Forest regime

Since it is closely related to our subject, we shall recall in passing the astonishing spectacle our island must have presented to those who first came in search of these unknown and distant parts, above all the sight of the luxuriant vegetation that so ecstatically amazed them all.

We should not be surprised, then, by what we read in many places about the ‘true astonishment’, a mixture of the most staggering surprise and the most stirring admiration, felt by the first bold navigators on facing a scene they had never beheld: a wonderful forest stretching far in a compact mass from the tranquil edge of the ocean to the summits of the loftiest mountains. Trees of gigantic size and the most exuberant growth, without a break, densely covered the slopes and hillsides. They made inaccessible the land that was soon to be brought under active cultivation.

We would go too far if we tried to reproduce here the interesting accounts that old chroniclers have left us of this rich and exceedingly abundant forest vegetation. We shall therefore confine ourselves to a brief summary of some of these historical testimonies, contemporary with the events described.

There are many passages in ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) concerning the opulent forest vegetation at the time of the first settlement. Among other things, they say that the island was ‘all covered with trees down to the sea… and so even on top that it seemed made by hand, with no tree taller than another’.

The Portuguese navigator Diogo Gomes, who visited Madeira at the beginning of the 15th century, likewise refers, in no less expressive terms, to the leafy woods that covered the whole surface of the island.

The Venetian Alvise Cadamosto, who served in the Portuguese navy around the middle of the 15th century and visited this archipelago, says that at the time of the discovery ‘there was not a palmo (span, about 22 cm) of land that was not full of very great trees…’

Another Italian navigator, Pompeu Arditti de Pesaro, also in the service of Portugal, left in writing in 1567 this interesting account: ‘it is inhabited only along the seashore, for in the mountains, because of the thickness of the trees, which are there in very great abundance and very tall, so that, they say, because of them one walks two or three léguas without ever seeing the sun…’ Other testimonies could easily be added, if the space at our disposal allowed.

If nature was remarkably lavish in the abundance of these dense and vast woods, it was no less generous in the variety of forest species with which it covered all the soil of Madeira. It can truly be said that the wealth of ‘quantity’ was richly matched by the wealth of ‘quality’. To prove it, we shall recall that the existence of thick and extensive woods of cedar, til, vinhático, ash, heather, barbusano and other valuable tree species is an established fact. Of some of them only a… wistful memory remains.

In view of what has so often been said, and what we have briefly repeated here once more, it is no wonder that our beloved island was given the name of Madeira [TN: madeira means ‘wood’ or ‘timber’ in Portuguese.], which the centuries continue to perpetuate and which fame has made universal. Through the unheard-of vandalism of men, the use of that name is becoming less exact and less justified, and a glaring contrast is arising between its true meaning and what it ought in reality to express…

When the first settlers landed on these unknown shores, they at once recognised the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil, which boldly encouraged them in the farming ventures they were about to begin. They faced, however, a great and almost insurmountable obstacle: the gigantic forest that stretched in a dense mass from the edge of the ocean to the mountain tops.

Fire, perhaps set rashly but also necessarily imposed by the pressing force of circumstances, opened up clearings suitable for bringing the land under cultivation. Gaspar Frutuoso says, albeit with hyperbole, that ‘because the valley was very thick with trees, the fire took hold in such a way that it went on burning for seven years through the trees, trunks and roots, both in Funchal and in most of the island...’ The learned commentator of the Saudades, without wholly accepting the claim of the historian of the islands, does not doubt the intensity and extent of the violent fire. It is not possible today to say what the approximate area of its destruction was, or what its immediate consequences were, but several reasons suggest that it must have reached the most alarming proportions (see II-140).

After the fire, and at the same time as the first tilling of the plots, the forest vegetation was being heavily thinned, and it also supplied the raw material for building the first dwellings.

The superabundance of timber, its prized quality and the demand for it on the mainland and abroad gave rise to the idea of large-scale export and the trade that went with it. This at once created an important source of revenue in a setting as limited as Madeira then was.

