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ORI GIN AL PA PER
Biodiversification as an historical process: an appealfor the application of historical ecology to bio-culturaldiversity research
Roberta Cevasco1 • Diego Moreno2 •
Robert Hearn2
Received: 20 February 2015 / Revised: 28 May 2015 / Accepted: 15 June 2015� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract In the context of recent appeals for the adoption of historical perspectives
emerging in environmental and conservation studies, ‘biodiversification processes’ would
be considered as specific historical and historiographical topics. However, as highlighted in
this paper, a broader discussion of the biodiversification processes as historical processes is
needed. This paper discusses some consequences that are presented during the study of
biodiversification processes when focusing on the links between cultural and biological
diversity at the individual landscape level rather than on an overview of the current
literature on the subject. In this discussion, we briefly underline dissimilarities in the
methods adopted in historical ecology to those in the conventional historical approach
nurtured in global environmental history where biodiversification processes, as subjects of
historical study, are largely ignored or subsumed into general observations concerning
global change or embedded in presumed ahistorical ‘traditional’ economies and practice
systems. Such a broad reassessment is required before multi- or inter-disciplinary appli-
cations seek to answer ‘common questions’ (Szabo, Environ Conserv 37:380–387, 2010) in
the field of environmental and cultural conservation studies. This paper comments on field
and documentary evidence collected during multidisciplinary historical ecology approa-
ches to research in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and Pyrenees (Franco-Spanish) sites.
Communicated by Mauro Agnoletti.
& Roberta [email protected]
Diego [email protected]
Robert [email protected]
1 Universita degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche, Pollenzo, Bra, CN, Italy
2 Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA), Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia eStoria (DAFIST) & Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV),Universita degli Studi di Genova, Genoa, Italy
123
Biodivers ConservDOI 10.1007/s10531-015-0943-3
These site-level investigations suggest that medieval and post-medieval changes in local
practices and systems of environmental resource production and activation appear to have
been key drivers in co-related variations observed in the past biodiversity dynamics of the
sites. In order to corroborate the sedimentary evidence (or traces of evidence) concerning
taxonomic and habitat changes, historical ecology has proposed the adoption of a local
approach in which a specific historical analysis and use of documentary and archival
sources—as well as the archaeological and sedimentary evidence—has posed a number of
new questions to the traditional use of archival and textual sources by professional his-
torians. In doing so, it becomes clear that when observed at a local, topographical site-scale
or on an individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity
appear more clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating
to the ‘co-evolution of nature and culture’. These historically produced links between
biological and cultural diversity—identified as biodiversification processes that can be
uncovered and explored through the adoption of approaches from historical ecology—are
the driving forces that ‘generate’ processes of circulation in local ecological knowledge
and its related practices.
Keywords Biodiversification � Bio-cultural landscapes � Historical ecology �Environmental history � Field and documentary sources � Local practices � Placed
knowledge � Liguria
Introduction
In paleontological and paleoecological research and historically-oriented studies of the
genetic evolution of crop species, ‘biodiversification’ processes at geological and historical
timescales are currently addressed as matters of evolutionary diversification. As discussed
in this paper, in seeking to establish a local historical definition of timescale it is important
to note that from in geological timescales biodiversification refers to events rather than
intrinsic processes (Servais et al. 2009). As such, scientific debates surrounding the use of
such terminology are reminiscent of those concerning the economically-dominated his-
torical timescale of the ‘longue duree’; a model proposed and developed during the mid-
twentieth century by French historian Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) and the Annales
School in opposition to total, politically-dominated ‘histoire evenementielle’. Braudel’s
‘longue duree’ has re-emerged relatively recently as a central component in Anglo-
American global environmental history with its’ connections to ‘deep history’. However,
the return to the Braudelian concept of the ‘longue duree’ is not appropriate when seeking
to establish a more analytical, historical approach to environmental history (Armitage and
Guldi 2014). The ‘local approach’ identifies social actions, practices, strategies, conflicts
and knowledge (‘politics’) as crucial drivers that have pronounced material effects on
processes, such as such as biodiversification, that develop in various historical timescales.
Studies regarding crop and vegetation cover often assimilate biodiversity dynamics into
wider discussions concerning processes of evolutionary domestication processes despite
taking both early and recent histories and multi-timescale archeobotanical sources into
account (Fuller et al. 2012; Meyer and Purugganan 2013). From such a perspective, the
domestication of ‘wild’ and ‘cultivated’ environmental resources very depending on the
specific historical agency of specific human social groups and groupings. Biodiversification
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is therefore rarely regarded as an historical process that involves the activation of a single
crop species’ genetic content and those of the wider environmental that are activated by
patterns of activities within an ecosystem or agro-ecological environment.1 The historical
dynamics involved in the activation of biodiversity would only rarely be viewed as
complete historical processes in bio-deterministic models inherited from human ecology.
