The long-term depopulation process in the Pyrenees mountain chain: the case of Cataluña

Abstract

The reduction of agrarian land in Mediterranean Europe has produced a large number of marginal zones, most of them located in mountainous areas. In fact, there has been a decrease of population in Catalan Pyrenees for the last one hundred fifteen years. This depopulation process has affected directly the abandonment of agrarian land (Lasanta, 1996) and, at the same time, it has favoured new dynamics: the colonisation of natural vegetation over these fields and the increase of soil degradation processes (Molina, 2001). However, this decrease of the population and agrarian activities has slowed down since the last decade due to the technification and modernisation of agrarian production systems which have made the sector much more competitive (Tulla, 1993), and the tourism is the first economic activity in some valleys. Nowadays Catalan agriculture represents 1.7% of Catalan GNP, but the future evolution is uncertain, and it is conditioned by the Agricultural Policies of the European Union which will be implemented in the years to come. It must be pointed out that two policies are already having a dramatic affect on the Catalan primary sector. The Spanish government and the European Community are subsidising at the same time the increase of production and productivity, and the set-aside of land.