A new industry, if a rudimentary one, arose with the preparation of timber for shipment. The trees had to be felled, sawn and fitted to the particular purpose for which they were intended.

Then came the so-called ‘water saws’ (serras de água), which multiplied in various places; several localities in a number of parishes still bear that name. They were rather rudimentary ‘engines’ set up on the banks of fast-flowing streams, using the motive power these provided.

This passage from Dr Gaspar Frutuoso is exceedingly interesting: ‘...there was such a quantity of timber, so fine and hard, that plenty of boards, beams and masts were taken to many parts, all of it sawn with engines... and at that time they began to build with it ships with topsails and forecastles, for before there were none in the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal)’.

No less interesting is what we read in Pinheiro Chagas’s ‘History of Portugal’ (II-252), which we shall transcribe word for word: ‘Zurara, dealing with the advantages that resulted from the discoveries, mentions “the great heights of the houses that reach up to the sky and are made with the timber of those parts”. To which the Viscount of Santarém adds in a note: this interesting detail shows that the timber carried to Portugal... chiefly from the island of Madeira came in such quantity that its abundance changed the method of building town houses, increasing the number of storeys...’.

Special mention should be made of the building at that time of a large number of small-tonnage vessels, intended for fishing and the carriage of goods, which were exported to the mainland. This export had to be banned because of the abuse committed in the use of the raw material concerned.

Many other facts and circumstances concerning the density and extent of the primeval forests could still be mentioned, but an unfair need for brevity compels us to omit them.

Despite the reality of the original fire, Madeira was quickly repopulated with tree species, and it did not take many years to become covered with extensive and abundant forest vegetation. Then, however, came the felling, trade and export of timber, which was widely used and abused. This provoked vigorous protests and led to the adoption of severe repressive measures, as we shall see in a later article.

Although human vandalism was powerless to alter the climate and the vigorous fertility of the soil, men never tired of systematically and constantly destroying the unsurpassed forest wealth of the mountains. First came the violent original fire, with its great destructive effects; others of lesser scale, but always with baleful consequences, occurred over time, some of them purely accidental and most set by criminal hands, as we shall have occasion to see below.

Later came sawmilling (‘serração’) and the trade in and export of timber, but on so vast a scale and in such immoderate proportions that vigorous repression by the government of mainland Portugal became necessary. This took the form of the royal letters (cartas régias) of 1515 and 1562, of which only the latter is known in full; it is transcribed on pages 463–471 of the annotations to ‘Longing for the Homeland’.

The royal decree (alvará) of John II of 7 March 1493, which deals chiefly with various grants concerning springs and sources, contains these curious words relating to our subject: ‘... the ash trees and cedars, which we reserve for ourselves, they shall neither use nor fell... save for some church or town hall or for whomsoever we give... leave by our letter’. In this connection we may add that half a century ago or a little more there were still, in various parts of the island, many stands of our native cedar, the highly prized and fragrant wood much used in Madeiran cabinet-making. We do not know whether today, if only as a simple and nostalgic sample of the past, a few specimens still survive in some corner of the forests of the interior.

Although not all the provisions of the regulations (regimento) of 5 January 1515 mentioned above are known, it is known that they ordered pine and chestnut trees to be planted on the land best suited to these species, and forbade the felling of trees without a licence from the Councils. Such felling could in no case be permitted in places where there were springs or running water. The same regulations also contained other prohibitive provisions, together with the corresponding penalties for offenders, as may be inferred from scattered references found in various places.

The doctrine they contained was extended and completed by the Regulations of 27 August 1562, promulgated by the queen regent, Queen Catherine, which may truly be called the ‘Forest Code of Madeira’. Referring to them in 1873, the learned commentator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ wrote: ‘It is an important instrument for the agricultural history of this island and constitutes its particular forest legislation, still largely in force even now, and it is the source of municipal bylaws (posturas) in all its municipalities’.

Given the natural progress of human knowledge and present circumstances of a strictly local character, the legal provisions of this instrument cannot be accepted in their entirety. We are nevertheless bound to acknowledge its great importance, its undeniable legal value and the very sound judgement with which it treated the matter it was meant to regulate.

