Landscapes of central-western Spain with special consideration of dehesas

Abstract

The typical landscapes of central-wetem Spain were studied, having chosen the province of Salamanca as a representative example. The study was approached from three levels according to preciseness: synthetic.- based on diversity and relative landrelief; descriptive.- regarding the whole province, with the establishment of, generally well defined, eight landscapes groups; detailed.- as far as the distribution of landascape units, related to pastures, was concemed.

Actually, the range of considered landscape units was sufficiently wide to demonstrate both those affected by human impact and those less influenced. Nevertheless, human activity was percieved practically m ali the instances. So that, frorn the 71 cartographic units, 15 were pastures of anthropological origin occupying a considerable part (more than 40 %) of the province. The optimal state, possibly, would be to conserve the major part of this territory as extensive pastures with sparse trees (dehesas). This would maintain the traditional land-use structure at the sarne time preserving the great biological and landscape values. In fact, the degraded state of landscapes in this region is due, in great measure, to the breakdown of the balance between land use and ecological capacity.