Box 23B The abandonment of the dehesas and montados in Southern Europe

Dehesa, Portugal

Source: C Steenmans


In Spain and Portugal, multi-purpose ecosystems called dehesas and montados were traditionally used and formed a valuable landscape of pastures mixed with open woodland: the open tree stratum dominated by oak species (Quercus suber, Quercus ilex, Quercus pyrenaica and Quercus rotundifolia) was grown for cork, timber, fuel and charcoal, but also tannin and acorns, together with shifting cultivation of cereals, and grazing of pigs, sheep, goats and cattle on fallow land. This has led to an artificial system with a high degree of patchiness and characterised by a tree cover of 10 to 80 trees per hectare at most (Joffre, 1992). These mixed systems were ecologically rational and economically productive, but required intensive recurrent management practices, including the use of fire (Catarino, 1992). Since the 1970s and the rapid development of intensive animal husbandry, these agroforestry systems were progressively abandoned. This led to the invasion of the open landscape by shrubs, therefore increasing fire risk. These systems still cover almost 5 million hectares in southwestern Spain and more than half a million hectares in Portugal, but are under tremendous pressure. Despite their ecological importance in the Mediterranean area (for maintaining greater water availability), the remaining dehesas and montados undergo steady erosion due to the combined pressures of livestock grazing, frequent fires and urban and rural development (Catarino, 1992). (See also Box 8F, Chapter 8.)