Due to these historical characteristics, the concept of biodiversification would be robustly
debated in fields of research such as ethnobiological studies. However, ethnobotanical and
ethnozoological studies explore the relationships between the ecology of environmental
resources and environmental deterministism and possibilism; non-historical perspectives
resulted from debates concerning ‘determinisme et possibilisme’ in nineteenth-century
French human geography (cfr Moreno 2003).
However, rather than proposing such a dichotomy, in ongoing discussions amongst
ethnobiologists and historians concerning ‘nature knowledge in conservation’, the impor-
tance of exploring biodiversification processes was first suggested by the British social
anthropologist Tim Ingold (Ingold 2000; Sanga and Ortalli 2003). In these discussions,
approaches influenced by social anthropological research are considered crucial when
seeking to establish a more sophisticated historical and historiographical characterization of
biodiversification processes. Ingold consistently refers to a new, dynamic perspective on
biodiversity conservation that focuses ‘on processes of diversification rather than on the
structure of diversity’, in which the influences of different timescales are recognized,
addressed and explored (Sanga and Ortalli 2003).2 In exploring the temporality of land-
scape, Ingold’s ‘dwellers perspectives’ considers any single tree, for example, to embody
the entire history of the landscapes development, encapsulating and representing a history
that includes the effects of patterns activities (actions and practices) performed by various
inhabitants and groups throughout time (Ingold 1993).3 Surprisingly without any making
explicit connection with traditions in British historical ecology in which vegetation cover,
such as an individual woodland, is regarded as part of local society, Ingold’s definition is
today also widely adopted by landscape geographers when searching for the existence of
historical environmental processes in individual woods and woodlands. Indeed, ‘trees have
life stories of their own […] largely contained by human activities’ (Watkins 2014). The
‘relational flux field’ is an important part of Ingold’s work, in which historical biodiver-
sification processes appear to be dominated by continuities and discontinuities in the his-
tories of local patterns of activities and related local environmental knowledge. However,
when exploring historical processes such as these, ‘local environmental knowledge’ (e.g.
Gustavsson et al. 2011) is perhaps better defined as ‘placed knowledge’, particularly in
discussions concerning the potential application of such ‘knowledges’ to the identification
and management of European bio-cultural heritage and landscapes.
1 However, suggested distinctions between ‘unconscious selection’ and ‘conscious selection’—the latter ofwhich reflects intentional choices—in classifying ‘human cultivation practices’ might appear inconsistentwith the observed effects of historical activation practices and placed knowledge on environmental resourcesin the ecology of a specific/individual place, rather than a reference to a precise historical model in generalhuman ecology.2 Discussions at the International Congress ‘Saperi naturalistici/nature knowledge’ (Venice, 4–6thDecember 1997) are shortly reported in Sanga and Ortalli (eds) (2003). Agnoletti’s (2014) references toIngold’s contribution concerning biodiversification processes could be potentially misleading having beenderived from an incorrect quotation in Cevasco and Moreno (2013, p. 151).3 The authors wish to acknowledge Professor Osvaldo Raggio (Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia e Storia(DAFIST), Universita degli Studi di Genova) for suggesting this text and for discussing Ingold’s positionrelating to the local approach to the history of environmental resources.
Biodivers Conserv
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Proactive management strategies that seek to establish ‘functional ecological equiva-
lents’ have been proposed as viable alternatives to ‘protecting imagined unimpeded natural
processes’ (Editorial in Nature 455, 18 September 2008, pp. 63–64 in Cevasco and Moreno
2015).4 Similarly, rapid evolutions in environmental conservation studies have recently led
to the radical notion that the ‘ecosystem is dominated by history’ (Editorial in Nature 2008,
13 February 2014, p. 132 in Montanari and Moreno 2014). Whilst possibly simply
reflecting general ‘Anthropocene’ debates, the sentiments imbued within them can also
encourage historians to recognise that discussions relating to a new, historical perspective
are needed in environmental studies. In order to contribute to this debate, this paper will
highlight the necessity of considering methodological dissimilarities presented by two
different historical approaches to and in bio-cultural conservation studies before the
application of findings to management strategies; on one hand, global environmental
history—a robustly multi-tonal, multi-faceted sub-discipline of historical studies in Europe
and north America—and on the other, the local historical approach—a British legacy in
historical studies relatively uncultivated by continental European historians but nurtured in
local approaches to applied historical ecology in northern Europe and north America
(Swetnam et al. 1999; Szabo 2010). Fundamental differences can be found in these two
approaches concerning the extent to which biodiversification processes are considered
historically and historiographically. Firstly, biodiversification processes are largely ignored
as subjects of historical and historiographical study from the perspective of global envi-
ronmental history. Secondly, from this perspective, past biodiversity dynamics are often
subsumed into more general observations concerning global change and are embedded and
entrenched in presumed ahistorical ‘traditional’ economies and practice systems (e.g.
