Baldios and Common Property Resource Management in Portugal

Abstract

"The baldios are an ancient tradition in Portugal. The royal rolls by which kings acknowledged privileges during the Middle Ages refer to the baldios. These lands have always been a bone of contention between the rich and the peasants, between shepherds and farmers and between local groups and central authorities (including the forest service). As late as 1875, the baldios comprised more than 4 million ha but, by the advent of the Estado Novo (new state regime) in 1933, usurpation and government-backed individualized privatization had reduced them to some 450 000 ha (or about 5 percent of the land surface of Portugal). These remaining lands are concentrated in the north and the interior of the country."