The majority of forest owners in Portugal are private individuals (98%).
Eurostat data shows that approximately 60% of European forests (EU-28) are private, including areas belonging to individuals and communities. Portugal leads this ranking with approximately 98% of private areas, followed by Norway with 80%, Denmark with 76%, and France, Slovenia, and Sweden with 75%.
Most private forests in Portugal belong to small landowners: according to Florestas.pt, “84.2% of forests are private property and 13.8% are community land”. (11 September 2019) (The Navigator Company, which is the country’s largest private-sector forest landowner, initiated the creation of the website together with 12 partners, including agro.ges; Associaçao Natureza Portugal; Associaçao Portuguesa de Estudantes Florestais; Centro Ecologia Aplicada; Centro de Estudos Florestais; Jardim Botanico (Universidade de Coimbra) and Forestwise).
How much land in Portugal is forested?
According to Florestas.pt (13 October 2020), the sixth national forest inventory registered 3.2 million hectares, or one-third of the country's territory.
Who owns this land?
In the north, there are small landowners. In the south, there are large estates.
In the north, the largest block of owners are private individuals, because “due to the rugged terrain, demographic pressure, the inheritance system (which divides property among many heirs), and the existence of common lands, more than half of the properties are less than five hectares,” reports Floresta.pt (11 September 2019).
In the south, these large estates “are associated with agriculture, forestry, and livestock farming, and are dominated by cork oak and holm oak forests”.
“The property structure is closely linked to the Christian reconquest of the territory in the 12th and 13th centuries. The land confiscated from the Moors was largely gifted to the nobility and clergy.”
“Under the prevailing feudal regime in Europe, land belonged to the royal family, the nobility, and the clergy, while the population paid for the use of the cultivated areas. This regime was abolished in 1834 when liberal legislation was passed. The rural properties of the nobility and religious orders were transferred to the state, which sold them at public auctions,” writes Agroportal.pt (30 June 2020). (This website existed intermittently from 1999 to 2014. In 2016, it was bought by Jose Diogo Santiago de Albuquerque (Jose Diogo Santiago de Albuquerque). He is an agronomist who has taught in New Zealand and was Secretary of State for Agriculture in 2011).
“(In the south) at this point, a large part of the properties passed into the hands of the nobles who supported the revolution, while the rest was acquired by the urban bourgeoisie,” writes Florestal.pt (11 September 2019).
According to The Forest Time (4 May 2018), which deals with forest investments in Portugal, France, France, and France, forests were intensively cleared in Portugal until the end of the 18th century, when only 7% of the country's territory was forested, whereas today it is approximately 40%.
“It was only with the forest restoration plan in 1938 and the creation of the Forestry Development Fund in 1945 that the situation changed.”
“Now, much uncultivated land and marginal agricultural areas will gradually be abandoned, which is a good omen for potential forest growth.”
“In recent decades, 37,000 hectares of dunes and 300,000 hectares of mountainous areas have been planted, which demonstrates the commitment of the state and the private sector to develop forest stands.”
“Until recently, private owners entrusted forest work to farmers, and there were very few specialised forestry companies in the country. Now that is changing. Ownership is highly fragmented in the north of the country.”
“However, in the south, the average forest property size is 32 hectares. This is usually combined with extensive livestock farming and cork oak cultivation. In fact, large-scale forest restoration campaigns have used a lot of cork oak (17) in southern Portugal, where agroforestry potential is highly valued.”