Parrotta et al. 2006; Rotherham 2013). There is therefore a need to address the ‘missing
historical approach’ in the study of biodiversification processes (Agnoletti 2014).
Since its origins, historical ecology has endorsed a local, topographically defined
approach in which documentary and archival sources are combined with archaeological
and sedimentary evidence and explored at site and landscape level. The adoption of a
multidisciplinary approach encourages specialists to ask new questions of their data and to
contextualise and scrutinize their collected evidence against and in light of other sources.
In order to underline the methodological ramifications of this approach and the new
findings potentially gleaned from its adoption, this paper examines local scale ‘field
sources’—sedimentary evidence collected and produced by palinologists—complied dur-
ing multidisciplinary research projects at various sites in the north Italian Apennines and
the Franco-Spanish Pyrenees. In doing so the direct contributions of local scale ‘field
sources’ in informing better historical definitions and understandings of biodiversification
processes are highlighted. When observed at a local, topographical site-scale or on an
individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity appear more
clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating to the ‘co-
evolution of nature and culture’. These historically produced links between biological and
cultural diversity—identified as biodiversification processes that can be uncovered and
explored through the adoption of approaches from historical ecology—are the driving
4 It is important to note that in studies of historical ecology applied to site conservation, the use of the‘historical range of variability’ concept in assessing what changes are acceptable in ecosystem and land-scape management has been debated since the early 1990s (Rackham 1998; Szabo 2010). As brieflycommented upon in this paper, methodological debates stemming from and concerning the ‘crisis’ of themodel of unimpeded natural processes have been investigated in multidisciplinary studies carried out atGEODE (Toulouse) amongst French geographers and palaeoecologists looking for a ‘referentiel partage’ infield sources derived from a number of mountain sites in the Pyrenees.
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forces that ‘generate’ processes of mutual circulation in local ecological knowledge and its
related practices.
Materials and methods
Recent studies have highlighted the importance and value of conducting multidisciplinary
research at an integrated micro-regional scale. For example, Bernard Davasse—a historical
ecologist now engaged in the application of landscape characterization—richly docu-
mented the evolution of research of the Laboratoire Geographie de l’Environnement
(GEODE) team from the regional scale to that of a single Pyrenean valley, and more
intensive studies of a specific, individual slope within that valley since the end of the 1990s
(Davasse 2015). Composed of geographers, paleoecologists and archaeologists, the
emphasis attached to the historical dimensions of diverse phenomena has been conspicuous
element of GEODE investigations in historical ecology since the 1970s, particularly in the
work French geographer George Bertrand who proposed the original model for the his-
torical analysis of the ‘Geosysteme–Territoire–Paysage’ relationships (Bertrand 2014).
Palinological and anthracological data derived from paleocological investigations
revealed that a series of impacts on environmental resources during the pre- and proto-
historical age can be explained by demographic pressure models throughout the mountain
chain. The adoption of topographic rather than regional scale showed high levels of
variability and diverse spatial dynamics. Sedimentary evidence was compared and corre-
lated with archaeological and local documentary sources in this topographical approach. In
doing so, asynchronies appeared between demographic pressure models and the environ-
mental fluctuations registered in the core; asynchronies that ‘must be referred to a historical
diversification of social practices’ (Davasse 2015). It is therefore important to modify the
scale of research so as to collect and identify a large and increasing number of indicators
that provide new information about, for example, historical fire regimes and practices
(Vanniere et al. 2001; Galop et al. 2004; Rius et al. 2012) and contrasted with the study of
the environmental effects of modern fire (Metailie 1981), pastoral activities (Cugny et al.
2011), and even air pollution related to mining and iron production in mountain val-
leys (De Pascale et al. 2006). In this context, the sedimentary ‘cored sample’ evidence is
established as the ‘referentiel’. The core of the site is therefore an archive for the historical
ecology of the changing landscape and ecologies that can, in turn, be compared with
historical sequences in individual cultural landscapes around which the historical inter-
pretation of results can be organized (Davasse 2015).
