"Montados" Systems Sustainability: Landowners, Activities and Practices in Alentejo, Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Coelho,Inocêncio Seita
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Leitão,Manuela Fonseca
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0870-63522013000300002
• topic: agrosilvopastoral systems; attitude; "montados" management; exploitation systems; property; south of Portugal

We present the results of a study on the sustainability of "montados" (dehesas in Spain), which basically depends on the type of management adopted by landowners, in a North Alentejo region of Portugal of around 156 000 ha. The prevailing exploitation systems are identified and characterized based on inquiries to landowners. The different types of productive activities are studied, as well as the practices more commonly associated with them. With the knowledge of both the exploitation systems and the agroforestry activities and practices, it became possible to create a typology we called "sustainabilities", which lays on the fact that it is by the activities and practices choice that landowners simultaneously interfere in economic, social and environmental sustainabilities.