Hinterland management

discussion forum	Give your opinion	Other opinions	Number 23 - april 1999

 
Editorial
Cellulose, concrete and cable

The territory and landscape of a country are dynamic and constantly evolving. The climate, geography, and social, cultural and economic change all influence the constant renewal of the environment. It is well known that there is very little rain in Catalonia, the topography is fragmented and the soils are poor. The traditional activities in the primary sectors of production have also gone into decline. The traditional farm population is disappearing, the landscape is being modified and many areas have an ageing population as well as experiencing rural emigration. The threat of forest fires also increases as the result of the abandonment of rural areas, and there have already been a large number of occurrences in different areas of Catalonia.
Resources do not become available for management purposes if forested areas are not made profitable. The result of this is the expansion of the volume of forested area in the country. Catalonia has been colonised by cellulose and this is an important fact that increases the risk of forest fires. Another more complex phenomenon that has made it even more difficult to seriously tackle the management of forested and mountain areas is the urban pressure to occupy forested areas. As Martí Boada explains in the conversation-interview with “Medi Ambient. Tecnologia i Cultura”, "no other culture has laid down so much concrete and bricks in forested areas". A phenomenon that, while not irreversible, is ecologically costing and will cost the country millions.
The population of rural areas is clearly ageing, forested areas are overgrown, and urbanisation is spreading concrete and bad taste. This is all happening at the same time that rural areas, within this process of transformation, have ridiculously low rates of profitability with respect to the traditional forestry industries.
Is the situation as serious as it is often described or are there glimpses of hope?
Foresight in public policy is undoubtedly of the highest priority, with policies that make forest management profitable. Of course, not in terms of the traditional forms of use but of renewed one. This means turning the forests into a point of cultural reference for the public and that they be made profitable for the owners at the same time through the encouragement of eco-tourism, agrotourism and cultural tourism.
In addition, the rural environment has a lot going for it in terms of becoming an influential place in the new information-based society. With cable and on-line connections, it's no longer so important where one lives or works or where ideas get created. Various experiences -the example of the Art and Nature Centre that is described in detail in the magazine, form the embryo that represents the arrival of certain social and digital entrepreneurs in the interior rural areas. To sum up, there's too much cellulose and concrete and the future of the interior rural areas has partly to do with the installation of cable. This is one of the strategies, maybe the most important, for preventing the regional disintegration of Catalonia •

Lluís Reales
Editor of Medi Ambient. Tecnologia i cultura
 

The Mediterranean Forest in the twenty-first century
Eduardo Rojas
Civil Engineer, Associate Professor at the University of Lleida-Catalonia Forest Technological Centre.

The evolution of the Mediterranean forest, which has been conditioned by social-economic conditions, requires a new paradigm based on the pre-eminence of the external factors and its regulation through the use of market simulation tools. The complementing of conventional economic indicators with the new criteria favours an environmental behaviour that adjusts more closely to the social agents and provides a more realistic evaluation of the contribution of the forest to the social wellbeing. In order to internalise the forest external factors, the reversion the of ecotaxes and market creation through the redefinition of property rights.

Throughout the lengthy civilisation that has dwelt under the protection of the privileged environmental conditions of the Mediterranean coastline, the forest areas have been subjected to profound changes that meant their disappearance in some cases (the best land). In others, it lead to modification, which consisted in directing the natural processes to those models that were more useful to the social-economic conditions of the time.
In this way, the forest areas developed into the main source of energy until horizontal accessibility of fossil fuels with the implantation of the railway towards the end of the nineteenth century, extensive pasturelands and making resource of marginal lands, which were cultivated or abandoned in accordance with needs. The “artigues” or “shifting cultivation” provide the most tangible example of this use or reserve of the forest areas and their intensification was the main immediate cause for the current disappearance of the tropical rain forests. In addition to these basic uses, there have been many complementary ones, such as the requirement of wood for construction, there was no other option available until the beginning of the twentieth century, resin, cork, medicinal plants, honey and an extensive etc.
Until the collapse of the previous model, the Mediterranean forest was characterised by a wide variety of products that overlapped in both time and space. This also implied property rights that were often communal, overlapping and at times, confusing.

A historical introduction

This model, which is common to the entire European continent and the north of Africa, lead to the almost complete extermination of the forest in certain areas (the western edge). However, in the Mediterranean area, the open formations (dehesas and montados) to the far west and the extreme orography that is characteristic of coastal countries, together with the predominance of agriculture as the form of colonisation against that of animal farming on the Atlantic edge, allowed the survival of sufficient corridors of the original vegetation so that these could re-colonise the abandoned marginal lands from these strongholds, often in a spectacular manner , once the heavy pressure they were subjected to had disappeared, and which had peaked between the middles of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Once the multiple, internal natural barriers , which were so characteristic of the Iberian geography , were pierced, first by the railways and then by the highway network, a radical transformation was produced from regional autarchy to economic specialisation. This was first on a scale of individual states, but more recently on a continental and world level. As a consequence of an extremely hard process of adaptation, where the surplus of labour fashioned the emerging industrial proletariat, the most competitive agricultural, animal farming or forest production direction was taken depending on each moment and time. This made it obligatory to clarify the confusing ownership rights that had their origin in medieval times, something that was not lacking in conflict .
The industrial revolution reduced the traditional pressure (firewood, short-lived cultivation and pasture) on the forests, demanding highly specific products, but in large quantities. Mine props, beams for construction and later wood pulp for paper manufacture are some of the new market demands that would provoke a revaluation of the conifer forest, which had been underrated until then, except by the navy, for local uses.
Forestry science came into being throughout Europe, and the main objectives were the recovery of the forest mass, pre-eminently by reforestation, the creation of an autonomous forestry administration with wide powers and the defence and planning of public forest. The demand for conifer wood and the need to cover large areas of devastated wasteland forced the use of frugal conifers, especially Pinus species. To frivolously criticise historic processes, as has been done in the past decades, is quite intrinsically sterile, and it should be remembered that the reverse process had been going on for centuries, where preference had been given to leafy species , and very especially to the holm oak (carbon) and the defects that were cause by the appropriation of the best trees by the navy for naval construction .
The lack of knowledge during these times of the basic tools of environmental economy, the modest standards of living and the obvious priority objectives of public funds prevented any multifunction focus forest management as it is known today. In spite of all this, it was during this phase that the bases for the first protective measures were laid down, such as the national parks, which were set up in 1916. From the very beginning, there was a protective pre-eminence for the forest present and action taken by the forest administration as clearly demonstrated by the important hydrological-forest restoration work carried out on basin headwaters and in the south east of the peninsular and also by the very name of Hydrological Forest Divisions given to the territorial units of the just emerging forest administration in 1901 .

The contemporaneous forest

Nowadays, the situation of our forests has radically changed, even though the economic and legal framework remain anchored in the previous phase. Economic globalisation has left our forest far behind as far as competitiveness is concerned for many reasons.
• The low consubstantial quality of most of our forest
• Low production
• Mountainous with a lack of infrastructure
• Lack of capitalisation (small diameter, large number of trees)
• High risks (fires)
• Legal insecurity
Although it is possible to directly act on some of these factors, it is still no less certain that the main obstacles are cosubstantial and those modifiable factors could lead to social rejection in consequence of the growing environmental concern (the construction of forest circuits, lack of regulation). Nevertheless, no excuse is valid for not trying to influence that which could be corrected (improve efficiency in the fight against forest fires, the improvement of technical plans for forest management etc).
The lack of competitiveness of our forest has provoked widespread abandonment of which we are not sufficiently aware of the inertial effect, the extreme extension in both time and space consubstantial with forest management and because at times we are unable to see the forest because of the trees. One only has to travel through the extensive burnt-out area left behind after a forest fire in order to realise the chaotic structure of the now burnt-down naked forest when the suggestive green covering, which disguised a completely unsatisfactory situation, has disappeared.
The progressive specialisation and intensification of farming, where the dividing line with industry is more and more difficult to appreciate, together with the loss of the historic roots with consubstantial production factors, soil and climate, is the cause of two significant phenomena:
• The horizontal enlargement of the forest mass (loss of the checkerboard land pattern), which creates extensive horizontal continuities
• The appearance of a previously unknown interface between the urban environment and that of the forest .
The late industrial and infrastructure development provoked a concentration development in only a few poles, which produced large agglomerations that drew the population from their respective areas of influence. In Catalonia, 65 % of the population resides in the four most densely populated regions that only account for 5% of the territory. 4.5% of the population lives in the 16 least populated regions which account for 46% of the territory (Institute for Catalan Studies –IEC- 1992). This demographic-territorial unbalance, where there are hardly any intermediate regions, ranges from demographic densities that are more characteristic of certain Asiatic agglomerations than European (2,500 inhabitants/m2) to densities that are only found in Europe in the inhospitable regions of Scandinavia (15 – 20 inhabitants/m2), is the cause of many social and environmental problems.
When faced by this obvious economic weakness and political vacuum in a growing proportion of the territory that makes up the forest areas (more than 60%), the temptations arises, which is understandable in view of the demographic unbalance and therefore in election terms, to use them as tools in order to satisfy the compensatory requirements typical of such insane demographic concentration. Examples range from the original plans of the Barcelona Transitional Government that tended to compensate the chronic deficit of the green belts by means of a corridor of natural parks around the metropolis, to the modern policy of protected spaces. Together with the fire policy, public action in forest areas has gone little further in the last 25 years.