Several fieldwork investigations and discussions were conducted in a specific section of
the north Italian Apennines in order to explore and appreciate the full historical dimensions
of biodiversification processes. An integrated micro-regional scale was adopted in these
studies in which prehistoric to post-medieval archaeological, environmental and sedi-
mentary sources were examined from a local perspective (Menozzi et al. 2007). Over
25-cored sites in the Trebbia and Aveto valleys were investigated by the multidisciplinary
Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA) at the Universita degli Studi di
Genova. Composed of ecologist, archaeobotanists, archeologists, geographers and histo-
rians from the Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA), Dipartimento di
Antichita, Filosofia e Storia (DAFIST) and the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra,
dell’Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), research on the Trebbia-Aveto watershed began in
2000 with a series of international investigations (http://www.dismec.unige.it/zum/)
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exploring the archaeology of Ligurian wetlands (Branch 2004; Cevasco et al. 2009; Maggi
and De Pascale 2011). The naturalistic importance of many of the studied wetland sites is
reflected by their inclusion in the EU Natura 2000 network. Some of the sites have been
identified as having proto-historical origins and as such have long histories as watering
holes in a changing series of pastoral cultural landscapes. The stratigraphic archives of all
of the sites indicate significant histories as cultural landscapes and as such are important
archaeological, biological and cultural heritage areas (Maggi et al. 2009; Menozzi et al.
2010, Guido et al. 2013). However, despite this, recommendations for the protection of
these areas and sites-types are still yet to be considered by the Italian Cultural Heritage
Ministry.
Orry de Theo (1600 masl), Bassies Valley, Pyrenean Mountains, France
Investigations based on historical and paleo data at a small peat bog at Orry de Theo
(1600 masl), in the Bassies Valley, Pyrenean Mountains (Pyrenees ariegeois, France) were
an example of ‘integrated micro-regional research’ (Pyrenean valley scale). The study
(Galop et al. 2011) compared variations in pollen richness between 1810 and 2010 AD
with grazing pressure, pastoral fire practices, soil erosion and demographic trends (Fig. 1).
Variations in palynological richness are considered to reflect the floristic diversity and
vegetation and landscape dynamics over time (Galop et al. 2011; Berglund et al. 2008).
The sequence of changes observed in the valley since the beginning of the nineteenth
century indicates that the loss of floristic diversity resulted from the decline in grazing
activities and pressures. Investigations of peat bog site cores in the Natura 2000 Site of
Community Interest (SCI) ‘Lago Marcotto-Roccabruna-Gifarco-Lago della Nave’ (SIC
Fig. 1 Sequence of graphs contrasting population trends of the commune d’Auzat and grazing pressure(ovine/bovine stock) from textual sources compared with the estimated palynological richness, 1810–2010(from Galop et al. 2011). The shaded areas refer to respective chronological periods (L–R): nineteenthcentury, early twentieth century, post-World War II period to the present day
Biodivers Conserv
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IT331012) in the Upper Trebbia Valley, North Italian Apennines uncovered similar evi-
dence concerning the environmental effects of agro-silvo-pastoral practices dating
5040 ± 100 BP (Cevasco 2007). This site, known locally as ‘Moglia di Casanova’
(1056 masl), was part of common land and is the subject of a project involving local actors
(‘commoners’) and local governmental management plans that aimed to restore the bio-
diversity of the wetlands that have been reduced by decades of abandonment of the
practices associated with the past use of common lands. These projects were coordinated
by and between the Province of Genoa, the Forest Service, University departments and
local stakeholders.
These projects sought to enhance the living collective resources and environmental
heritage of the area and were based on the re-activation of the environmental effects of
‘placed knowledge’ and practices, such as coppicing, mowing, water-channelling, fountain
restoration and unconfined-fire practices. Applied research in historical ecology and
environmental archaeology has explored the presence of historic activation practices and
experimented with their effects on the present biodiversity of the SCI (Cevasco 2013a;
Beltrametti et al. 2014; Cevasco and Moreno 2015). This series of studies were carried out
with particular reference to those conducted concerning the application of local fire
practices in managing pastoral landscapes in the French Pyrenees during the 1980s
(Metailie 1981).
Gosciona (1050 masl), Aveto Valley, Northwest Italian Apennines, Italy
The site at Gosciona was part of a group of cored soil sites in the Upper Trebbia and Aveto
valleys, northwest Italian Apennines. Investigations at the site documented variations in
the biodiversity of vegetation cover (taxa and habitat) that can be attributed to the envi-
ronmental effects of local historical practices that have been abandoned since the end of
nineteenth century. In order to implicate and enforce this causation factor, the dated
temporal patterns shown by the pollen diagram must correlate with the historical existence
of a local multiple land use system (‘alnocoltura’) and consider that the abandonment of
the local practices (including controlled fire) may not necessarily be correlated to local
demographic trends (Molinari 2010; Stagno and Molinari 2014; Molinari and Montanari
2015).
