Community and Forest: Environmental Narratives in Ikaria island, Greece

Τhis case concerns the Radi forest in Ikaria Island, Greece. It is revealed the role of local, community institutions, and the external institutional context in the organization process of people and forest. This work synthesizes and analyzes, by historical ethnography, the socio-ecological system, its origins and the conditions that contributed to the emergence and establishment of this system. The invention and the appliance of management plans by the self-organized community in Ikaria island, reveals that social praxis such as participation, and cooperation coupled with institutional arrangements achieve a sustainable daily living function for centuries. This social praxis embodies certain qualities like local identities, norms, values, and moral systems.