An existing typology to distinguish Lesvos’s agricultural landscape zones uses climatic, geological and land use
criteria to distinguish three zones The 1st zone is the grazing lands zone, consisting mainly of barren
grazing lands (>50% of the area) in which soils of limited nutrient availability lie on recent lava and other compressed
volcanic residuals (tuff) and are recent compared to the rest of the island . The 2nd zone is the olives zone, consisting primarily of olives and pine forests and the 3rd zone is an intermediate zone, which includes elements of both other zones (grazing lands, arable land, olives and pine or oak forests). The visual characteristics of the zones also differ. In the grazing land zone, there are lots of animal husbandry constructions and dry stonewalls separating the relatively large patches. There is also an increased presence of wire fences, the presence of scattered (mainly oak) trees and dominance of garrigue, while there are still some terraces, remnants of agricultural practices that stopped after the 1950s (i.e.ploughing and harvesting cereals and pulses). In the olive trees zone, terraces are the dominant element with the significant presence of stone storehouses and fences, while patches are small. In the intermediate zone, there are elements of the other two zones along with increased presence of arable land in plains