‘Alnocoltura’ is a highly specialized cyclic agro-silvo-pastoral system employed in the
production of cereals for human consumption such as rye (Secale cereale) and oats (Avena
sativa). Pollen evidence dates the adoption of this system in the Aveto valley to at least the
eleventh century (Cevasco and Moreno, 2007; Guido et al., 2013) and archive and field
evidence document the presence and use of ‘alnocultura’ in these valleys possibly until the
late-nineteenth century (Moreno et al. 1998). The past existence of the system has now
passed out of the living memory of inhabitants in the study area (Cevasco 2010). The site
(1050 masl) is a small plot of grey—or speckled—alder (Alnus incana) interspersed with
some old stumps of common—or single-seeded -hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna). The
shrub layer is dominated by bramble (Rubus sp.), and the herb layer by bracken (Pteridium
aquilinum).
The diagram (Fig. 2) covers the upper 40 cm of the soil, 25 cm corresponding to c.
1630–1680 AD (Molinari 2010). The collapse in the microcharcoals (use of controlled
fire), the decrease of hawthorn pollen planted in the alder wood to protect the temporary
sowed plot-fields and the increase of bramble present on the fertilised soils resulting from
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centuries of ‘alnocoltura’ on the slope documents the effects of the abandonment of the
practice in the upper 15 cm. The curve in the growth of hawthorn begins in the period c.
1550–1600 AD and reaches a maximum at 20 cm corresponding to c. 1750 AD. The
decrease in the richness of the taxa pollen from the bottom of the diagram to the present
Fig. 2 Palynological richness (number of plant taxa, a proxy for biodiversity) and concentration values ofmicro and macro-charcoal fragments from the historically documented alnocoltura site of Gosciona, Avetovalley, Eastern Ligurian Apennines, northern Italy (Molinari 2010, p. 307). L PAZ Local Pollen AssemblageZones; GOS 1 and GOS 2 are the name of the two L PAZ (abbreviations for ‘‘Gosciona’’)
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123
day is continuous. At this point it is possible to identify various variants and discontinuities
in the ‘alnocultura’ system and the diverse effects of these on biodiversification processes
at the site.
The importance and interest of the ‘alnocultura’ cycle in characterizing and shaping the
historical rural landscape in this part of Apennines has been previously underlined (Ag-
noletti 2013; Molinari and Montanari 2015). Biodiversification processes have a history,
and this history can be detected in the biodiversity heritage of these processes, such as the
present population of historically activated alder that currently declining in the valleys and
the current spread of hawthorn in secondary beech-alder woodland sites.
Lago di Rezzo (780 masl), Upper Aveto valley, Northwest ItalianApennines, Italy
Core investigations were conducted at Lago di Rezzo (780 masl), near to Rezzoaglio in the
Upper Aveto valley, northwest Italian Apennines. The pollen diagram with two radiometric
age determinations covers the chronology from the twelfth to the twentieth century and
offers a reliable dating model (Menozzi et al. 2009). This chronology includes the whole of
the seigniorial economy period until the end of this system at the end of the eighteenth
century. The historical variation in microcharcoals and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP),
such as coprophilous fungi, connects the sedimentary evidence with changes in historical
practices that resulted in different biodiversification processes affecting the area through
time. A brief discussion of the upper part of this diagram correlates the environmental
diversity recorded in the sedimentary evidence with cultural diversities in local practices
and land use described in documentary sources.
Despite the absence of palynological richness calculations, a clear shift in the recorded
taxa reflects the adoption of a new production system in the surrounding basin slopes based
on permanent terraced fields, ‘improved’ meadows, bovine pastures, and the growing of
chestnuts in orchard plantations during the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time, some
indicator taxa disappeared from the site, particularly those associated with the previous
multiple system centred on turkey oak (Quercus cerris) wood-pasture (Cevasco 2012,
2013b). The multiple systems landscape presents a local type of land use referred to in
documentary records as ‘terre alberate’ (‘lands with trees’). This land use system was
characterised by temporary cropland bearing trees intended for the production of leaf-
fodder, hay and cereals in a temporary cultivation crop system (c. 1600–1750 AD).5 The
diagram reveals the contrasted variations of some indicator species during this shift; turkey
oak (Quercus cerris) [vs] common sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), rye (Secale cereale)
[vs] maize (Zea mays); field sorrel (Rumex acetosella) [vs] common sorrel (Rumex
acetosa).
