PERSPECTIVES ON NATURE CONSERVATION – PATTERNS, PRESSURES AND PROSPECTS

The olive is one of the most ancient cultivated fruit trees. Olive cultivation has a very long history which started from the Third Millennium BC (Loukas & Krimbas, 1983) in the Eastern region of the Mediterranean sea and spread later around the basin following land and maritime routes to Italy, Spain, North Africa and France. Nowadays there are about 805 million of olive trees, 98% of which are grown in the Mediterranean countries (Tsitsipis et al., 2009). The foremost consuming countries are also the main olive oil producers. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,...