The impossibility of the “wilderness areas”

The idea of transforming forest areas into wilderness areas in order to compensate for the extreme environmental degradation that has occurred in areas where 80% of the population lives is a policy that is doomed to failure for many reasons:
• Forest areas are covered by secondary vegetation in various phases of recovery, the progression of which require certain stabilising interventions that favour greater horizontal and vertical diversity and not that of wilderness areas like those existing in new settled countries .
• The conservation priorities of today are to be found, without any doubt, in the habitats belonging to the densely populated areas (wet areas), in addition to the biological corridors .
• The vertical and horizontal accumulation of combustible material is the only variable that can be previously acted on in order to reduce the violence of a forest fire. Therefore, anything that favours its expansion to the maximum capacity of the ecosystem is an act of total irresponsibility.
• The dimensions of wild areas is not sufficient to permit self-regulation and evolution. On the other hand, one cannot exclude distortion factors from the outside, especially fire.
• Politically, it is extremely ingenuous to think that the long-term measures that are necessary to ensure the preservation of these areas were going to be achieved through the implantation of widespread use by the vast majority of the population and lacking even a minority whose livelihood is directly related to the survival of the resource. Such extreme demographic tensions in a territory as small as Catalonia will only very rarely end in benefit of the weakest (least populated areas).
• Property rights and use by the affected population cannot be overwhelmed for the sake of general interest by means of systematic draining to token limits of property rights by acting on the edge of legality and taking advantage of the privileged position awarded by the administrative right of the administration, the slowness of justice and the situation of social collapse in forest areas, but, which in any case should be compensated.
The main error in this option is definitely in the sign, minimum, however, it is crucial. The fact that, as the result of economic division, the importance of the forest of forest today is based on its external factors cannot set off certain functions against others, concluding that abandonment is the most rational option from a strictly accounting point of view. Quite the contrary, it is advocating the search for new methods that will allow the value of the forest to emerge by summing together all its functions based on the advances in environmental economy.
Towards a new holistic economic accounting

If we define economics as the science of scarce goods and not merely an accounting register, the official approval of certain indicators such as the GNP and the added value have pushed very important aspects into the background, which are crucial to the understanding of social-economic processes, but which are not apparently reflected in the national economy .
Negative external factors

All productive processes inexorably imply external effects on the population and the surrounding environment (the consumption of space, water, energy and the production of waste and noise etc). Although an efficient market will ensure the optimum allocation of resources, the lack of imputation on a business and national economy level of this damage systematically places too high a value on its contribution to general welfare. It would be interesting to develop a negative external factor index for each sector as a correcting element.

 Ie-:  VAs · k   k < 1

Ie-: Negative external factor
VAs: Sector added value x
k: Correction factor

Positive external factors

There are also exceptional activities with a very high k (greater than 0.9) and at the same time, a parallel positive external factors production, which could benefit other sectors or society as a whole. In addition to the classic example of the beekeeper with respect to the fruit grower, we could also cite a public or private park located next to a block of buildings or a wood next to a tourist zone or a residential area. There are three possible options, forget the external factors on the pain of prejudicing the optimum allocation of resources, oblige the state on principle to ensure the positive external factors on the lack of a market or establish new accounting mechanisms that deduct the added value from the sector that receives the added value, which in fact corresponds to the positive external factor received at the same time as the implementation of compensatory tools for also transferring it from a national accounting level to a business level.

  VAsrc – Ve+ = VAsrr
  VAsoc + Ve+ = VAsor

VAsrc: Accountable added value from the receiving sector
Ve+: Positive external factor value
VAsrr: True added value of the receiving sector
VAsoc: Accountable added value from the offering sector
VAsor: True added value of the offering sector

Durability of wealth

Neither the current economic accounting models nor the current taxation system takes into consideration the durability of generated wealth. A volatile service (an economic firework), consumer goods, long-term goods or long-term investment are considered as being on an equal footing. We should not be surprised by the paradox whereby the proportion of current wealth that will remain on a long-term basis is extremely small, in spite of the daily assurances provided by economic statistics that we are presently living in the moment of greatest welfare humanity has ever known. Quite on the contrary, even though there are hundred year-old and even thousand year-old investments (historical and artistic heritage), there are still invaluable returns awaiting us, especially from the tourist sector. There is no doubt that, today there are societies that are considered to be quite primitive, yet invest an important part of their wealth in goods of long durability. We should, therefore, develop a durability index for the generated wealth.

 Ip = VAs1 x D + VAs2 x D + ... VAsn
          ? VA
Ip: Durability index
VAs1: Added value from sector 1
D: Durability (years)

Degree of sustainability

Although certain human activities are or could be sustainable (agriculture, fishing, forestry operations and culture etc), others are, by definition, unsustainable since they are linked to the consumption of non-renewable resources. It would be necessary to develop sustainability degrees in relation to an optimum model. Nevertheless, the inter-sector comparison of these indices is very limited.

  GSaps = % Smas
  GSans =      1
                     Ir/Io

GSaps: The degree of an activity that is potentially sustainable
% Smas: Percentage of sustainability in relation to an optimum model of sustainable activity
GSans: The degree of an activity that is non-sustainable
Ir: Weighted average of the true non-sustainable indicators (input of non-renewable raw materials, contaminant output)
Io: Weighted average of the optimum non-sustainable indicators (input of non-renewable raw materials, contaminant output)

The interrelationship with other sectors

Although the added value theory detracts the prior contributions of other sectors, it does not take into account the time when the production chain produces the added value. It therefore considers a strategic production at the beginning of a chain as being equal to one at the end. In complex chains linked to raw material production, all the generated wealth, as well as that of other sectors, should, in some way, be assigned to the original sector, at least for suitable evaluating its true strategic importance as an economic driving force.

  FSE = ? VAGS+
      VAS
FSE: Strategic sector function
VAs: Sector added value
? VAGS+: Sum of the added value as generated from this moment throughout the entire chain, including the added value of other sectors

The degree of economic concentration

Modern economic activity tends to concentrate along certain poles of development, which produce important inter-territorial demographic tension . It would be convenient to analyse the degree of contribution of each economic sector to the economic concentration process or, on the contrary, emphasise those activities, such as forestry operations, that contribute most to the territorial rebalance.

  Gdt = % Tbd

  Grt1 = % VAs/?VATbd
  Grt2 = % Tbd (VA s nº1)

Gdt: Degree of territorial imbalance
Tdb: Territory with low population density (for example < 50% mean density)
Grt: Degree of territorial rebalance
VAs nº 1: Sector added value of the first sector of economic activity

Further considerations
Finally, it should be remembered that there are other things to be considered, not by negligible legislation, but those such as, security, culture, religion and morals that the prevailing models have completely forgotten, although they are very difficult to evaluate. It should be mentioned that this type of error has been committed by both the market economies and by the planned economies, until their downfall, both of which are characterised by their sector focus.

A new paradigm for a new era

Forest constitutes the prime use of our territory (43%) and the overall forestry area as a whole reaches over 60%. This territory supports and ensures a long series of functions, some of a productive nature, which are comparable to agriculture except in that which refers to very long production periods, and others of a tertiary type overwhelmingly made up of non-commercial services or positive external factors that are vital to our society.
• Environmental support (water cycle regulation, prevention of erosion and spates, global scale climatic regulation, reduction of the greenhouse effect etc).
• Landscape framework and leisure premise of quality tourism both on the coast and in mountainous areas.
• A refuge for bio-diversity
A suitable offer, within a country that is densely populated and demographically unbalanced, of these external factors that lack a market, cannot be left to the unpredictable results of its low degree of competitiveness and especially at the mercy of the anarchy of the flames. In any case, the accelerated international processes  force us to dedicate preferential political attention to the forest from the recognition that the external factors that they emit can no longer continue to be the one left out of the productive orientation, nor the pretext for its pillaging, the conversion into the point of these spaces and the precarious demography that they still support.
It is time for a paradigmatic change in relation to the forest and society, which is precisely the definition of forest policy, where, on the one hand, the greater importance of its external factors on the quality of life of twenty-first century society is recognised, but on the other, compensating mechanisms are established in order to ensure its economic and social viability and efficiency that consist of an equitable distribution of charges and benefits among the donor areas (forests) and the receptor areas (urban) . This change is framed within the new social pact promoted by the current French Government in the reform process of such a venerable, but obsolete 1827 Code Forestière .
The fact that, due to formal legal hindrance, forest does not at least appear in name in the Agenda 2000 Document (European Commission, 1998) should lead to hasty conclusions. Quite on the contrary, the central themes of this extremely important document are fully coincident with the main functions or external factors of the forest areas (quality of life, improvement of the environment, carbon dioxide (CO2) fixing, justification of the rural development policy and source of endogenous employment, among others.

Governing principles

Sustainability
According to the definition provided by the Bruntland Report (1987)  sustainability is understood as being the prudent use of renewable natural resources by the current generation so that it does not condition the options of future generations. It must be remembered that the important natural and forest heritage that is available to the current generation is not a legacy from virgin nature, but from a conservation spirit, in the widest sense of the words, and of the effort and sacrifice of generations that has been founded on common law and included in the Catalan Civil Code.

Multi-functionality
The time has now come to recognise, with all its consequences, that the justification for the political prioritisation of forest areas are the positive external factors that ensure the forest, principally in the Mediterranean area, due to the confluence of a high-density population, the high impact of tourism of the economy, a high external factor/production ratio and finally, the forest fires. If one wishes to ensure an optimum long-term external factor offer, the option of penalising the guarantors (forestry workers) is not only unjust, it is also economically inoperative and inefficient, it will be necessary to simulate as best as possible the non-existent external factor market at the same time that the beneficiaries jointly contribute to its finance . It simply is not acceptable that the public authorities are used by one of the parties to promote a certain product (wood) or to maintain the status quo of the cost-free status indefinitely of the basic production input (countryside for tourism).

Social and territorial equity
Ensuring the external factors cannot be in contradiction with the social and territorial equity. The rights of minority groups, especially if these are territorially concentrated in the extensive forest areas, should not be sacrificed at the altar of the interests of the majority, no matter how disproportionate the numerical relationship. This political practice has formed the principal theme for the Spanish forest policy since the “Mesta” (a historic grouping of Castillian cattle breeders) and the Navy , right up to the current policy on protected areas . It is, however, only justified in poor countries, but in any case, never when a level of life, such as that existing in our country, is reached. The demographic-territorial unbalance is one of the gravest, fundamental problems existing in Catalonia, and in Spain, in general. It is also one of the most important differentiating aspects with respect to the surrounding countries, so that any forest policy that does not positively affect it is doomed to failure from the very beginning.