At the very outset these regulations (1562) refer to the need that had given rise to the earlier regulations of 1515, owing to the great abuses already being committed at that time, and they stress the still greater need to adopt more vigorous measures of repression to check the excesses that continued to be committed.

It seems that the legal provisions of the 1515 regulations were even more draconian than those laid down in the regulations of August 1562. Both, however, remained fully in force, since the second had been intended to extend and complete the doctrines of the first, as stated above.

The ouvidores, the donataries’ representatives in the more important settlements, were to exercise strict supervision over compliance with the regulations and to see that the corresponding penalties were applied to offenders. It may be presumed that this supervision left a good deal to be desired.

As we have stated elsewhere, many instruments are registered in the archive of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal), and they show ‘that in the 17th and 18th centuries great care was taken to preserve the forests, a nursery being established in 1799 in the parish (freguesia) of Monte (‘hill’), which from that year until 1824 distributed more than twenty thousand trees of various species for replanting.

Besides the ‘regulations’ already cited, the decree of 11 March 1796, the royal decree of 18 October 1811 and the royal letter of 14 May 1804, all expressly promulgated for Madeira, are of great relevance to our subject and contain measures that ought to have been fully adopted.

In the article ‘Arborisation’ (I-75) we mentioned other measures intended to protect and develop our forest heritage, and we draw readers’ attention to them to avoid needless and tedious repetition.

Our woods have three implacable enemies: the shepherd, the charcoal burner and the timber merchant, the last being the most dangerous and harmful. Livestock rearing, charcoal-making and timber felling ought to be banned outright. And if, under pressing circumstances and only very exceptionally, they had to be allowed, no amount of rigour would be too much in supervising them as strictly and closely as possible.

It is a serious error to suppose that the rearing of cattle, goats and pigs sustains a considerable industry whose suppression could in any way harm the economy of the district. Suffice it to say that only a limited number of people engage in it, and for them it is not their sole livelihood, since they combine it with farming or with simple work as rural labourers. As a rule, the animals graze freely without herdsmen or shepherds and are exposed to all weathers. There are no pens or suitable shelters to protect them from the harsh winters, and for this reason the number of animals that die every year is always very considerable. This weighty circumstance alone would justify, in any country, an absolute ban on the free grazing of livestock on exposed mountainsides.

It is well known that livestock cause great destruction among young plants still in full growth, but the luxuriant vigour of our vegetation largely overcomes the attack of these ruminants’ powerful jaws. What the native richness of our woods cannot overcome, however, is the harmful and criminal action of the shepherd.

Flocks do not find good grazing on land covered with dense woodland. They need ground dominated by fodder and low-growing plants, which are essential to the diet best suited to them. The shepherd therefore readily prepares this coveted pasture in a clearing of greater or lesser size, which the destructive force of the flames provides him without difficulty. The great fires in our forests usually have this origin. Herdsmen do not hesitate for a moment to turn a forest of fine, stout trees, which took centuries to grow, into a barren expanse scorched by the devouring fire, so that it may soon become a field of pasture to feed a few paltry dozen goats and sheep.

The damage caused by charcoal-making is so evident – not only through the countless fine trees lost to obtain this fuel, but also through the ever-present danger of starting a violent fire, as has so often happened – that there is no need to put forward a long train of arguments to condemn outright any permission for such a practice, whatever safety conditions might be invoked for that purpose.

The decrees of 23 July 1913 and 22 September 1917, which became known here as the ‘Law on the grazing of livestock in the mountains’, laid down certain provisions on grazing on privately owned land and on land belonging to the State or to the municipal councils, with the aim of preventing the damage caused by the free grazing of livestock. They did not, however, achieve the desired end, nor were they ever fully observed, so that their promulgation proved useless or of little benefit. We share the opinion of those who hold that these decrees must be abolished or completely recast. And what we have set out here regarding grazing applies equally to the provisions of the said decrees on the making of charcoal.

