brown bear and wolf. The first construction will be implemented during the 5th-8th of October with the participation of local communities and scientists from different parts of Greece and abroad. At the same time, a local action group concerning water conservation is being established. Members of the local communities, representatives of organisations and associations and local authorities have expressed great interest and responded to invitations for open discussing procedures. The main theme of the discussions was around identifying the challenges for people, wild animals, and the environment, within the new conditions of coexistence that have emerged in the light of the climate crisis.

Through our collaboration with PONT, we strongly believe that we will contribute to the revival of the sustainable practices in order to enhance the resilience of human and wildlife communities, given that we live in an era where the climate crisis creates new emergencies like water scarcity and biodiversity loss.

By: “Boulouki”.