Social-economic efficiency
The budgetary restrictions imposed by the Euro, the disappearance of all types of medium-term protectionism, globalisation and the strict legislation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against subventions to productive sectors means restrictive budgetary policies where the only action allowed is to compensate for market failures, especially if market simulation tools are used. Against the tactic, which is almost certainly incorrect, of prolonging the agony that characterises the agricultural policies, the forest policy, because of its long-term nature, must move ahead towards the future, and through the recognition of the current restrictions, should firmly decide on the creation of artificial markets, whether by creating new ownership rights  or by the application of ecotaxes in order to optimise the output from the external factors of the forest.

Joint responsibility and participation
Because of their long-term nature, forest policies requires great stability and wide-ranging social support, especially, although not exclusively from the key agents in forest policy: private and communal forestry experts. This negotiated model, which is deeply rooted in Catalan idiosyncrasies, and the other territories of the old Aragon Kingdom  has had a privileged exponent in the Centre for Forest property whose transformation into the Forestry Agency was approved by the Catalan Parliament. One should not forget that the Spanish Constitution (1978) is one of the most progressive in the western world as far as public participation in collective matters is concerned.

Cross-sectoriality
Without full recognition of the dissolution of the prior vertical reality of the forest towards a new and still to be defined cross-sector reality that is characterised by multiple overlapping with the most varied fields of political or economic action, it will be impossible to attain a situation whereby the forest is able suitably fit into our society, nor will it achieve the sufficient political interest that the planted goals require .

Redefining the contents of property rights

Historically, whenever there has been a paradigmatic change, there has also been a corresponding modification to the complex balance that characterises property rights. When the modern property rights were defined in the nineteenth century, many volatile forest products (mushrooms, fruit and pinecones etc) were completely marginal and even allowed certain country populations that existed in conditions of extreme poverty to earn a livelihood or they were completely lacking in the knowledge of tertiary uses that went beyond local festivities. It was absurd to extend the definition of property to such extremes. The most paradigmatic case is that of hunting that has completely changed from being an essential source of food in the diet of the country population into a luxury service that development is often slowed down by legal action with a Roman origin such as res nullius.
In addition, the nineteenth century definition does not establish any obligation towards the sustainable management of the resource and later legislation that attempted to place limits of the property rights came up against the Civil Law. This produced contradiction between legislation that did nothing to help reach the sought after laudable objective . The undeniable utility of property rights must be recognised as a regulating element for the natural renewable resources when it includes certain minimum amounts of responsibility. In the case of renewable natural resources where the capital coincides with the return (forest, fishing), it is only possible to internalise the sustainability when its use is restricted to such a small number of users that the self-containment of the immediate harvest of the resources is compensated by a permanent return .
Many activities that go beyond these strict boundaries would never have been developed without the artificial establishment of property rights (the case of sporting event retransmissions would be an example).
Within the undeniable complexity of this question, it is quite evident that holistic regulation is required for the tertiary use of the forest areas, that goes far beyond mere specific restrictive measures that are designed to minimise the more obvious impacts and which should at least:
• Clearly differentiate between the economic enjoyment of goods or services that, in any case, require patrimonial authorisation, from the strictly social enjoyment that is basically free.
• Impartially and completely regulate the tolerated social use, which, in any case, should never include the transformation of the property, by inversion of the current concept of restriction for that of permission.
• Exempt the forest areas from the application of acquisitive prescription in order to avoid the difficulties that the risk of the disappearance of the property that access by third parties usually entails.
• To clearly widen the property rights over any goods or service, including hunting, which may generate economic returns and exceeds social use.
• To enlarge the concept of property in the case of mineral water bottling plants in the hydrographic basin.
• Include the obligation of careful, sustainable management of the natural values (bio-diversity) within the dominical rights.

Towards a new environmental control

Analysing the options
By discarding the traditional options, whether by undervaluing general against individual interest (“laiser faire”) or by the true confiscation of the rights of those affected, and searching for new alternatives where necessary. By discarding, we mean for the sake of general interest that is unsuitable for the synergistic reality that characterises our natural resources (overlapping of functions and rights) where sterile comparison has been occurring in Spanish forest policy from the very beginning right up to today. This situation is probably due to the lack of tradition and development of the social function of property, a doctrine with Germanic origin), and the limitation of our rights that has a marked Roman origin to two extreme situations: private property versus public utility.
The closest references are the subventions, especially in the agricultural case. The enduring problems that can be seen in the transposition to the forest situation should act as a warning. Among those handicaps that are produced by the subventions as a formula for incentives for external factors we can find:
• The structural financial problems since the beneficiary of the external factors does not coincide with the financing body
• The subsidies are insufficient to provide incentives to the external factors when these substantially diverge from the productive objectives (reinforcing the productive element).
• The threats of legal action from the EU and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for unfair competition by the productive countries.
• The financial situation for the forestry expert particularly in those forest areas with very low production.
In fact, environmental economists are recommending that for positive external factors incentives, traditional focus should be abandoned, “Producer Gets Principle” (PGP) in order to pass on to the “Beneficiary Pays Principle” (BPP) . The following reasons may be found among those that advocate this second principle:
• Payment is made for the generated effect and not for the produced costs, this will also contribute to the improvement of the economic efficiency of the output of the external factors and foster competition between the bidders.
• The PGP often creeps towards the social policy, something, which in fact, is currently happening in the PAC  and is provoking outside debate that is not providing any benefit whatsoever to the objective of encouraging the output of external factors.
• The focus that is excessively directed towards the producer tends to confuse the problems with general interest.
• The PGP finance is normally linked to ordinary budgets that suffer from important inherent defects of the status quo that are caused by the classic phenomenon of the patronage system, making redirection difficult for motives of the modification of public objectives or scientific advances.
• BPP is more flexible and dynamically adaptable to the true objectives, and comes much closer to the simulation of the desired markets and is much less conditioned to lobbies that PGP.
• Unlike PGP, BPP is perfectly adaptable to the legislation of free competition of the OMC and the EU.
In short, if the demand for wood is ensured through voluntary market instruments, there is no longer any sense in ensuring the demand for positive external factors through administrative instruments of a coercive nature, nor should responsibility be assumed for a significant part of the costs without any direct relationship with the sought-after output.

Development of the proposals
While PGP could advocate a single premium that compensates the various external factors of the forest , the BPP has no other possibility than to be based on a specific system for each one of the outputs without a market.

1. Goods and products with markets
It is quite evident that by consistently applying the previously explained principles, many outputs that are assigned in a chaotic manner, would be converted in goods or services with a market and would become incorporated into the economic circuit . Here, special mention should be made of:
• Hunting, particularly in those areas that are most parcelled out (the northern and Mediterranean coasts).
• Mushrooms, particularly truffles.
• Medicinal plants, fruit, asparagus, and snails etc.
• Pinecones
• Decorative foliage
• Routes for walking, cycling, 4 x 4 and on horseback etc.
• Commercial filming and photographing etc.
• Mineral water (hydrographic basin)

2. Water, erosion and spates.
There is no room for doubt that one of the most important and vital functions of the Mediterranean and Alpine forest is a classic external factor the internalisation of which cannot be taken beyond the specific case of bottled water where the reversion of ecotaxes is necessary. This case is quite easy since the precedent of the hydraulic levy exists in the Catalan internal basin for the maintenance of the hydraulic infrastructure. If it is true that the forests regulate the water cycle in an unparalleled manner, reducing erosion, increasing the life of dams, improving the quality of water and at the same time can prevent the formation of snow spates in certain circumstances, the increase of the scope of these rates so that they include the green hydraulic infrastructure would appear to be justified. The criteria for reversion should be based on objective hydraulic criteria, such as the importance of the basin, location within the basin, slope, degree of coverage, height of vegetation and soil type etc, which can be obtained from the technical management plans. Staring from an average consumption of 150 litres/inhabitant/day and a rate of 0,03 Euros per cubic metre destined to the forest, the forecast collection would be around 10 to 12 million Euros . It should be emphasised that theses rates would help to contribute to provide an incentive to greater savings in a country where the prices for water are still well below the European average in spite of being a scarce resource in most of the Iberian geography.

3. CO2 fixing
In the case of CO2 emissions, where the possibility of the creation of a world market for emission rights where those that exempt from emission rights or those who can demonstrate CO2 fixing could sell their rights to those who require more emission rights comes up against the necessary planetary character of CO2 and the multiplicity of protagonists with insurmountable technical-legal difficulties.  There remains then, the option of reversion of the ecotaxes that are framed within the debate that was started at the beginning of the 90s as a consequence of a proposal of a tax on CO2 emissions by the European Commission (Agenda 2000). There is considerable experience available on the taxation of energy, although it is more in the line of collection guidelines than environmental.
The fixing of CO2 by forest is a complex question and is still not completely resolved by science. There are two type of CO2 fixing, a) temporal or supplementary (ex situ), which is linked to the use of wood and its retention for a certain amount of time or the substitution of fossil fuels in the case of firewood or biomass. b) the in situ fixing linked to the phenomenon of forest biomass increase (both horizontal and vertical).
In the first case, since it is a necessarily temporary retention or a detriment of the negative external factors, the application of ecotaxes to the substitute wood products in relation to its CO2 emissions is sufficiently understood. In the second, by comparing inventories, one can obtain, with a high degree of accuracy, the evolution of CO2 fixed in each forest area in the form of trunks. However, extremely wide gaps exist about the fixing in the rest of the ecosystem (branches, pine needle, leaves and soil etc), this leads to a structural under-evaluation. On a Spanish level, a rate of 0.2 Euros/litre limited to petrol, which only supposes a small fraction of the CO2 emissions, would be sufficient to establish a noticeable incentive of 11 Euros per cubic metre in the increase of stock .

