David Soto Fernández

Spanish agriculture from 1900 to 2008: a long-term perspective on agroecosystem energy from an agroecological approach

According to the agroecological approach, energy analyses applied to agriculture should provide information about the structure and functions of the agroecosystem; in other words, about the maintenance of its fund elements, which sustain the flow of ecosystem services. To this end, we have employed a methodological proposal that adds agroecological EROIs to the existing economic EROIs. This methodology is applied here for the first time at the country level, and over a long-term historical period. The Spanish agroforestry sector, which is representative of Mediterranean agroclimatic conditions, has been studied on a decadal basis from 1900 to 2008, fully spanning its process of industrialization and modernization. The results show the loss of energy efficiency brought about by the industrialization of Spanish agriculture. The economic EROIs (FEROI, EFEROI and IFEROI) fell by 42, 93 and 12%, respectively. The shift towards livestock production and the dramatic increase in industrial inputs are the causes of this decline. With regard to agroecological EROIs, NPPact EROI and Biodiversity EROI fell by 6 and 15%, respectively. This suggests that the fund elements are being degraded and alerts us to low returns to nature in the form of un-harvested biomass available to aboveground and underground wildlife. Finally, Woodening EROI increased by 48%. Sixty percentage of this increment was due to the growth of woodland in areas freed from agricultural activities. However, this change in land use was partly due to feed imports from third countries where deforestation processes may well be taking place, an effect that has not been considered in the analysis.

Nutrient Balances and Management of Soil Fertility Prior to the Arrival of Chemical Fertilizers in Andalusia, Southern Spain

Studies on the role of nutrient balances in the socioecological transition of agriculture are scarce, particularly in the Mediterranean region where manure availability was low. The role of nutrient balance in this transition was evaluated in three representative localities of the inland Mediterranean region of southern Spain from 1750 to 1900. Changes in cropland distribution, population, manure availability and demand, and nutrient balance at cropland and aggregated scales were assessed. Data suggest that agriculture development around 1750 was limited by manpower. During this period manure availability was higher than demand and municipal balances for nitrogen were positive, whereas they were slightly negative for phosphorus and potassium. During the 19th century, the population increased while livestock numbers and manure availability decreased. Nutrient balances become negative at crop and aggregate scales, indicating that productivity was based on soil mining. This territorial imbalance and soil mining were the main reasons behind the turn-of-the-century crisis which led to the agrarian socioecological transition.

Reconciling Boserup with Malthus: Agrarian Change and Soil Degradation in Olive Orchards in Spain (1750–2000)

Soil degradation is one of the consequences of farming activity that has had the greatest impact on the capacity of agro ecosystems to produce food and offer environmental services. This risk is threatening the Mediterranean basin as one of the principal factors of non-sustainability. In recent decades, the expansion of olive growing has exacerbated the problem in the Mediterranean region. Although the natural phenomena responsible for the process of soil degradation seem clear, debate remains regarding its social causes. The primary objective of this chapter, based on the evidence of severe degradation of Mediterranean soils, is to analyse its historic dimension through a case study performed in a mountainous area of southern Spain (Montefrio, Granada), in which to identify the causes and thereby contribute to the on-going debate regarding management approaches and soil degradation on a global scale, where the work of Boserup has been so influential. Our case study, which spans two and a half centuries (1750-present day), examines whether population growth was among the primary factors in the transformation from pre-industrialised to industrialised agriculture, with its consequent environmental impacts. In the light of the transition towards sustainable agriculture, understanding the vital role played by population size and dynamics is crucial, especially if approached on a global scale, given that the population of the planet is constantly growing.

Introducción – Dossier Conflictos ambientales en el mundo contemporáneo: una perspectiva latinoamericana y española

¿Sin lugar para el conflicto en la Historia Ambiental? Durante la década de los noventa del pasado siglo y primeros años del presente, el interés por el papel del conflicto en las interrelaciones entre Ambiente y Sociedad tuvo una influencia creciente en el desarrollo de la Historia ambiental. Fueron especialmente importantes aquellos trabajos que se centraban en una escala local, en ámbitos campesinos o indígenas en los cuales se concedía un papel relevante al conflicto en la dinámica socioambiental. Al menos eso parece desprenderse del elevado número de investigaciones sobre conflictos ambientales campesinos, ocurridos entre el siglo XVIII y la actualidad en distintos continentes, que recogíamos en trabajos anteriores. No solamente la temática sino también el esfuerzo por dialogar teóricamente con iniciativas similares en otras ciencias sociales auguraban un futuro prometedor para el avance de la Ecología Política en perspectiva histórica. En los últimos años la situación parece haber cambiado sustancialmente, al menos si nos centramos en los artículos publicados en las revistas más influyentes y en el tratamiento dado a la cuestión en las monografías de síntesis más recientes, tanto en el ámbito europeo como norteamericano. Una parte de la literatura existente en historia ambiental, fundamentalmente en el contexto académico norteamericano, ha considerado dentro de la conflictividad ambiental esencialmente los abanderados por movimientos ecologistas, organizados y en espacios territoriales estatales o supraestatales, situando, por lo tanto, el ámbito de la conflictividad ambiental en la historia de las últimas décadas. Asimismo, alguna de las monografías recientes no le dedican más

Conflicto ambiental, transformaciones productivas y cambio institucional. Los comunales de Galicia (España) durante la transición a la democracia

El articulo se propone explorar la importancia de diferentes factores en los cambios en el conflicto ambiental en torno a los comunales. Analizaremos la importancia de las reglas (formales e informales) pero tambien la construccion de identidades por las comunidades locales en la interpretacion de los comunales. Tenemos en cuenta, asimismo, los cambios en la funcionalidad ambiental y economica de los comunales. Nuestro estudio de caso se localiza en Galicia (noroeste de Espana). Nos centramos en un tipo de propiedad comunal no reconocida por ley hasta 1968, mostrando como la clarificacion legal y la construccion de sistemas de reglas consistentes no es suficiente para explicar la sustentabilidad de los comunales. Los cambios en la funcionalidad de los comunales son tambien relevanmtes para entender su sustentabilidad en el largo plazo.