Paper short abstract:

This work aims to problematise the transformations that have taken place in the use of forests in Portugal over the last two centuries, highlighting the use of natural resources by local populations and the introduction of forestry in forest management.

Paper long abstract:

With this work, we intend to problematise the changes that have occurred in the use of forests in Portugal over the last two centuries, highlighting the use of natural resources by local populations and the introduction of forestry knowledge through the work of forestry engineers in afforestation programmes under the initiative of the central state administration.

We will, therefore, focus on the consequences of these actions and practices on the part of the various agents who, on different scales and chronologies, transformed natural landscapes. Essentially, these human actions are characterised by the intensive use of pastoralism, wood for charcoal production or the implementation of forest monocultures, which have caused various problems today. About this last aspect, we are trying to highlight why certain species have become dominant in forest stands, such as eucalyptus, due to the use of this tree by the cellulose industry as a raw material. The study of this theme, which includes the analysis of forestry policies related to eucalyptus, aims to understand the role of man, forestry-based industries and the state as decision-making agents in the processes of deforestation and afforestation through a vision open to the perspective of forest management, in which human intervention is a determining factor alongside natural components in the configuration of forest spaces, as products of the interrelationships that have been established throughout contemporary Portugal. Finally, we have tried to point out ways to cooperate in repairing the damage caused by extractivism and the rentier view of the forest.