4. Countryside landscape
The countryside landscape is an evident case of external factor, which is not widespread as the water situation, but is linked to certain beneficiaries, in this case to tourism in general and strategically located residences. Except in very exceptional case, especially small islands and with a very structured civil society, it would be impossible to reach satisfactory market solutions . This requires a search for innovating solutions, such as setting apart a percentage of the generated fiscal resources (for example, VAT). These funds would be administrated by public consortiums on a solid tourist scale (x coast, island), together with the active participation of affected social agents , which would be destined to make good any more notable market failures by mutual agreement and which would allow an optimum output of the tourist resource, such as:
• Countryside
• Historical-artistic heritage
• Pathways and tracks etc
• Tourist diffusion
If 10% of the VAT collected in tourism, which has been estimated as being 10% of the total collected VAT, were destined, then these consortiums would have a total of 260 million Euros (“El País”, 1998). To this would have to be added those amounts co-generated by already existing programmes . The reversion would be applied based on medium-term contracts (5 to 10 years) and on an objective points system (location, conservation state, fire-protection measures, and the countryside landscape quality etc).

5. Construction
Although the right to construct (ius edificandi) cannot be understood as a right that is inherent to the property or its ownership and its limitation cannot be strictly indemnified, the reality is that the agricultural-forest properties are characterised by two values, one that is strictly related with its primary productivity and the other is one of expectation. This is the only possible explanation for the relatively high prices for land in our country. The fact that, because of an act of legislation, in principle all building land accrues amounts in accordance with the new Land Act, this however, excludes from the very beginning the forest areas and those that are protected by express legal protection supposes discriminatory treatment, however much they cannot be taken to court in the strict meaning.
By following the nearest prevailing model in American cities in respect to the volume available for construction, it is proposed to start a market of building rights whereby the bidders would be the holders of building rights awarded to those affected by town planning restrictions in proportion to the degree of restriction . The buyers would be any new construction or enlargement in a permitted space at most, with a certain coefficient in accordance with the social use of the building. In this way, the expectant value of the rustic property would be respected by means of the most efficient and fairest of procedures, that of the free market, which would also minimise administrative involvement.

6. Bio-diversity
Bio-diversity is an external factor that does not have any direct beneficiary, so that it must be directly financed from taxes. Another thing is that, due to the enormous difference between endemic species of the various regions of the continent. The EU is jointly contributing to its finance.
In addition, the areas with greatest natural value and protected areas are normally those with smallest population density, so that the available return that can support any fiscal burden are disproportionate between the various regions of the EU. This means, that by also systematically applying the subsidy principle in the finance there would be a unfortunate choice between not complying with the commitment to preserve the natural resources or drain funds from other essential public funds in order to comply with the levels demanded by those who refuse to co-finance the common EU natural heritage .
The reversion of these funds would be transmitted in a medium-term (5 to 10 years) contractual manner (market simulation) based on objective criteria (indicators) that, in all cases, require the disposition of technical plans . This solution would be much more in agreement with the objective needs of the conservation of nature in an old settled country as, without any doubt, is our case.

Conclusion

The principles of sustainability and multi-functionality, and also the objective transport of the retribution of the external factors require the generalisation of forest planning as a basic tool. The joint responsibility of those affected through innovating administrative formulas, such as the proposed Countryside Consortiums or the Forest Agencies in parliamentary discussion form the second basic pillar within the framework of society’s democratic development and greater implication in the collective future. Finally, the proposed fiscal instruments would allow, not only a positive non-incentive effect on the emission of negative external factors and an incentive for the output of positive external factors that are sorely yearned for by society. This requires a flexible fiscal legislation that would harmonise the collection interests of the Tax Office, with the objectives of the environmental policy and would thus facilitate the use of part of the collected resources for active environmental policies .
It is urgently required to overcome the traditional remoteness of environmental uneasiness with respect to the world of economy for the sake of a multi-disciplinary holistic focus of such challenges. The environmental economy, once methodologies have been developed for the integration of positive and negative external factors, is a fundamental tool for environmental policy. The challenge is located in getting right the design and modulation of the economic tools that compensate market failure much more than the binary and inflexible conventional administrative measures . The forest value, absurdly relegated in the prevailing economic models, will come into full bloom when new environmental accounting models are developed. A truly multi-disciplinary challenge •
 
 

  1 See. Quezel (1988)
  2 The extreme isolation situation of the Aran Valley should be remembered here, which endured until the opening of the Vielha Tunnel only 50 years ago. See López Gómez (1997).
  3 Although this fact is common to the Mediterranean peninsulas (Italy and Greece) their long shapes facilitated seaway communication.
  4 This is the starting points for the Jaen olive groves, the Valencia orange orchards and the cereal steppes of Castilla.
  5 For further information on the importance of conifers in Iberian forests, see Blanco et al. (1997)
  6 See de la Cruz (1995)
  7 See Gómez Mendoza (1992)
  8 Of all the main species that are present in Catalonia, only two pine species (Pinus sylvestris and P. uncinata), together with the beech, can be considered as producers of quality wood, in addition to the specific case of the cork oak (Quercus suber). The total only represents 30% of the forest.
  9 See Vélaz (1995)
 10 There is a need to differentiate between old settled countries and new settled countries. In the latter, ownership tends to be of the state, which, together with the low demographic density, facilitates the delimitation of extensive, practically virgin, wilderness areas. In the former, the historic action of man throughout the whole area and the property rights force the use of completely different conservation strategies. In fact, many problems seen in the policies of European protected areas stem from an unchecked direct transposition of policies and provisions from other continents (CTFS, 1997).
 11 See Laguna (1997)
 12 See also Kula (1992), Romero (1994) and Pearce (1995)
 13 Graph 1.
 14 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), Kyoto Earth Summit (1997), pan-European processes in Strasbourg (1990), Helsinki (1993) and Lisbon (1996)
 15 See Graph 2.
 16 Bianco (1996)
 17 Quote from the European Parliament (1998)
 18 See Article 45.2 of the Spanish Constitution (1978)
 19 See de la Cruz (1995)
 20 See CTFS (1997) and Boada (1993 and 1994)
 21 The SA or the retransmission rights are no more than virtual formulas created by political volition in order to achieve greater economic efficiency.
 22 See Vecens Vices (1980).
 23 See Graph 3.
 24 A symptomatic case is that of the hunting enclosures that were restricted by the Natural Area Act 4/1989, while they are understood to be a consubstantial Sunday right in Civil Law (1889).
 25 Perhaps in is not coincidence that forestry as a science came into being on the Continent, where it is characterised by the pre-eminence of forms of private and communal property. It should be remembered here the differences between the areas of inshore fishing with quasi-communal exploitation in fishing zones in totally exhausted international waters.
 26 See Hanley and Haley et al. (1996. Brown (1994) and Blochlinger (1994). See in relation with the long-term perspectives of the PAC (Maxwell, 1996).
 27 Concatenate the criteria for aid or forest premiums to conditions such as the origin and dimensions of the returns, residence and age etc.
 28 See Public Works Act for Tree Coverage in Castilla y Leon (1994)
 29 See Merlo (1998)
 30 This encourages the joint responsibility of all those affected upriver in benefit of the water quality.
 31 The current hydraulic rate is, in fact, 0.08 Euros per cubic metre.
 32 See Rojas (1995). It should be remembered that without any incentive whatsoever and only considering the trunks, the Spanish forest currently fixes some 17% of the CO2 emissions. As an indication only, to completely revert to the rate established in 1991 in Sweden of 0.03 Euros per kilogram of CO2. The incentive for increment of stock would be some 26 Euros (OCDE 1994; BUM, 1994).
 33 It has been recently proposed to establish a green card for Menorca as Heritage to Humanity, quasi-obligatory for all tourists who arrive on the island and which would include discounts for all main offers (hotels, restaurants, rental cars and tickets etc). The returns would be destined, together with the exterior promotion, to provide incentives for the countryside and the maintenance of the historical-artistic heritage as a basic resource for quality tourism.
 34 Basically agriculturists, forestry experts, the tourist sector and local adminitsrations.
 35 Agricultural-environmental measures of the PAC, subventions for the restoration of the historical-artistic heritage, Lider, etc.
 36 Correction coefficients would modulate from the simple forest space with authorisation for building by minimum unit (25 Ha in Catalonia) to a national park.
 37 See Graph 4.
 38 See Moog et al. (1992) and Bianco (1998)
 39 All this advocates the preferential use of the figure of environmental rates with respect to that of taxes.
 40 See Sejak (1997)
 
 

Forestry, a profitable business?
Joan Ignasi Castelló i Vidal
Head of the Municipal Technical Office for the Prevention of Forest Fires, Provincial Council of Barcelona.

Forest occupy a large part of Catalonia, but their timber is a type that does not make them profitable. Therefore, alternative products should be looked for which would encourage the preservation of the Catalan woodlands, especially when one takes into account that 72% are privately owned. In short despite the advances in forest management in the last decades, ways should be sought to make the woodlands a profitable business.
 

