The analyses and interpretations that the social sciences have been making in recent decades on the theme of common property call for a fresh look at the history of the commons. Such a vision no longer considers them as resources necessarily destined to disappear, but rather attempts to discover what forces have acted on their historical trajectory. From this perspective, this paper analyses the evolution of common lands in Spain over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To that end, it rests on an interpretative proposal that, over time, common lands in Spain have experienced an alteration in their economic usefulness and have had to transform themselves in order to adapt to changing situations. In this context, the various agricultural and, indeed, general economic conjunctures, the evolution of social forces, as well as the make-up of the political system, have all played a major part in the greater or lesser persistence of the commons, in their forms of use and in their more or less successful adaptation to new situations.

No abstract

This paper analyses the increase in forest surface covered by trees in Spain in the second half of the twentieth century in the light of Forest Transition Theory and explores the existence of a statistical relationship between this process and the extension of forest fires. The study describes the afforestation policy based on new forest plantations started by Franco´s regime in 1940 which surpassed the chronological limits of the dictatorship and lasted until 1988, linking it to the forest fires that occurred in the period 1968-2002. The objective is to determine, at a provincial level, the extent to which the afforestation activity affected the number of hectares burnt. The evidence shows a significant positive relationship between forest fires and the afforested hectares, especially 30-35 years after plantations. The effect increases when the model is implemented exclusively for the Cantabrian and Atlantic northwest provinces, especially affected by afforestation programmes. Our findings reinforce the need to complement certain models of Forest Transition based on tree plantations, taking into account the possible relationship that they have with fires, particularly in environmental contexts prone to fires.

This article analyzes wood consumption in Spain between 1860 and 2000, taking into account underlying forces and exploring the effects on Spanish forests. The use of wood as a source of power tended to decline in Spain after the dawn of its industrial development, but this was compensated for by the use of wood as a raw material for industrial and urban purposes. The transition between those two models of wood consumption was very slow. Until the 1960s, the consumption of firewood remained high due to the difficulties in extending modern energy networks, and this coincided with a slow but continuous growth of wood consumption as a raw material. From the 1960s on, firewood consumption collapsed, but the use of wood as a raw material grew rapidly. This article shows the links between those transformations and major changes in the economic, technological, social, and political evolution of the country. It also explores the effects of wood consumption on the Spanish forests, highlighting the complex relationship between those two variables. In the long run, the growth of wood consumption

Although firewood was the main energy source until recently in most parts of the world, our understanding of its consumption levels is still quite limited, even in regard to recent periods. The powerful impact of fossil energy carriers and their major effects on global ecology, economy and society have led us to underestimate the role firewood has continued to play during the energy transition. This article offers a new reconstruction of long-term firewood consumption in Spain, taking into consideration variables related to supply and demand, which are then used to reconstruct the production, appropriation and energy uses of firewood biomass. This new series distinguishes also between the origins (forest or crop firewood), and between different regional behaviors. The main findings indicate that total and per-inhabitant consumption has been greater than traditionally assumed; that there was major regional divergence, with consumption varying significantly from one area to another; that the decline in firewood consumption was gradual and later than previously thought; and that it increased or declined over time in a non-linear fashion. Moreover, the traditionally neglected estimation of the role of woody crops was found to be very significant in this process, as it represented between 20% and 70% of total consumption for the whole data series.