Paper short abstract:

Coastal communities in western Greece historically depended on both the land and sea for protein: Here we present the preliminary results of mapping for rights in the inner Ionian Archipelago using participatory GIS and literature surveys.

Paper long abstract:

Coastal communities in western Greece historically depended on both the land and sea for protein: fish from the sea and livestock from the land.Anthropological evidence suggests that mainland communities focused on grazing and livestock while island communities focused on fishing and other marine trade activities. While grazing zones on land are generally understood to have historic rights, this is not the case with fishing zones. Using participatory GIS and an extensive literature survey, we created preliminary maps of two uses in the inner Ionian environmental conflict zone: historic fishing zones/rights in the sea and nomadic grazing routes on the adjacent mainland of Akarnania. This reveals that space--both on land and in the sea--was demarcated and managed by traditional, pseudo-formal means.

These results have implications in the context of historic rights, especially with respect to marine spatial planning and decision making. Governments and non-governmental entities tend to treat marine space as one with no traditional borders or any historic rights at all. We argue that environmental decision making based on the notion that the sea is common undivided grounds for both mainland and island communities is an erroneous approach concerning rights, because communities in the past did, in fact, manage the sea “spatially” by traditional means that were both effective and sustainable.

Because different communities had different priorities, there is a logical argument against the “sea is for everyone” approach in community conservation .It also cancels the argument that people are excluded from the sea in unfair ways