Whilst the activities of the European peoples are drifting away from agriculture and the ancient tasks of hunting and gathering, the interest of society in the countryside and the woods is growing. In the last years of this century there has been a popular explosion of interest in the woodlands, the larger mammals and certain species of birds. Including insects and reptiles, which in times gone by were considered horrid, have their place in the heart of our ecology.
The woodlands for their size and extension, for their mystery and for the role they play and have played in history occupy a central place in this current of  adulation. This enthusiasm for the forests is taking place  practically everywhere. Science, for example, is concerned about almost everything to do with trees and that related to them. It has actually counted from the number of petals on the buds of beech trees to be average radial growth of the trunk of the pine, has studied the vertical structure of woods in relation to the light, has calculated the productive activity of leaves and has meticulously studied a thousand other things. Never have we known so much about the functioning of the woods as we do today, we have never had so many tools and theories to ensure their correct management. Some of this new knowledge has been criticised by observers interested in these matters because often, they say, we have underestimated mankind  (with his virtues, defects, obsessions and needs) as a determining factor in the functioning of the past, present and future of the woodlands. This, of course, does not take away any interest in the work and discoveries made and this reproof which the academic view has helped to disseminate of an ideal and unrealistic image of the woodlands is probably exaggerated.
Travel agencies, in an altogether different fashion, have contributed to this fervour by including the tropical forest and other highly attractive forest scenarios, such as national parks and other biological reserves to the legendary alpine holidays with their pines and slate roofs, which greatly influenced the start of the Spanish economic development in the building and landscaping of our forest urbanisations and which continue to inspire many modern gardens in our Cerdanya, to mention a specific place.
And what to say, as well, of the contribution that another movement which has obtained great importance in the second half of this century, ecology, which has closed a brilliant stage by introducing with great success the concepts of biodiversity and subsistence, so tied into the woods, which unanimously have been the subjects of two world conventions and have been the core of many of the debates that are held today? If some have expressed doubt about the obviousness of these concepts and have called them banal, rhetorical, publicity seeking or useless, others have replied by creating innumerable centres for biodiversity and associations, laws, regulations and standards for subsistence.
These groups, basing themselves on the above concepts and on others more or less transcendental, have done a great job which is worthy of recognition by all in defence of the woodlands in general and of the tropical forests in particular by fiercely fighting against the progressive transformation of the rain forests into arable and pasture land. The rulers of certain tropical countries have sarcastically commented, not without reason, that by these campaigns the developing countries are being obliged to pay a tribute to redeem the harsh transformation of the American and European forests done by our ancestors and have suggested, with no sense of shame, that we mind our own business.
With such important precedents as these, and others which we could mention, it is difficult to discuss woodlands using new or fresh ideas which could arouse any enthusiasm. If, as in this paper, we are trying to make comments about the economic reality of the Catalan woodlands, the ownership structure or the policies that have been tried out in these last twenty years at home, burdensome and unpopular subjects, the task becomes difficult and thankless. Thus, begging  the pardon of the reader for the subject selected, which to some could even seem to be impolite, we will discuss later on certain aspects of the Catalan woodlands which will not be, as we have said, those about botany, ecology, fauna, art or religion but those relating to woodlands and business, which in a market place economy as ours, seems to us to be a relevant issue.

The first link in the chain

In Catalonia we are fortunate to have two very recent forestry statistical inventories. On the one hand the State and on the other the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, through the Forestry Applications and Research Centre (CREAF) independently collected, some years ago, diverse information about the basic aspects of our woodlands, such as the area occupied, forest zones without trees, the name of each specie that we have, their diametric distribution, the growth per hectare of the different species and many other things.
Comparison of the data allows us to conjecture that they got it right when the data coincides but perplexes us when we come across a discrepancy. Fortunately, when the tree covered area, the strictly forest area, in Catalonia is calculated there is largely agreement between the two inventories and other information sources and it seems unquestionable that in 1993 we had a tree covered area between the 13,321 Km2 of the CREAF study and the 13,941 Km2 of the “National Forest Inventory”. We say we had because after the forest fires of 1994 and 1998 we have to deduct, without our pulse trembling, the 1,000 Km2 burnt in those years. In addition, we can state, without being mistaken, that this forest area, which is 40% of the total of the country, turns us into a 100% forestry country being above the percentages of the European Union (34.6%) and the total of all Spain (32%).
Even more so if we add the land legally considered to be forest but without trees, either because they are covered with bushes or are natural meadows or burnt land not reforested, the percentage in Catalonia rises to 62%.
We have a lot of woodlands and this fact has caused concern in high places. Concern also arises about the uncontrolled way that trees are today covering the abandoned arable and pasture land, everything is being recovered, it is worth saying, that was forest before the arrival of the plough. The cattle or the sheep were sent to the most inhospitable areas. But in favour of the woods we have to say that they cannot defend themselves alone against the excesses they are accused of. One only needs to make a trip through the regions of Tarragona, Garraf, the Llobregat basin, l´Empordà or the regions burnt in 1994 and 1998 to see that this is not serious and that in extensive parts of the country there are few probabilities that the woodlands will cause a collapse.

The damned tree

After the previous clarification and continuing with the inventories, we find that in Catalonia conifer woods, basically pines, predominate and which represent nearly two thirds of our woodlands. The evergreens: the holm oaks, oaks and others are less present in our days but are compensated by having greater prestige. A comparison, which we do not agree with, made by certain naturalists that the broad leave trees represent the aristocracy and the nobility where as those with pointed and thin leaves are the serfs, the demons and the hoi polloi.
Of all the species of trees, the most abundant, occupying the most area (346,500 hectares) and having the purest name is a pine tree which is one hundred per cent Mediterranean: the Aleppo pine. This modest tree grows in the most inhospitable places and, without any obligation, makes the land green where fire, bad agricultural practices, drought or any kind of land slip has destroyed all the vegetation. Apparently, for its kind nature and vitality ought to be admired and blessed but, quite to the contrary, it is a tree that is ridiculed and slandered by most people. Some ungrateful people, who knows when, called it a sterile pine and some university professors treat it as Lucifer. The words of M. Costa i Llobera who admired it in Formentor has served for nothing:

My heart loves a tree! Older than an olive tree,
more powerful than the oak, greener than the orange tree,
keeps its leaves for spring eternal,
and battles the winds which beat the coast,
like a gigantic warrior
…
Oh sublime tree! The living image of genius:
dominates the mountains and looks to the infinite;
for it the ground is harsh, but kisses its foliage
the sky that loves it, and has the lightning and the wind
for glory and delight

Oh! Yes: that when wildly howl the winds
and it seems to enter the spume which tumbles its foothold,
then it laughs and sings stronger than the waves,
and as winner shakes off the clouds from its
royal mane

Hate has overcome good sense and some of the phytosociologist botanists do not consider that it merits the distinguished title of Aleppo pine and they have deported it, the inquisitors, to the field of rehabilitation for noxious species which they have called “brolla arbrada” (undergrowth trees).
So we have many woods and many pines, but as we will discover, in a moment, the woodlands that we walk in are adorned with many virtues and a long history but they give their fruits little by little.
Again according to the inventories, the trees in the Catalan woodlands are 85.5 million m3 which is the equivalent of an average per hectare of 61.5 m3, a value very far from that of the Northern woodlands as the average in the European Union is 122.9 m3/ha. The light, the shapes and the colours are disproportionate in the Mediterranean but against this it rains very little in a large part of the country (less than 600 mm per year), the topography is rough and the soil thin. Therefore, according to the previous figures, there is no doubt that whilst the tree covered area percentage in Catalonia is one of the highest in Europe, the stocks of timber are among the poorest.

Harvesting and planting

This scarcity is also patent when we look at the growth of these woods. The average growth, which is usually measured in cubic metres per hectare and year, is very low and is around 2.27 m3/ha/year. In areas where the rainfall is greater than 600 mm. per year the average can reach 3.58 m3/ha/year but in dry areas the average is around 1.09 m3/ha/year. If we compare this with the growth achieved in the Amazonian forestry plantations or with Galicia and the Basque country we are amazed. In the trials carried out in the controversial project on the river Jari, in the state of Para in the Brazilian Amazon eucalyptus trees have reached a growth of 50 m3/ha/year and what is more, the plantations have achieved this in only 6 years. That is to say in seven years the growth nearly doubles that produced in a hectare in Catalonia in sixty.
In the Basque country and in Galicia the numbers are not as spectacular but they still easily exceed a dozen cubic metres a year. One does not have to be an expert to notice that these data do not make it precisely easy for the Catalan woodlands to compete in the international market.
We say plantations but quietly so that nobody gets alarmed as it is well known that to certain chosen and influential spirits the words plantation and felling produce a deep panic. These citizens believe that the only correct timber management systems is a tree here and a tree there as if to get a sack of wheat we harvest an ear in one place and another elsewhere.
We well know as the anthropologists have explained that as the needs of society increase hunting and gathering are abandoned for agriculture and livestock. We also know that the Chardonay vines are often used instead of the Garnatxa or the Ull de Liebre and everyone drinks the wine they give without any problem. However, when we talk about more intensive management of the woods or even worse the introduction of a fast growing species, the row that occurs is so great that one can hardly mention the subject.
Things are so and knowing the little enthusiasm that we have for being martyrs, this does not seem to be the right moment to argue about these matters. Really there is no point worrying about it as sooner or later the pressure from business will bring it to the surface in all its complexity.
Nevertheless, and in honour of the truth, we have to report that in accordance with the magnificent study from Adriano Raddi, The market for forestry products in Catalonia (the first work of some depth on the sector and supplied many of the data used here) the rapid growth species (the poplar, the Californian pine, the eucalyptus and the Douglas fir) represent 1.55% of the Catalan woodlands and that their production is 15% of the timber used in the country.

