Balancing Conservation and Human Pressures: The Fragile Coastal Forest Habitats of Chrysi Island (SE Mediterranean, Greece)

The protected island of Chrysi, a Natura 2000 site that hosts one of the Mediterranean’s most significant populations of Juniperus spp. dune forests, stands as a critical case study in the conflict between mass tourism and ecosystem survival. For decades, this fragile environment has been subjected to escalating, largely unregulated tourism pressure, culminating in over 151,000 visitors in 2019, resulting in demonstrable environmental degradation and threatening its long-term viability. This study was undertaken to address this critical conflict by establishing a scientifically robust foundation for sustainable management. The primary objectives were (a) to identify if abiotic stress parameters affected the dune forest degradation; (b) conduct a comprehensive assessment of the island’s tourism carrying capacity, defining the maximum number of daily visitors the ecosystem can support without sustaining irreversible damage; and (c) to support the formulation of a detailed, actionable Protection and Supervision Plan to enforce these limits and guide conservation efforts. The methodology employed a multifaceted approach, integrating analyses of long-term visitor data, a synthesis of baseline ecological and climate data, and a social survey to gauge visitors’ perceptions of environmental conditions and their acceptance of management interventions. The study successfully calculated the carrying capacity based on designated visitable zones and trails. Crucially, social surveys indicated a high level of visitor awareness of the environmental problems and strong support for implementing restrictive measures to protect the island. Based on these integrated findings, this study’s principal recommendation is the immediate and permanent implementation of the proposed management framework, centred on strict adherence to the scientifically determined daily visitor limit. This framework is essential to halt ongoing degradation and ensure the long-term conservation of the Chrysi Island ecosystems, and it recommends a potential model for sustainable island tourism management in the Mediterranean and worldwide.