Mid April 2026
It’s been three decades since I last toured the island of Lesvos. Vassiliki and I were here in July 1995 to map the wetlands of Kalloni and Gera Bays on contract with the Ornithological Society, for a project organized by the Greek Biotope/Wetland Centre (EKBY). The report was an interesting exercise in identifying and organizing wetland conservation needs.
This time I am back on a work-related survey of streams, conducting a rapid assessment of pressures on river water bodies. I am also keeping notes on birds, but I have severe lower back pain and am moving slowly.
There are some things I want to say about the island, and especially about the reasoning behind promoting a “different” kind of tourism here. Lesvos is particularly important for its ecotourism initiatives in Greece.
Firstly, the relative conservation status of the island’s landscapes: they are still largely intact, agro-pastoral, and in many places purely beautiful and authentic. Even the coastlines are well preserved. It is quite amazing. The island’s 300,000 sheep help maintain a wonderful mosaic of agro-forested savannas, phrygana, pseudo-steppe, and heterogeneous maquis, supporting a rich biodiversity of invertebrates, reptiles, and birds. Lesvos is also surprisingly wooded. There is no island in Greece with this extent of oak forest, but it is not just woodland—it is also the beautiful savannas, dense and extensive pinewoods, dry phrygana, rock pastures, punctuated by jagged volcanic magmatic formations. It is a truly unique landscape, and all these habitats are widespread.
Secondly, the biodiversity. The island holds two-thirds of all wetland area in the Aegean Greek islands. Unlike Chios, wetlands are everywhere and in many forms, primarily due to the island’s geology (impervious volcanic rocks) and topography (shallow bays, gulfs, and highly indented coastal plains). This spring has been particularly wet, and all wetlands were well flooded. Biodiversity, in all its forms, is rich both on land and at sea. I am not sure how well this has been studied, but for ichthyofauna we are still lagging behind—and there are some very important fish species in the streams here. Birds, however, are well studied.
Thirdly, in terms of natural history education and ecotourism identity, the island is among the richest and most unique of the Greek islands, perhaps only rivalled by Crete and Corfu. It is the premier Greek island for birding and one of Europe’s best-known birding destinations, with no fewer than three English-language birding guidebooks dedicated to it. The main “honeypot” for birding is the small village of Skala Kalloni, located in the centre of the island next to its largest wetlands. The island also hosts one of the best geological museums I have ever seen, as well as a unique thematic Natural History Museum at its easternmost edge, in the windswept, ocean-like port of Sigri. In addition, the island has a dynamic university with several departments related to environmental studies, geography, and marine sciences.
All this sounds really positive, but is the island’s nature, its culture, its cultural landscapes, and its scenic beauty truly protected?
Well, as one of the birding guidebooks on Lesvos eloquently notes: “Nature conservation as we know it in Europe is not practiced here”... (Dudley, 2007).
So, what are the problems?
- Ecotourism promotion is not enough; it requires proper care of facilities and consistent, keen upkeep. The island’s ecotourism infrastructure is in poor repair, signage is poor, trash everywhere, ugly sprawl close and inside many wildlife hotspots.
- The island is facing a major rural depopulation and farming-collapse crisis. Sustaining the “working, living village” must be a priority for landscape management and biodiversity conservation. Without grazing and traditional land use, this richly heterogeneous mosaic of landscapes will collapse. If this abandonment continues, that would mean future mega-fires, expansion of closed shrub cover, loss of microhabitats for species dependent on open land, and rapid biodiversity decline.
- Water and wetlands may be common landscape features, but they must be better protected. We say many infringements, degradation, garbage dumping.
- The scenic beauty and naturalness, currently maintained largely through benign neglect, are now threatened by two major forces: a) over-development and construction for low-key tourism (moslty holliday home and small hotel building and roading) outside designated settlement areas, and b) industrial wind turbine expansion (threatening the wild western part of the island; which by the way is mostly protected in extensive Natura 2000 sites).
Some snap-shots follow....
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Messa Wetland (aka ''Derbyshire''); one of the signature landscapes of Kalloni Bay (Photo: https://www.lesvosgeopark.gr)
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