Production and consumption

Continuing with our initial idea to talk about woodlands and business now is the time to ask ourselves what is the use of the timber in our forests. In Catalonia almost a million cubic metres of timber are used each year and its distribution is: 40% to the saw mills, 31% for the sawdust industry and the rest is used as firewood.
But, beware, the consumption of logs is more than 2,800,000 m3 with a negative balance of almost 1,800,000 m3. That is to say year after year much more timber is consumed than is produced.
The initial processing industry which deals with the major part of the local production consists of: a) for plank making with one company that has most of the production and b) to the sawmills, principally for the production of pallets, where the requirements to centralise the production in very large sawmills has reduced the field only a short time ago and where there is one company which is well known for its large annual production. Among the industries which use semifinished products, the best known is the furniture industry which in Catalonia represents 17% of the industry in Spain. Paper made from wood, which used to be important, has totally disappeared (without this in fact having caused any apparent concern in the sector to judge from the lack of reaction which occurred when the two most important paper mills  were closed not many years ago). Thus buyers of “timber raw material” are few and the market is strongly influenced by the decisions of two important companies.
The analysis of the history of the prices of 8 species of conifers, ten species of evergreens and 11 forestry products, made by Raddi, shows a generalised descent of real prices. From 1959 and coinciding with the end of the first period of the late dictatorship, prices started to go down up to the end of the sixties when they were regularised. Currently, the price paid in Catalonia for timber is still considered too high by the industry and accordingly an increase in real timber prices is not expected in the immediate future.
The panorama does not seem too good for timber producers, but we can ask ourselves is timber the only business to be got out of the woodlands? No is our immediate answer, as the woodlands provide other profit sources such as hunting, wild mushroom gathering or leisure which are not to be depreciated as we will see and other indirect profit sources such as tourism or soil protection and water planning which for some years various economists and land owners have been fighting to get permission to charge for.
How much money is moved by all the direct profits that we have commented on? To find out we have to rely on official statistics which, whilst not brilliant, are the only ones we have. In the last few years Catalan timber production is around 8,797 million Pesetas per year split up in a rather surprising manner. Timber represents 30% of this figure, hunting and fishing 22%, firewood 5%, cork 2% and finally, to everyone’s surprise, the other forest products (wild mushrooms, truffles and wild fruits) 40%. Probably this 40% arises out of the sale of wild mushrooms in Mercabarna and other central markets and is a bright light in the darkness of possible forest profit sources.
If we compare this almost 9,000 million with the 4 billion that arise only from the exports from Catalonia in 1998, we will notice that our woodlands occupy a lot of space but produce little profit.
By comparing figures it is not difficult to discover how much timber and firewood bring to their producers: some 2,700 million Pesetas per year which represents an average of 2,663 Pesetas per m3. This means in round figures that if you have an estate of 100 ha in the least productive area of the country, the income from your property will be around 270,000 Pesetas annually (much less than one sole hectare of arable land) and if you have it in one of the most productive areas the income could reach 930,000 Pesetas per annum. All these figures are before paying taxes and general expenses.

Forest owners

Once we have exposed the first difficulties about forest business, we will explore, as simply as we can, another basic aspect of the woodlands and the business connected with it: the ownership of forest.
We do not have a definitive study as to the distribution of the ownership between public institutions and private individuals nor information from the cadaster. It is difficult to rely on the inventory because, for example, the amount of public property does not include the land owned by many town halls or other municipal type institutions among whom are some of the most important public property owners. Maybe the work that has the most interest is the study The structure of forest ownership in Catalonia by Ignasi Aldomà Buixadé who analyses the different aspect of estates from the agricultural census of 1989. Whilst it is impossible to summarise in a few words the complexity of Catalan forest ownership, we will give, with great caution, some data from that study which we believe are significant.
In Catalonia there are at least 50,000 forest owners. A first question about this number, is it many or is it few? If we compare it with zones culturally connected to us like the south of France it is few, but if we look at it from the point of view of management, which is what interests us, it is many as the diversity of interests, size, income, capitalisation or ownership of these estates creates an heterogeneous group which is difficult to group together in order to analyse the future of their woodlands and businesses and for the creation of new financial expectations.
Aldomà states, using the census, that the public institutions are the owners of 28% of the Catalan woodlands whilst the remaining 72% is in private hands. 60.5% of forest businesses are less than 5 ha in size, 36% are between 5 ha and 150 ha and only 3.5% have more than 150 ha. The latter, amongst which are those of public property, take up 60% of the woodlands, as per the census, and are principally in the Pyrenean regions where it is obvious that the forest is the principal feature. The minimum forest unit of 25 ha, which has been the norm these last years in the forest policy of the country and has recently been modified, has excluded from many decisions some 84.6% of Catalan woodlands which do not reach that area.
Another characteristic of ownership which we believe to be more important than the variety is the low income, already mentioned, which makes them not viable from a traditional forest business point of view. We have a structure arising from a long historical process which had its financial logic but no longer corresponds to either the markets or current forms of management.
The consequence of this situation is simple. All those owners who by exercising their rights want to revalue low or nil income forest look for a change of use which would increase productivity, income or the capital value of their land. When there are no possibilities to make changes and the financial situation of the owner does not permit him to invest in his property, the forest is abandoned. In this sense the woodlands of the metropolitan areas and the more tourist zones, with or without trees, are those with the greater hurry to enter into the real estate market and consequently are those who incorporate the large processes of change of use and of the landscape with greater facility.

Conservation

These transformations when not made in an orderly fashion produce a panorama which for many citizens is depressing and for many others, like the buyers of plots in urbanisations in forest areas, is pleasing or results in indifference.
At the end of the sixties groups concerned about the anarchic changes to woodlands and landscapes started to gain influence and their arguments for a better management of the land slowly achieved majority social recognition.
This interest to safeguard the woodlands was not led by the Forestry Department or forest owners. They were university professors, urban planners and private entities, such as ramblers’ associations and others who started campaigns, public meetings and debates. The Forestry Department at that time, particularly Jacobin and distant, did not understand the current social change and their lack of protagonism and, at times, their obstructionist attitude cost them a lot and for which they are still paying.
According to the defensive tradition which the creators of the first American National Parks used who were very conservationist at that time, limited their proposals to the strict protection of certain features of the country which we have to admit was the most plausible action to take. Protection was understood to mean isolating Nature from mankind. The projects had three principal bases:
• An idealised definition, conceived solely as perfect and a balance without mankind
• An overvaluation of certain elements: a selection of trees, a bird colony or a lepidopteran and
• A patent lack of confidence in the common people and their institutions which had to be expressed by the creation of specific government bodies by specialists.
In fact this model is that of pure and tough governmental intervention which Spain invented to create Doñana on an old hunting ground which for this precise reason had not been drained. The application of these ideas to Sant Llorenç de Munt and Montseny were too quickly applied and which we could called the mother of all problems which was no other than the fact that the woodlands which they wanted to use to avoid them being turned into private estates and, thus, would have to respect above all the rights that the law would give their owners.
As forestry legislation, blind to these problems, has no practical solution, recourse had to be made to the land legislation which governs the use of property in respect to general interest, especially in the right to build which is not inherent in the property but is a right granted by the planning authorities. While these protection systems, with strict building regulations, placed no impediment on the traditional agricultural and forestry uses it could be seen immediately that many forest owners with unprofitable estates, who seeing that their properties were excluded from the property market, specially in expanding metropolitan areas, did not precisely welcome these social initiatives and the business difficulties of many estates, which we have previously described, continue or become worse.
Currently the situation is far from being resolved. However, three things are abundantly clear:
• To preserve a certain landscape within zones under great building pressure requires overwhelming public intervention.
• The problems of privately owned forest cry out for new solutions, and
• The effort applied to certain elements is insufficient to obtain a territory with a certain relationship between urbanised and non-urbanised areas which respond to the quality pattern that we would like to give them
With all this information it would seem that the country had more than sufficient material to reflect upon and to find original solutions, which emphasised not on the immobilisation of the territory, which is only possible in reduced areas and with a high social energy cost, but on change which, as we all know, occurs every day and will continue to do so whilst we still have life in us.
But, we are not paying attention to our experiences, whether guided by dogmatic reductionists on conservation problems, or fascinated by the lyricalness of our phytosociologists ( who, by the way, have classified the vegetation of the country into unusual categories). The fact is that we have decided to establish 140 special areas, called PEIN, as cornerstone to organise and manage our countryside, abandoning with some cowardice, a less defensive and more global attitude for which, without doubt, we are not mature enough.
Time will show us that this so unambitious option will be erroneous. The plan has hardly been developed. It has not been able to solve the mother of all the problems : business and forest ownership. Nor has it been useful in managing the transformation of the major part of the territory and, further, the instruments invented to apply it, alongside the land legislation, have not been able to consolidate its special aspects. And all this fuss, say some analysts, for only 20% of the forest area.

The new forestry policy

Up to here we have hastily dealt with some of the factors which make the timber businesses difficult and which affect its present and future. Farther on we will review some of the solutions we have used to improve properties, companies and business.
When the Autonomous Government was restored and on Catalonia receiving the major part of the political and administrative functions connected to forestry, the Catalan administration found itself with an extraordinarily centralised administrative organisation, heavily orientated to woodlands in public ownership, a significant lack of experience with respect to private woodlands, legal procedures basically directed to public forest and a sector that, in addition to the characteristics already described, did not have a high technological level, technical training and advanced professional management, nor with institutions related to teaching, research and marketing.
One of the first things done to improve the situation was to set up, via a forestry law, new regulations and planning and management instruments adapted to the Catalan reality. The Catalan Law introduced five new items related to the law existing at that time:
• The recognition of all owners, whether public or private, of the right to manage their own properties. This gave the Town Halls the possibility of being in charge independently of the Forestry Administration of their woodlands declared to be for use by the public, including functions exclusive to the State.
• The creation of new planning instruments for both the general policies of the sector as well as for the organisation of forest estates.
• The establishment of procedures for co-ordinating with  the territorial planning, principally the Ground Law.
• The creation of new bodies and tools to manage private woodlands, such as the Centre de la Propietat Forestal or the Fons Forestal de Catalunya.
• The creation Forestry Protection Units to improve the prevention and extinction of forest fires.
To this legislative task were progressively added new institutions related to the woodlands. From having practically nothing, in less than twenty years the country now has two research centres (CREAF and the Technological Centre of Solsonès), a forestry training school in Santa Coloma de Farners, a Technical University School in Lleida, a specialised public company (Forestal Catalana, S.A.), various administrative units specialising in managing protected areas and forest fire prevention, numerous nature parks and protected areas, new bodies of experts coming from traditional degree courses and from those newly created, a forestry bureau and many other things.
From what we have just commentated, we can only say that in the last twenty years there have been spectacular changes and while not all have produced what was expected from them, it is true to say that we are in a position where all these innovations fructify and give us solutions to some of the problems that we have seen and to others that we will now see.

