ABSTRACT
The Mediterranean Basin is a biodiversity hotspot. Greek forest ecosystems are threatened both by natural causes (e.g., fires, erosion, and desertification) and by human activities (e.g., overgrazing, land clearing, and deforestation). Mount Penteli belongs to the zone of the warm Mediterranean formations of the eastern Mediterranean (Oleo-Ceratonion plant alliance). The forest areas (Ntaou Pentelis – Lyreio, Attica), which were most recently burned in 2018, had been burned many times in recent years. The monitoring of vegetation after the 2018 fire showed that the natural regeneration did not have satisfactory results due to the fact that Mount Penteli had been burned many times in the recent past: in the years 1995, 1998, 2005, and 2009. Therefore, the area was declared as reforestable. In 2020, a forestry company began the reforestation. The criteria for the reforestation included selecting plant species that are adapted to the site conditions and using and sourcing endemic plant species from as close to Mount Penteli as possible. The tree and shrub species that were selected for the reforestation were tolerant of the extreme weather conditions (e.g., frost and heat) that occur on Mount Penteli. Finally, reforestation is more time, labor, and financially intensive, but increasingly organizations and institutions are becoming aware of the tremendous value of the forests and the need to ensure their protection.
