Rural Landscapes: The Historical Roots of Biodiversity

The Archeology of Woodland Ecology: Reconstructing Past Woodmanship Practices of Wooded Pasture Systems in Italy

“…Moreover, as a consequence of rural depopulation and land abandonment, Mediterranean and Alpine areas have been subjected to a rapid spread of spontaneous woodlands. While some scholars value this process as a welcome return to a past before the The Archeology of Woodland Ecology: Reconstructing Past Woodmanship Practices of Wooded… DOI: http://dx.doi.org /10.5772/intechopen.86101 agricultural and pastoral human activities started to manage the land, others consider that the new woodland disguises the loss of traditional woodland knowledge and the reduction of biodiversity associated with pastures and meadows [20,89]. In the case studies presented above, the medieval and post-medieval history of the wooded resources of the Mediterranean mountains appears to be dominated by animal production; a complex agro-sylvo-pastoral system concealed by the development of nineteenth and twentieth century forestry sciences and allied forestry law regime that bring the end to the customary regime, which was used to regulate woodland and commons resources access.…”

Biocultural Diversity in Europe

“…The decline of the herbaceous resources during the twentieth century can be directly correlated to the suspension of the grazing (Cevasco and Moreno 2010). The presence of wooded pastures is still recorded in certain mountain areas, comprised within the system of monitoring of the Tuscan landscape, by the data in the Agricultural Land Register of 1832 Analysis of the data collected showed that wooded pasture covered 11.2 % of the territory and represented 44.5 % of the grazing land (Agnoletti 2010a).…”

Apicultural Spaces as Biocultural Places: A Comparative Temporal and Spatial Examination of Beekeeping Practices and Their Contextual Landscapes in the Northwest Apennines

“…The rapid spread of spontaneous woodland has and is occurring in many parts of Mediterranean Europe, and is seen by some as a welcome return to idealized notions of landscapes before they were shaped by human activities (Monbiot 2013). As with many areas of the Italian Apennines, in Liguria rural depopulation and abandonment have led to the unintentional regeneration of dense woodland thereby constituting an example of unplanned 'rewilding' (Balzaretti et al 2004;Cevasco 2007Cevasco , 2013Watkins 2014). This secondary, semi-natural vegetation has created the ideal habitat for the return of species, particularly the wild boar, deer and wolves (Hearn et al 2014;Hearn 2015).…”

“…In northwest Italy, the processes of land abandonment have been described by several authors (cfr Cevasco et al 2013). Vos and Stortelder (1992) describe the land abandonment in the Tuscan Apennines as a consequence of the decrease in the number of people active in agriculture and forestry during recent decades.…”

“…In Europe, the switch from 'traditional' to postmodern landscapes has resulted in the loss of many valuable landscapes during the last 200 years (Cevasco and Moreno 2013). This turnover was characterized by significant differences in the dynamics, speed, and scale of landscape change and the subsequent changes in perceptions, values and the related behaviours of their users (Antrop 2005).…”