The forest, a key element of a landscape and a community

Abstract

This article is a résumé of the tesis de licenciatura presented in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1981. The premise of the dissertation is that woodland is one of the elements of the natural environment most replete with symbolism. The study area is Alta Garrotxa, a mountainous zone which contains considerable extensions of woodland and rocky crags, which make the natural environment specially interesting. At present the region is suffering a process of total depopulation, and this study attempts to reflect how the remaining country folk in Alta Garrotxa perceive, «feel» and «vibrate with» the woods in particular, and in fact the entire natural environment. Consequently, a variety of elements are analyzed, ranging from a valuation of natural resources extracted from woodland to an examination of the concept of «territoritality», and the sense of belonging to a place. Fieldwork was based on direct contact with the inhabitants and their environment. Firstly, open questionnaires using a magnetic register were carried out in effort to capture the extraordinary wealth of vocabulary referring to woodland, unique to only the local farmers and obvious proof of their exceptional capacity of sensorial perception. Following a similar procedure, the second part of the study reflects the living testimony of the last remaining artisans and/or representatives of woodland occupations already disappeared or in the process of extinction. In this case, however, more emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of each person's occupation, rather than on his individual capacity of perception in the woods. Without disregarding the contribution of Geography of Perception and Behaviour, this study can be considered to lie in the field of new lines of investigation which have developed recently in France, following stimulating debates on the subject of Lanscape on the one hand: and on the other., in the phenomenlogical and existential branches of British and American Humanistic Geography of recent years.