Rangelands and regional development of Thessalia

The total area of Thessalia is 14,036,600 stremmata or 10,63% of the total area of Greece. This paper examines the importance of the rangelands in the regional development of Thessaly. The approach used is as follows. In the beginning the distribution and the changes of rangelands during the period 1991-1999 is examined. In the second part, the evolution of the agricultural population, the cattle breading, the livestock production and the social-economic conditions during the period 1961-2001 is examined. The results indicate that the agricultural population decreased, while the unemployment was increased. The cattle breading was sector contributes a lot to the total regional product.