Author(s):
Surová, Diana 
; Surový, Peter ; Ribeiro, Nuno de Almeida ; Pinto-Correia, Teresa
Date: 2011
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/3546
Origin: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Subject(s): Cork oak Montado; Landscape preferences; Landscape user groups; Multifunctional management; Single tree grow model; CORKFITS
Description
A great part of the Alentejo region in
Southern Portugal is covered by an agro-silvo
pastoral system, the Montado. This traditional landuse
system is specific, inter alia, in its ability to join
production with favorable conditions for non-production
functions. At the present time, as society
positively evaluates and even demands cultural and
amenity functions from the countryside, the Montado
management faces the challenge of integrating production
with non-production functions in a way
which will result in suitable multifunctionality, and a
more sound viability of the whole system. The
decision support tool (DST) for the cork oak Montado
management, the CORKFITS, based on the singletree
growth model and working at the stand level, is
oriented primarily to the management of the production
functions, but it is able to integrate also other
data that can contribute for a more multifunctionality
oriented management. In this exploratory study, the
integration in the DST, of the preference distribution,
as expressed by landscape users is investigated. The
aim was to test a more comprehensive functioning of
this tool, where non-production functions are also
integrated. The described integration intended to
communicate to decision-makers how the change in
management practices at tree and under cover level,
might alter the satisfaction of expectations of different
user groups, as such changes affect the composition
of the Montado, at both levels. The users
considered are those practicing non-production functions
in the Montado. Preferences were assessed
through a questionnaire survey applied in the region
of Alentejo, in the area of dominance of the cork oak,
in the Montado system. The non-production functions
are, in this context, related particularly to hunting,
aesthetic appreciation related to walking and other
leisure activities, to life quality, and to tradition and
identity, as well as bee-keeping and mushroom
picking. This paper focuses on the description of
the specific methodological steps applied for the
successful integration of the landscape preferences of
different user groups into the DST for the cork oak
Montado. Integration has proved to be possible, even
if some methodological challenges still need to be
faced for a more consistent use of the proposed tool.
