EFFECTS OF FARMLAND AND FOREST PRACTICES ON BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN NORTH-WEST SPAIN

The main changes in land use during the last 50 years have been agricultural intensification and forestry plantations with exotic species, and North-West Spain is not an exception. Traditionally, local people used to give value to native forests and sustainable agriculture, but several generations of rural abandonment and changes on the rural economy have led to a system in which farmers feel that they have to intensify their production. At the same time, they seem to have forgotten the values and services that native deciduous forests have always given to their ancestors. Nowadays, both fertile agricultural lands and mature native forests are rapidly being replaced by Eucalyptus plantation…