The latest research paper from environmental anthropologist and University of California, Santa Cruz Professor Andrew Mathews explores these issues in the Monte Pisano region of Central Italy. The paper is published in the journal Ambio. In particular, Mathews found that peasant women, who historically collected leaf litter in the forests, and shepherds, who grazed their flocks and conducted occasional managed burns, were critical in maintaining fire-resistant landscapes. Yet the social status of these groups meant the importance of their work went unrecognized. In Monte Pisano and much of the broader Mediterranean, forests and other plant communities have been shaped by thousands of years of intensive human management of the land. But migration to cities since the 1960s has left rural lands increasingly abandoned. And without people to maintain them, local forests have become overgrown with highly flammable brush. At the same time, many traditional rural land management practices that may have once reduced fire risk in the region have been systematically ignored and even criminalized over the years, to the point where they have been all but forgotten. Luckily, though, there are a few people who still remember. Mathews and his research team sought out elderly people who were born between 1928 and 1956 in the Monte Pisano region and conducted oral history interviews to learn about traditional land management practices. In particular, the researchers asked about activities like collecting leaf litter, livestock grazing, and managed burning, which historical records suggested may have once been common. "The people we interviewed were actually kind of excited to tell us these stories," Mathews said. "Most people don't really ask them detailed questions about their daily lives from when they were younger, so they enjoyed retelling the stories, and they were such brilliant, thoughtful, interesting people. They were a lot of fun to talk... |