Submitted by laborate on Mon, 23/04/2012 - 17:04 GMT.
On Tuesday 17th April, a representative of the
municipality of Maçao (Portugal), Antonio Louro, introduced
the Master in Sustainable Land Planning
(MTT) students the Forest Intervention Zones or ZIF.
A ZIF is a "continuous land area, consisting mostly by woodland,
subject to a forest management plan and a plan to protect
the forest and managed by a single entity." The ZIFs are
being implemented in many municipalities of Portugal and
its main goals are preventing forest fires, desertification
and depopulation. They are also an example of joint management
of the territories characterized by land fragmentation,
which also present additional problems such as land owners
absenteeism, indeterminacy of parcel boundaries or the application
of inadequate forest management models.
On the other hand, Francisco Xavier Barreiro shared with
MTT students the experience of founding of cooperative 'Monte
Cabalar', a pioneering community farming land in Galicia
that has managed to recover a substantial amount of hectares
of abandoned town placed in the municipality of A Estrada
(Pontevedra, Spain).
Starting from a situation characterized by the fragmentation
and abandonment of land, more than 330 land owners of the
'Monte Cabalar' cooperative currently manage a total of
700 hectares according to a planned and comprehensive model
that includes livestock, forestry and agriculture, while
seeking the achievement of an ecosystem in balance.
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