The decline of oaks (Quercus spp.) corresponds with the decline of cereals, the collapse
of microcarbons and coprophilous fungi, and the increase of true grasses (Poaceae), maize
5 The term ‘terre alberate’ was used in post-medieval documents regarding the seigniorial system and wasstill used in official forestry administration sources in 1822. The shredding of turkey oak (Quercus cerris) inmultiple intensive systems including the temporary sowing of minor cereals were part of this type of landuse. Descriptions of 1305 plots of land in the parish containing the studied sites permitted the identificationof different population patterns of turkey oak and forming many different vegetation patterns distinguishablewith a detailed local system of land use taxonomy (Bosco alberato, Terra alberata, bosco alberato di costi,terra prativa, pascolativa e coltiva, pascolo alberato, terra con costi, cespugli, arbusti). Oaks also appearedin a plot co-planted with alder and beech (Bertolotto and Cevasco 2000).
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(Zea mays), and sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) from the 1820s. This point in the diagram
marks the change in the management of oak (Quercus, spp.) trees. Turkey oaks appear to
have been largely removed from ‘terre alberate’ (‘lands with trees’) during the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries in order to promote the establishment of permanent fields, par-
ticularly of maize and potatoes, and to ‘improve’ pastures and meadows with newly-sown
species, such as sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) The previous temporary fields and mul-
tiple systems were intended to provide pasture and produce fodder for intense sheep
grazing in large transhumance movements that centred on the management of common
lands. The appearance of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) in the pastures of the Aveto
Valley during the mid-nineteenth century altered the species diversity of the pasture and
meadows and the pastoral value of these areas. In turn, these changes have directly affected
the production and composition of local cheeses and associated economies (Cevasco and
Moreno 2013). Some components of the previous cultural landscape survive in modern
land use systems despite the abandonment of transhumant sheep grazing in the area around
Lago Rezzo and the surrounding slopes. For example, a number of old shredded turkey
oaks shared by different family groups can still be found on a slope just above Lago Rezzo,
in an area called ‘Bandito di Amborzasco’, a place name that indicates common lands
practices. Fodder was still produced in the 1980s within small family farms specializing in
the cheese making, and as such were living fragments of historical landscapes descended
from eighteenth-century turkey oak wood-pastures. In addition, minor flora of the herba-
ceous layer occasionally did not disappear within managed trees areas where activation
practices, such as shredding, recreated environmental conditions stimulating the local
reproduction of species, such as Gentiana kochiana (E.P. Perrier & Songeon) and Plantago
serpentina.
Pian Brogione (1100–1190 masl), Trebbia valley, Northwest ItalianApennines, Italy
A 250 cm core extracted at Pian Brogione (1100–1190 masl) in the parish of Casanova,
Trebbia valley, northwest Italian Apennines documented a regressive sequence from the
present day to the twelfth century AD. An impressive variation in habitat and landscapes
inside this common land were found in the regressive sequence (Branch et al. 2002). Such
landscape changes have been correlated with changes in practices rather than changes in
the global climate changes, particularly those undergone during the period known as the
‘Little Ice Age’ (Cevasco et al. 2015). The Pian Brogione plateau lies at almost 200 m
above the present north Apennine sweet chestnut fructification line, that current literature
states to be c. 800–900 masl in this section of the Apennines. Two peaks of chestnut pollen
expansion are documented in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. The medieval plantation expanded into a landscape characterized
by scattered beech and fir that co-existed with an abundant herbaceous layer. An almost
undisturbed slow peat deposition in the core indicated a modest use of fire management
and low grazing activities. The presence of Fabaceae indicator species reveals that the
post-medieval plantation was connected with temporary crop cultivation. The higher
amount of microcharcoal deposition found in this core section is consistent with the use of
fire practices in the multifunctional management of pastureland bearing chestnut trees or
chestnut wooded pasture, the effect of which has been described in the historical ecology
of the near Upper Vara Valley (Grove and Rackham 2001).
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Discussion
The employment of mountain site sedimentary sources in integrated micro-regional (a
multi-cored area) historical ecology research into local-scale (from the coring sites to the
individual landscape scale) biodiversification processes enables the precise study of tem-
poral variations in species and taxa richness and trait that are not solely based on their
presence or absence in core sequencing. At the same time the coring site is an integral part
of the location itself whose sediments, soils and vegetation canopy also record changes and
continuity in the patterns of activity in line Ingold’s ‘dwellers perspective’. Such activities
and practices are best historically identified and characterised through the use of a
regressive topographical approach to In the historical ecology; tracing the site history and
concurrent historical-environmental processes from the present to the past.
