Study Areas

The location of the activities of the project is the Hortiatis Mountain, the Edesseos river water basin, and the Jasen nature reserve.

Hortiatis Mountain is located east of the city of Thessaloniki, with a maximum altitude of 1,201 meters. The mountain is covered with oaks, chestnuts, beaches and firs.

Sheikh Su, also called Kedrinos Lofos, is a suburban forest of Thessaloniki that extends on the southern and southwestern slopes of Hortiatis. It is the natural “lung” of the city and a place of recreation for its inhabitants. Sheikh Sou hosts 277 species of higher plants. Most of the forest, about 75%, is covered by pine forest, while the presence of cypress trees is also important. On the northern and northeaster sides of the forest there are important areas with holly trees (Quercus), while along the water currents grow plane trees, with the dominant species being the Platanus orientalis tree. The wildfire in 1997 burned more than half of the Kedrinos Lofos suburban forest, important infrastructures such the Electric energy Station causing a general black-out, threatened a children’s camp, and had an important effect on next years’ floods.

Voras is a mountain range on the border of Greece with Northern Macedonia, extending to both countries. It is the dividing line of the prefecture of Pella in the south, with Morichovo in northern Macedonia in the north and extends to the borders of the prefecture of Florina. It is the third highest mountain in Greece and there is a high visited ski resort. The highest peak is 2,524 meters. The peaks of Mount Vora are a protected habitat of the Natura 2000 network code named GR1240001. Vegetation includes wild cypress, steppes, peatlands, beech forests, oak forests, chestnut forests, pine forests, etc. In the protected area of ​​400,000 acres there are 14 caves of paleoecological interest.

Reservе Jasen is a nature reserve in the Republic of North Macedonia. It was turned into a protected nature reserve in 2010 and is situated only 15 km from Skopje. The park compromises around 24,000 hectares of caves, mountains, underground rivers and lakes. The lowest point is the still uncharted canyon lake Matka. The highest point is Mount Karadzica with a height of almost 2,500 metres. The park is home to the endangered Eurasian lynx and the rare Balkan chamois.