Garrigues and Human Activity: What Are the Environmental Implications? Then, Now and Tomorrow
Garrigue is a type of shrubland found in the Mediterranean, and there is a history behind it. Some garrigues were once treated as reserves of land to clear for farming. The remains of built structures show that there were shelters there for people, their tools and their harvests, and walls to mark out borders or formed when land was cleared of stones to make fields. There was also much gathering done here, of various types. These days, however, the garrigues are changing, under fire from agricultural land abandonment, scattered urban sprawl and various other threats. In order to manage them, protect them, even again make use of their resources, we need to better understand their history.
By Sylvain Olivier, lecturer in modern history at the University of Nîmes