In Madeira the axe has been the great ‘arboricide’. So useful and serviceable a tool often turns into an agent of destruction and ruin. So it was in past centuries, and so, perhaps, it will continue to be in times to come.

We have already seen the use and abuse made of our primitive and abundant forest vegetation. The improvident inhabitants were not content with enjoying, however liberally, the benefits that this priceless wealth offered them as fuel and as raw material for building houses and making furniture and other household objects.

As we have already said, the large-scale export of timber created the ‘sawing’ industry and the practice of preparing the trees for shipment. At the same time, the abuses and excesses committed led to the enactment of various laws imposing severe penalties, extending to flogging and penal exile (degredo) to the coasts of Africa.

As we have already mentioned, the conservation of the woods should have found its most effective protection in the celebrated ‘regimento’ of 27 August 1562. Among other salutary provisions, it laid down those concerning the licences issued by the municipal councils and countersigned by the donataries for cutting timber in our forests. This system has survived through the ages and has now reached the venerable age of 380 years. It would be interesting and useful, if the necessary records existed, to know how it has been observed – that is, to make an approximate assessment of the benefits or harm it has brought.

It is under cover of these licences that the third implacable enemy of the leafy woods has stripped, is stripping and will go on stripping our mountains of the precious and abundant timber that is the stuff of its lucrative trade. Clearly, these frank and categorical statements of ours are not meant as a sweeping generalisation, for we know that we would commit a flagrant injustice if we ever sought to make one.

Once all the bureaucratic formalities have been observed, and they present no great difficulty, the applicants can count on their social standing, on the well-known leniency of our ways and on the shortage of inspection staff, besides the influence that is often brought to bear in favour of the interested parties.

Although perhaps not a recent development, it has happened that a penalty is imposed for the unlawful felling of a single tree, while hundreds upon hundreds are allowed to be cut down under cover of a licence that permitted no such thing. This may seem strange, but it is nonetheless a sad reality.

In 1928 the executive committee of the District General Council (Junta Geral), recognising the plain and pressing need to remedy the damage, by then irreparable, done to the woodlands, and judging ineffective the measures being taken to avert this evil, asked the central government to send to Madeira an official specialising in forestry matters. He was to carry out a broad study and present a detailed report on the results of the work to which he would devote himself with proficiency.

This delicate mission was entrusted to the illustrious forestry engineer José Augusto Fragoso. After a lengthy study carried out in loco, in mid-June 1929 he presented to the General Council an extensive report setting out the plan of all the measures that ought to be adopted.

The report was at once regarded as the product of painstaking and conscientious work, in which a distinguished professional had combined the most thorough knowledge of the subjects treated with the most careful scruple in solving such delicate problems.

Its foremost measure is the need to enact a decree laying down the principles by which all forestry services are to be guided and directed, giving them complete uniformity throughout the archipelago. For it is well known that some municipal councils still claim the privileges set out in certain archaic and obsolete municipal by-laws (posturas), perhaps remnants of the old, abolished customary law.

The creation of a ‘forestry district’ (circunscrição florestal) headed by a forestry engineer is today an urgent necessity acknowledged by all. It will burden the budgets of the General Council, but the future will demonstrate the benefits that will flow from this advantageous measure. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Organização dos Serviços Florestais e Fomento Agrícola da Madeira, drafted by the engineer J. M. Fragoso, opens with this clause and with the staff to be assigned to the proposed ‘Forestry District’. It is incomprehensible how certain individuals, without special technical training, can be in charge of services of this kind, which demand specialised knowledge that can only be acquired in institutions properly intended for that purpose.

The report opens by devoting a most illuminating chapter to the ‘Need for the Reafforestation of Madeira’. It then sets out the six ‘Bases’ on which the services concerned should be modelled, which are amply expounded in the sub-chapters ‘Organisation of the Forestry Services (Serviços Florestais)’, ‘Forest Regime’, ‘Forest Police (Polícia Florestal)’, ‘Protection of Woodlands’, ‘Promotion of Afforestation’ and ‘General Provisions’. These are followed by a detailed justification of the ideas suggested and of the various proposals put forward throughout this remarkable study.

