The traditional and multifunctional landscapes of Montesinho Natural Park (PNM),
with their typical complexes of agro-, silvo- and pastoral components, changed
thoroughly during past decades. Historical, social, economic and cultural factors,
such as poor communications, biophysical events, and direct contact with nature
in everyday life should be taken into account to explain its present land use
pattern.
The current land use patterns are based in an ancestral arrangement of factors
resulting from a combination of two main parameters: water availability and village
proximity, both of them highly dependent of the topographic circumstances.
As a result, four main land use groups must be considered: vegetable gardens and
orchards near village streams margins, mainly over Fluvisols; meadows along the
streams, also over Fluvisols; open cereal fields around the village, frequently over
Dystric Cambisols and Leptosols; and more or less wooded open land outside th is
agricultural matrix, on Umbric Leptosols (IPB/ICN, 2006). The last one, the open
woodland matrix, is the largest component of PNM landscape. Essentially. it 'is
an export ecosystem: shrubs, firewood. pasture, but al so, rock outcrops, honey,
etc. In contrast, the vegetable gardens and orchards benefit greatly from human
and animal labor manure and water, in order to produce the seasonal fresh food
to complement the inhabitants' diet, which is mainly based on cereals and meal.
The meadows are, or were, essentially a “power'” ecosystem feeding cattle used
to plough fields. The open cereal fields ultimately provide bread, the basis of
human life.
