From Protected to Protection Forests. Local Communities, Resources and Forestry on the Southern Slopes of the Swiss Alps, 18th – 19th Centuries

In the 18th and 19th centuries, forests represented important sources of supply for local communities and, at the same time, object of furious speculation and political debates at cantonal and national levels. The transition from the century-old system of protected (banished) forests to a Federal forest policy towards 1876 symbolizes the change in the relationship between society and forest. During this period, local communities experienced dramatic changes in political, cultural and socio-economical structure which reflected also in forest management. The main goal of this project is to understand past interactions between men and forests in the geographic area on the southern slopes of the Swiss Alps (Ticino and Italian-speaking Grisons) by means of an interdisciplinary approach. The present study integrates dendrochronology (study of tree-ring growth) and land-use history, in order to investigate past forest management practices and provide information about wood-use, policies and social structure of ancient local communities. The project – funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation – takes place over three years (2009-2012) in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi (Labisalp) at the Università della Svizzera italiana.