The importance of goats to a natural environment: a case study from Epirus (Greece) and Southern Albania

In the Epirus region of North‐west Greece, spring flows in villages have reduced dramatically over the last few decades, in some cases with serious economic consequences. We argue here that this has resulted from the major reduction of grazing by mountain goats over the same period together with other associated land‐use changes. Normally such a contention would be impossible to demonstrate because many different causes could be invoked. However, prior to 1946 culturally homogenous Greek‐speaking communities with identical pastoral practices were separated by the closure of the Greek‐Albanian border. Changes of spring flow have not occurred on the Albanian side of the border where heavy grazing has continued. In a region such as Greece where pastoralism has continued for thousands of years, the environment had reached an equilibrium with goat grazing. Apart from the reduction of spring flows, other undesirable ecological consequences are occurring. It is also interesting to note that long‐term water table changes such as those occurring in Epirus have been attributed to tectonic effects and thought to potentially predict earthquakes. The effect however, may be the result of goats and other livestock ‘leaving’ and not the result of earthquakes ‘coming’.