Schinias wetland: A national park or a solar saltwork?

Abstract

Schinias is a small coastal biotope under environmental pressure. Partial drainage of the wetland and different disturbing activities have degraded ecological habitats and decreased biodiversity for many decades. Recently, the construction of a rowing centre has restored hydrological regime and the area has been designated as a National Park; however, application of conservation measures meets difficulties of social and financial nature. In this paper, bird diversity is used as an indicator to examine Schinias' ecosystem state, according to three different scenarios: the first one refers to the diversity that had been recorded before restoration of the hydrological regime; the second one refers to the diversity that has been recently recorded and corresponds to the actual condition of the National Park with the rowing center; the third one corresponds to a potential diversity that would be observed in case Schinias became a solar saltwork. © 2009 Global NEST.