As outlined by the case studies, the regressive approach enables the observation of
discontinuities thereby facilitating a greater understanding of the historical asynchronies
and anomalies that can appear in sedimentary evidence, therefore avoiding simplistic
generalizations concerning system disturbances. The examination of multi-scale spatial
relationships between the biodiversity of past and present ‘individual landscapes’ make
specific sites archives for the study of landscape scale biodiversification processes. The
core-sampled site must therefore be studied in tandem with the topographical distribution
of conventional archaeological sites in the area, especially when studying specific rural
landscapes as part of wider European bio-cultural heritage.
A large amount of historical information concerning local practices can be derived from
examination of the site as it is found today, not only in terms of the uses of documentary
evidence, but also through the correlation of specific field and site evidence derived from
post-medieval rural archaeology, a field of research that is arguably more prone to influ-
ences from global environmental history approaches (Schreg 2014) despite exhibiting an
interest in the integration of sources suggested by the local historical approach (Stagno
et al. 2013; Stagno 2015).
Approaching the historical study of biodiversification processes regressively highlights
the potential insights derived from multidisciplinary, site-specific historical ecology
investigations. Further development of this approach can contribute to a better definition
and understanding of the intentions and possibilities of environmental archaeology
developed since originating from woodland archaeology and contribute to discussions
concerning the specific uses of local documentary evidence in global environmental his-
tory.6 As detailed previously, such a broad, considerable reconfiguration is required before
‘common questions’ in the field of environmental and cultural conservation studies can be
answered by multi or interdisciplinary applications and approaches (Szabo 2010).
Site-level sedimentary sources recorded that historical changes in medieval and post-
medieval local practices, the activation and production of environmental resources systems
and embedded ‘placed environmental knowledge’ were crucial drivers in co-related,
contemporary variations in site level biodiversification processes. The local approach is
essential in order to corroborate the sedimentary evidence for changes in taxa and habitat
with rapid changes in land use and forest cover following changes in local production and
practice systems, such as the multiple agro-sylvo-pastoral land use systems in Apennine
common lands. The regressive history of land use therefore requires a specific historical
6 The plea for historical ecology perspectives were clearly proposed by Professor Oliver Rackham(1939–2015) to British environmental archaeologists during the infancy of the field in the early 1980s,however with seemingly little success (Rackham 1998).
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analytical approach to documentary and archival sources in tandem with evidence derived
from in situ field studies (Beltrametti et al. 2014).7
Conclusion
The long, tangled roots of historical ecology can be found intertwined with those of
academic studies in agriculture, forestry and geography in mid to late-nineteenth century
and are particularly related to discussions concerning ‘Man-Nature’ relationships following
Perkins Marsh (Szabo 2010). In many parts of Europe, the historical approach adopted in
many of these disciplines was widely born out of the development of the natural and social
sciences since the seventeenth century. Recent studies in forest and woodland history have
shown that the rise of historical ecology in the 1970s represented a distinct break with the
legacy and traditions of nineteenth-century scientific historiography (Cevasco and Moreno
2015). During the origins of this new historical approach, a relatively small interdisci-
plinary research team in Britain conceived and develop an approach to historical ecology
that fitted with the unique tradition of naturalist field studies and the unusual—from a
continental perspective—practice of carrying out field studies as part of local or topo-
graphical history (Beckett and Watkins 2011). Such research consciously avoided nine-
teenth-century specialisations in historical and geographical studies, and instead directly
referred to the ‘historical-topographical’ approach and the systematic use of multiple
sources inherited from the eighteenth-century British local history, such as those employed
by the amateur local natural historian and enthusiastic field naturalist Rev. Gilbert White
(1720—1793) whose works have a conspicuous legacy in both local history, and in global
environmental history during the 1990s (Cevasco and Moreno 2007).