Estate by estate

Returning to our theme of woodlands and business, we will say, as I said above, that the law has established regulations in a very general form and it remains for the government to draw up the content of the majority of these ideas. On starting to set up bodies and instruments, the government found itself with the lack of tradition and experience in the management of private woodlands which, as we have shown in this paper, have a very delicate health in many aspects.
To deal with these shortcomings we made use of the experience of the neighbouring countries to the North who have are some years more advanced in dealing with private woodlands. In those countries the promotion, regulations, planning, taxes, etc. are mostly done estate by estate. The property was a productive unit just like a family farm, a shop or rented apartments. Here at home, the few existing owners syndicates and the professional in the sector were also productive. In accordance with these criteria the Centre de Propietat Forestal (CPF) supplied the technical management plans, tax benefits to owners and a large part of the help programmes to the traditional timber businesses (logical logging and the sale of the timber or firewood). The body adopted the French model of a public corporation, chamber of commerce style, with the objective of protecting and promoting the interests of forest owners.
The process we have summarised is logical and ties in with our culture. Almost ten years have gone by since the start of this initiative so important for the management of our woodlands and we can, and ought, to draw up the first accounts.
Since its creation, twenty years ago, some 1,200 owners out of the 50,000 in the country have joined the CPF. These owners, per official data, have a total of 250,000 ha, that is to say 11.5% of the Catalan forest area. How can we interpret these data? As we understand it, the CPF has been useful to those estates with a certain profitability as there was direct timber business, but has not been able to attract in any way the majority of Catalan owners who have not very profitable estates. The result of these important figures seems to indicate that the public effort, both technical and financial, has been concentrated on the more profitable estates and a large part of the woodlands have been excluded from the subventions and aid to the private estates.
The promotion of individual management, which characterises the CPF, does not seem to be the most appropriate to deal with the existing financial problems, that we have already talked about, such as the need for territorial planning to deal with such problems as forest conservation and the prevention and fighting of forest fires. Here is an illustrative fact: among the 350 owners affected by the forest fires in Central Catalonia in the summer of 1998, only 2% were associated to the CPF. Without doubt we can say that the structure of the CPF deprives it of the special view of the territorial view of the woodlands and this is negative for the woodlands that are not profitable.
All this has been learnt in these last years and it seems that the results mentioned should encourage complementing that done up till now with new instruments and some changes in orientation. However, not everyone thinks the same. The drafting by the government of a new project for the organisation of the CPF in order to satisfy the requests for a new private woodlands Agency as a result of pressure groups, carries on with the original model and, in our opinion based on the data commented, should this be approved it will not solve the problems that have been raised in this paper.

Public money

The previous data and results which show that the cost of carrying out a forestry policy with a territorial view leaves one thing clear: without public money, or better said, without increasing and better using the current public expenditure, the majority of the Catalan woodlands cannot and will not be able to resolve their current problems.
Logically, this requirement to increase public expenditure is unanimously defended by a good number of forest owners, both public and private. The significance of having to increase the money from the people for the woodlands is very amusing. For some owners and ecologists, the fact of owning a wood implies giving an ecological service to society and solely for that they have to be paid. In this case it would be that society pays an annual tax to each forest estate for the supply of such service. For others, investing public money estate by estate will not solve the problems and they are of the opinion the most important investments have to be on a territorial basis. For this group, the public investment has to be concentrated in services more or less directly related to woodlands such as, for example, network of tracks, resting places, water points or the security programmes necessary for the prevention of forest fires or also in the encouragement of estate syndicates to improve their management.
In whatever case it will be the taxpayers who will decide via their representatives as to how public money is to be distributed. This will need a lot of convincing by the whole of the industry that this option favours society in general. The routes taken to seduce and convince the taxpayer do not seem to be the most appropriate. The law of the right to roam, to mention one case, is more concerned with overseeing and controlling the visitor, who pays the taxes, than to guarantee his right to walk over and get to know the country. A group of mayors from the Pyrenees, to quote another case, are thinking of charging users of the public woodlands, thus opening the possibility for comes from the all private owners to do the same. Good forest strategies to get the money that comes from the general public!
There is some confusion and a lack of debate, but one thing that has to be resolved and has to influence our decisions about the woodlands with respect to public money. Everybody has to be aware that society has to discuss and solve what has to be the relationship between private and public interests so that everyone is clear about what the Catalan woodlands have to offer the country and society has to consider whether it is appropriate to invest more or less public money in the woodlands.
The improvements and reforms to be introduced to the current regulations, institutions and instruments to solve the problem of the bad business that id today the Catalan woodlands and the ability that we have to establish compromises between general and private interests which could be a territorial bringing together of the woodlands are the conditions, as we understand them, that will determine in future years the amount of public money for our woodlands and thus their quality and profitability •
 
 

The forestry policy in the Autonomous Community of Valencia
Antoni Escarré
Department of Ecology, University of Alicante

More than half of the land within the Autonomous Community of Valencia is covered by forest. Suitable management and control of these lands depends, on the one hand, on the conservation of this natural heritage and defence against soil erosion, and on the other, on the social-economic development of the rural areas. A journey through the history of forest policies, together with consideration of the climatic and orographic conditions of the area will provide an outline of the challenges that modern forestry management must face and this is to view the forest as something much more than a mere collection of trees.
 

Forest management in the Mediterranean area is always more complex than that of central and northern Europe, where forest are more profitable and are also more appreciated in their more traditional function, that of wood production. The specific nature of the Mediterranean type of environment is not always recognised and hardly any of the attempts to extend exploitation practices of the more productive northern latitude forest to this geographic area have produced good results.

The Mediterranean forest: a management issue fraught with problems

There are many reasons for the problems attached to the management of Mediterranean forest. This list is headed by the climatic conditions, especially the lack of rainfall during the summer period, which limit production capacity. The growth rates of most tree species to be found in the Mediterranean forests and woods are low and hence, the economic profitability of the direct exploitation of the wood production is also low. This lack of economic value of many of the Mediterranean ecosystems normally goes hand-in-hand with a similar low level of social appreciation that has produced a notable degradation of the covering vegetation through many generations.
Throughout history, these areas have suffered from numerous forms of pressure that have had highly negative effects on the forest. The first was the excessive and unsuitable exploitation of the resources themselves, and in addition, both agriculture and animal farming have provided very strong competition for the forest use of the region since ancient times. The burning of forests and woods in order to obtain land for crop rotation or for pastures are still traditional practices in the Mediterranean area. Consequently, the passage of recurrent flames is still leaving its mark on the landscape. A more recent negative factor, above all in coastal areas, is the considerable pressure provoked by urban projects that are occupying wooded areas, making the already difficult task of forest management even more so.

Forest management in Valencia

It was towards the end of the eighteenth century when the botanist, Cavanilles first warned the public authorities that the forest in the Valencia Community was undergoing a serious process of deforestation. An attempt to solve the problem by a process of disentailment, which caused the ownership of the lands to pass into private hands, was made. This was not, however, very successful, since the indiscriminate cutting down of trees occurred on many occasions.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the Forest Act (1863) and the Improvement and Reforestation of Public Forest Excepted from Disentailment Act (1877) were passed. These acts permitted the consolidation of public forest property and forest restoration. When drawing up the latter, the consequences of the Júcar flood that took place in the Autonomous Community of Valencia during November of 1864 and which was the driving force behind the reforestation project. The Reforestation Commissions were created in 1888, and these began to take the ecological function of woodlands that were not included in the catalogue and their indirect benefits into consideration. The Reforestation Commission worked in preference along the slopes of the River Júcar and after the success obtained with the sand dunes at Guadamar del Segura in Alicante, also showed a marked preference for other heavily degraded basins.
It was during the first quarter of the twentieth century that two pieces of state legislation had the greatest impact on this area. On the one hand, there was the act that allowed the Administration to declare forest areas as protected zones, independently of their ownership, and on the other was the creation of the State Forest Heritage. In 1938, after the Civil War, a General Plan for Forest reforestation in Spain was drawn up. The intention of this Plan was to maximise production and to increase the areas of highland wooded areas by reforestation, forestry treatment and private interest. These goals were achieved with the directives of the 1941 State Forest Heritage Act. A total of 15,865 hectares were reforested in the Autonomous Community of Valencia during the years 1940 and 1949 and a further total of 52,221 hectares was achieved during the period of greatest impetus, that of 1950 to 1970. The Spanish Forest Administration was restructured in 1971 and the Instituto Nacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (ICONA) (National Institute for Nature Conservation) was created, which has competence in the General Office for Forest, Hunting and River Fishing. It concentrated the reforestation work and in only ten years, between 1970 and 1980, reforested 51,027 hectares.

