The commons in Portugal: forms of uses and governance

Abstract

As in many regions of Europe, common lands and communal rights in Portugal have constituted a fundamental element of the agrarian-pastoral system from the Middle Ages to the present day. An exception occurred between 1938 and 1976, when the state undertook extensive afforestation of most common lands and privatized the remainder, thereby reducing areas available for collective use to a few negligible remnants. Following the collapse of the authoritarian regime in 1974, communities of common land users advocated for the restoration of their rights to utilize the commons (referred to as baldios), a goal that was realized in 1976. Concurrently, a management framework was established that integrated customary practices while drawing upon contemporary theoretical developments, notably the work of Ostrom (1990, 2010). Between 1976 and 2018, legislative measures were introduced with the objective of accommodating new uses and promoting greater scale through the integration of commons administered by multiple communities.