In Italy discussions concerning such topics began during the 1980s when foresters,
geographers, and historians took a growing interest in environmental history studies
(Moreno et al. 1982; Armiero and Hall 2010). The combination of the approach to his-
torical ecology in Britain with theoretical developments in the social history of material
culture and topographical approaches in Italian micro-history (microstoria) were directly
influenced by the explicit connections made between them by the social and economic
historian Edoardo Grendi (1932–1999). Grendi’s affectionate interest and scientific
curiosity in archaeology and historical ecology was nurtured by British approaches to
social anthropology that had recently become deeply critical of the use of sources based on
traditions in British local history (Grendi 1996; Balzaretti et al. 2004; Raggio 2004;
Balzaretti 2013; Moreno 2013).8
Since the late 1990s, the differences between historical ecology and studies in which the
nineteenth-century scientific legacy of the nature-culture dichotomy persists have become
increasingly pronounced in environmental history, A number of findings resulting from
7 A regressive history of local common-land use and practice in this section of the NW Apennines wasestablished through the combination of archival and field evidence collected since 2010 as part of a scientificcollaboration between departments at the Universita degli Studi di Genova and the Universita del PiemonteOrientale ‘‘A. Avogadro’’(Cevasco 2013a, b; Beltrametti et al. 2014).8 Professor Edoardo Grendi (1932–1999) was one of the creators of the longstanding Permanent Seminar onLocal History (SEMPER) in the early 1990s. The activities of this seminar are central in the research themesof the Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA) and of the doctoral school the Universitadegli Studi di Genova. Further information concerning the activities of the Permanent Seminar on LocalHistory 2014–2015 (SEMPER) dedicated to discussions relating to the history and archaeology of envi-ronmental resources can be found at: http://www.dafist.unige.it/?page_id=1297 (Website in Italian).
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historical ecology approaches to European woodland are also particularly pertinent to
present problems posed by and to the management of the biodiversity and cultural heritage
of individual sites and landscapes (Kirby and Watkins 2015). Firstly, the conservation and
management of local biodiversity and landscapes requires beyond conventional disci-
plinary training in forestry and agronomy. The realisation of the limits of mono-disci-
plinary specialisation in scientific research and the acceptance of the necessity of adding
the historical explorations of ‘placed environmental knowledge’ to the conservation sci-
ences is essential. Secondly, it is important to overcome overly simplistic ecological or
legal categorisations and classifications of ecosystems, habitats, landscapes and land use.
In order to do so and as in the case of historical ecology, it is necessary to extend
methodological plurality and the range of sources consulted, particularly the use of doc-
umentary and oral sources.
As we have suggested, when observed at a local, topographical site-scale or on an
individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity appear more
clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating to the ‘co-
evolution of nature and culture’ as stated in the ‘Working Document International Con-
ference on Biological and Cultural Diversity (Montreal, 8th–10th June 2010). These his-
torically produced links between biological and cultural diversity—identified as
biodiversification processes that can be uncovered and explored through the adoption of
approaches from historical ecology—are the driving forces that ‘generate’ processes of
mutual circulation in local ecological knowledge and its related practices. It is of interest to
note that such co-evolutionary assumptions clearly resulted from the application of the
human ecology and ethnobiological studies, and are not articulated nor referred to in
documentation defining European bio-cultural diversity, such as the recent ‘Florence
Declaration on the Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity’ (8th–11th April
2014). IN the conclusion of the Florence Declaration it is coherently stated that biological
and cultural diversity in Europe results from the combination of ‘of historical and on-going
environmental and land use processes and cultural heritage’. However, such conclusions
unfortunately do not appear to be coherent with the Declarations’ proposed national and
local levels ‘Actions’ where the potential for the application of a local analytical historical
approach is substituted and undermined by the ‘traditional’ knowledge, tenure, crops,
breeding, and landscapes authorised by policy.
In a recent call for ‘diverse representation in activities and decisions’ issued by the
Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), it was
suggested that an ‘expert panel should include natural scientists, social scientists,
humanities researchers, biodiversity practitioners and indigenous-knowledge networks’
(Turnhout et al. 2012). These references to ‘diverse representation’ and to ‘indigenous
knowledge’ are currently only very general concessions, and are themes only alluded to by
global environmental history or ethnobiological studies. However, when applying these
sentiments to ‘real world’ management strategies, particularly when inscribing this ethos
into consideration of bio-cultural heritage, there is a danger that ‘indigenous’ could all too
easily be interpreted as ‘local’ or ‘localized knowledge’. The implications of such an
interpretation could be that the ‘knowledge’ conserved in ‘peasant civilisations’ or ‘local
communities’ could potentially be used disproportionately in informing policy, rather than
critical, micro-historical approaches that analysis the nature of such ‘knowledges’ through
the reconstruction of interpersonal social relations so as to understand the effects of social
mechanisms of change and conflict on local action and practices (Raggio 2004; Cevasco
and Moreno 2015).
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Acknowledgments The authors are indebted to the participants of the Seminario Permanente di StoriaLocale (LASA–DAFIST–DISTAV) at the Universita degli Studi di Genova for their diverse contributions tothematic and methodological discussions pertaining to the subject of this article, particularly prof. OsvaldoRaggio, Prof. Carlo Montanari, Prof. Roberto Maggi and Prof. Massimo Quaini. The authors also wish tothank Didier Galop and Chiara Molinari for providing the figures. We appreciated the constructive com-ments of the anonymous referees, which greatly improved the paper.
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