The Forest Act
The Valencia Forest Act was approved by the Valencia Courts on the 9th of December 1993 (No. 3/1993). The Introduction clearly established three types of functions for the forest resources. These are, the actual ecological resources, the recreational and the cultural resources and the direct production of tangible products. Even a superficial review of the objectives of this Act will reveal a clear desire to reconcile the various social demands that are placed on the use of forest areas.
Among the more noteworthy aspects of this legislation, mention must be given of the positive conception of cataloguing forest or forests, which are based on the classification of the territorial areas. This system avoids the often-used classification of forest in the situation where all other possible uses have been previously discounted. In addition, the State Act adds those types of land that comply or could comply with ecological, landscape or recreational functions to the traditional concept of forest. This concept is an improvement, as far as that contained in Article 45 of the Constitution is concerned, since it takes into account environmental aspects in addition to those of production.
An extremely important idea for forest management is also introduced by this legislation – the recognition of ecosystems that must be treated as a whole. The factors within the physical medium and the communities of organisms that populate it form a complete system, so that any action that affects one of the components could have repercussions on some or all of the others. This presupposes respect, not only towards the organisms that make up an ecosystem, in order to conserve their bio-diversity, but also towards the processes that occur within this ecosystem. Based on this the following objectives of the Act may therefore, be included among those of a more marked ecological character:
• The evaluation of bushy scrub as stages within the development of an ecosystem that could eventually lead to the formation of forest.
• The maintenance, protection and enlargement of the vegetation covering to provide the greatest possible number of layers in order to counteract erosive processes and regulate hydrological flow.
• The preservation of the species of specific individuals, vegetation formations or animal communities with high ecological value.
• The creation of peripheral protection zones around those natural areas with greatest risk of degradation, dedicated to recreational aspects.
Although the Act recognises the fact that the environment places limits on the forest production within a territory, the following objectives have been declared in relation to it:
• The delimitation of those areas with greatest forest interest in order to encourage their production capacity within the framework of sustainable exploitation.
• The harmonisation between the improvement of forest exploitation and other developments, such as hunting and animal farming, among others.
• The improvement of the processes for obtaining and marketing forest products.
In addition, the main concerns within the social aspect are included in this legislation, so that they are seeking to:
• Foster forest as a first class cultural reference, which, in turn, will favour its recovery and the maintenance of the native species.
• To encourage citizen participation, especially those of rural areas, in the maintenance of enlargement of forest resources.
• To foster the use of forest by ramblers and hikers, and of its recreational and teaching possibilities, together with the awakening of the cultural, ecological and environmental values that make up the forest heritage.
• The planning and co-ordination of the various administrations involved in the prevention and extinction of forest fires.
• The promotion of research and training within the areas of forest science and technology.

Forest ecological functions

Water and hydrological regulation
At the beginning of this century, in the United States, arguments took place between civil and military engineers as to role played by forest in the maintenance of hydrological balance and more specifically in the production of run-off. The former held that the existence of a covering of trees would tend to reduce the run-off flow in the hydrological basins, whereas the latter maintained a completely contrary view. The birth of experimental research into forest hydrology was not alien to this argument. Experiments into the capacity of tens if not hundreds of hectares of basins eventually demonstrated that the civil engineers were right. The deforestation of a basin would, in the vast majority of cases, an increase in the run-off flow rates.
It is also quite evident that plants consume large amounts of the ground water reserves, by the so-called process of transpiration, which is the total amount of water, in the form of water vapour, that is returned to the atmosphere by a given ground surface area. This transpiration component is greater when a normally developed ground coverage of vegetation exists. On the other hand, when a basin is experimentally deforested, the spate peaks are magnified. The presence of forest will vary the rhythm and distribution of the rainwater flow that reaches the ground, it reduces the mechanical impact of rainfall and redistributes it and it also completely intercepts and diverts a small percentage. By slowing down the process whereby the water reaches the ground, its infiltration possibilities are improved. In addition, the tree branches cause the water to converge and become concentrated at the bases of the trunks, where it appears that this water penetrates more easily due to the pore systems associated with the root structures.
There is no longer any doubt that the woodlands, to a large extent, control the return of water to the atmosphere and produce a more regular flow that is less dependent on physical environmental factors. Popular folklore has always emphasised the power of woodlands to attract the rain. On a grander scale, the ability of forest to generate increases in the humidity levels that can result in precipitation in the form of rain is quite clear. Therefore, when contemplating forest areas of thousands of square kilometres, the arguments put forward by the military engineers were not so far out of place. In the Amazon area, for example, a large percentage of the rainfall is produced by the very transpiration of the jungles.

Protection against erosion
A covering of vegetation over the ground will protect the underlying soil from being blown or washed away by air or water currents. Rainfalls with the greatest intensity are the ones that cause the heaviest rates of erosion because the direct impact on the bare wet ground removes the soil’s surface layer particles. In addition, since the infiltration capacity is exceeded, they also provoke the heaviest run-off flows. The experiment carried out in the United States, which lead to the so-called Universal Soil Loss Equation, drew attention to the importance of plantations for minimising soil erosion. However, soil protection does not seem to be the exclusive domain of forest, since thickets and bush coverings and even prairies and meadows are capable of preventing the production and transport of sediment.

Atmosphere purification
It has been known for a long time that forest possesses an enormous capacity for oxygenating the atmosphere and also the benefits, as reported by patients with breathing difficulties, during stays in forest areas. There is also recently awakened interest in forest and other type of vegetation as possible sinks for the excess carbon dioxide that modern industrialised societies produce through the burning of fossil fuels. The possible repercussions that massive reforestation could have on atmospheric purification is a current theme for discussion. The type of forest management that would be required in order to achieve maximum capture of carbon dioxide still has to be defined. Along these lines, a very important factor is to evaluate the soil capacity to incorporate carbon in organic material form, which is difficult to metabolise.

The exploitation of forest resources

Society’s economic and cultural development has been the cause of change in the way that forest resources are used and this requires a policy that will lead to a reconciliation between the demands and the resources’ capacity for sustained production. The Valencia Community society, with its post-industrial development is demanding that the exploitation of the forest resources is mediated by ecological and social factors.
According to the Forest Act, it is the Autonomous Government of Valencia that is to manage all forest areas and their natural resources, independently of ownership, and to guarantee sustainable exploitation. The Administration has to count and describe all the forest resources in a Forest Inventory and then subject this inventory to a General Plan of Order. This directives of this Plan should contain the necessary action to foster research, social and recreational use and the implantation of primary transformation industries. It also has the power to mark out forest borders in order to limit areas of operations to homogeneous zones, with the prior authorisation of the owner. Moreover, the Administration is empowered to declare specific heavily degraded areas or those in danger, as Zones for Urgent Action (ZAU) by Decree from the Valencia Government. These areas will require the implantation of works for the conservation, use and protection that will make good any deficiencies and ban incompatible exploitation. The owners of those forest areas that do not have any forest management and Improvement Programme may also develop their own Operational Projects, but these will require prior authorisation before putting them into operation. There are certain specific actions that are not included in the project. These are the collection of conifer firewood and that proceeding form cleaning and pruning operations for domestic use, together with the collection of fruit, plants and mushrooms as authorised by the owner and which only requires a simple communication.
The exploitation of forest areas through the Forest Projects will be carried out according to its directives. The administration will only authorise tree-cutting where the trees have died through natural causes, the cutting is necessary for the improvement of ecosystems, phytological protection or the protection of authorised works and the establishment of fire breaks or protection corridors. Any break-up of the land requires authorisation and any extraction activity or open air quarrying will also require a prior undertaking for reconstruction and forest reforestation. The exploitation for pasture purposes will only be allowed when the ground is not damaged and there is not danger to the ecosystem. In addition, public owners have the obligation to invest 15% of the proceedings from exploitation in the ordering and improvement of the forest mass. This amount may be increased by agreement with the Valencia Government in those areas that require higher levels of improvement.

Landscape and recreation

It should not be forgotten that one of the social demands placed on forest resources is that of recreation and scenic routes. The Forest Act attempts to make the right to enjoy the woodlands as a pastime with that of economics by guaranteeing that there will be neither an irrational exploitation nor an excessive protectionism of the forest resources.
In addition to the production aspects, the Act also takes those of the environment into consideration and therefore includes woodlands and areas of land that may be appreciated for scenic routes or recreation in the cataloguing operation. It has the intention of encouraging both the recreational and educational use of the forest areas and to this end is planning the participation of the citizens themselves in forest maintenance and enlargement. The Administration regulates these recreational and scenic route activities and attempts to maintain the various uses in harmony with each other. For this reason, the transit of people and vehicles may be restricted in certain areas and campsites would require the owner’s authorisation. Together with that of the relevant competent body. Moreover, any motorised activity is prohibited except on authorised circuits, in addition to any other noise-producing activities that could alter the habitats of the flora and fauna.

The world of the countryside versus that of the town and city

The respect given to the forest by the rural Mediterranean population has traditionally always been in function of the benefits it provides. Some of the community forest areas in the province of Soria are given as an example of interest and good management by all the local inhabitants because of the benefits they provide. In general, however, the forest has only been maintained in those areas where there was no other possibility of more profitable use of the ground.
It is a curious fact that the accelerated depopulation drift from the land that has been suffered by the Mediterranean rural areas in the last decades is often cited as one of the causes of the degradation of its ecosystems. It is perfectly true that our ancestors have left behind a highly human-dependant landscape that requires a certain management for its continuation. It is also true that they have had to accept the main responsibility for the protection of areas where they attempted to ban all forms of exploitation in the protected areas without realising that this was to produce important changes within the community of organisms living there.
There is no doubt that the movement of a large proportion of people from the rural populations to the towns and cities has had a negative effect on the agricultural landscapes. Abandoned cultivated fields and pastures quickly become invaded by undergrowth, just as happens in natural and reforested forest when they are no longer exploited. Nevertheless, in a strict ecological evaluation, this abandoning of the rural areas should be considered as a positive benefit since it allows a reconstruction of a more complex and varied vegetation than that previously cultivated. The strong power of attraction wielded by the towns and cities was very noticeably in the Valencia Community, just as the rest of Spain, especially during the 60s. City life still possesses greater attraction than country life, however, the distribution between the two areas is better balanced. Even so, it has been calculated that in the year 2020, around 77% of the population will be living in the cities. The drift from country life is a problem that the EU is worried about and is attempting to find the means that guarantee the best levels of quality of life.
The greater part of the Valencia Community population is distributed in the cities or in the metropolitan areas of the coastal plain. It is possible to distinguish two populations in any of the valleys that run perpendicular to the coast, one on the coastal plain that is mainly urban and another on the interior highlands that is basically rural. As far as the idea of forest heritage is concerned, as established by the Act, it would be logical to think that the rural population would be responsible for its safeguarding, while the urban population would have the right to enjoy it. However, it must be remembered that along general lines, it is quite clear that compliance with forest ecological functions is made at the cost of having to renounce certain exploitations with greater profitability. The maintenance of the basin headland ought to have some price paid by the inhabitants of the lower regions in order to compensate this effort for the conservation of resources, which otherwise would fall exclusively on the less prosperous rural economy.

Forest fires

It is a strange fact that the one time when forest plays a major