It hardly needs stressing that these final recommendations of the Report refer specifically to the first works to be undertaken, and not to the whole range of services to be established, which are amply set out in the same Report.

By what we have said we do not mean to maintain that this broad and well-crafted study should be accepted in its entirety; it is even possible, indeed probable, that later circumstances will require profound and indispensable changes to its wording. What does seem established, however, according to the learned and authoritative opinion of officials versed in these matters, is that, at least in its general lines and its judicious whole, it suits the conditions of the setting for which it was prepared and can be of excellent help to the work that may be carried out.

The creation of a ‘Forestry District’, as briefly outlined in this unpretentious article, is increasingly becoming a truth acknowledged by everyone: one in which proven proficiency, the most ardent zeal and the greatest independence would guide and direct from above all the services under that department.

On this momentous subject, particular interest attaches to the observations we recently set down in a newspaper of this city, from which we shall now extract a few passages that expand upon and clarify what has been briefly outlined above.

We were deeply gratified to see that the District General Council (Junta Geral) of this district, earnestly committed to the conservation and development of our woods and trees, had taken the important decision to extend its supervision and protection over what remains of the ancient and celebrated forest wealth that once thickly clothed almost the entire surface of our mountains.

A local periodical recently (1945) informed us that, to carry out this sound measure, the number of ‘forest posts’ had been raised from fourteen to nineteen, and that eleven more guards had been added to the thirty-one already serving. There is now a body of forty-two rural or forest guards, which makes it possible to provide wider and more effective supervision than has been exercised until now.

We do not know the extent of the surface or area over which this permanent supervision is to be exercised, nor the particular area assigned to each forest post, but we are convinced that this recent reorganisation of the services was drawn up on lines that will fully achieve the desired end. Since our island has a surface of approximately seventy-five thousand hectares, with land of the most rugged relief, the number of men making up this forest police cannot be considered excessive.

Numbers alone, however, are not enough for these staff to discharge their duties fully. They must also be faithful and diligent executors of the orders and instructions issued by the departments that oversee these services. It is still more important and necessary that these higher offices be guided, directed and regulated by rules with a clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction, and that they meet no obstacles in the exercise of their administrative action.

Although some would claim otherwise, the truth is that no single piece of legislation covers all the various services concerned with the conservation and development of our woodlands. It has therefore become absolutely essential to adopt a new forest regime offering more effective protection and more reliable supervision than has so far been in force here.

The management of forest affairs was originally in the hands of the captain-donataries and their ‘ouvidores’ (magistrates), and later in those of the Municipal Councils, while the governors of the archipelago and afterwards the civil governors of the district also intervened in some of these matters.

Since 1897 these services have been the responsibility of a department headed by a forestry officer (regente florestal). To this day it has confined itself to planting some exotic trees on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) and to promoting the sowing of maritime pine in the mountainous region of Madeira. Nothing has yet been done to conserve and propagate the native trees, and many of them may soon disappear owing to the constant devastation wrought on them by woodcutters, charcoal-burners and livestock.

Law no. 26 of 9 July 1913 created four forest sections, which were divided into zones; that of Funchal became no. 25 and was included in the fourth section, based in Lisbon. The decree of 8 May 1918 established eight forest districts, Funchal being placed in the sixth district, based in Lisbon, and eighteen forestry offices (regências florestais), that of Funchal being no. 18 (1922).

The decree of 11 March 1911 and its accompanying Regulations, which created the Agricultural Board (Junta Agrícola) and governed its operation, established the Agricultural Station (Estação Agrária). Technical and administrative control of forest matters passed to this department in 1919, when the Board was abolished.

Apart from the famous ‘Timber Regulations (Regimento das Madeiras)’ (see Saudades, p. 463), decreed in 1562 and a remarkable piece of legislation for its time, it may be said that no other useful legal provisions were enacted on this matter. This is despite the various decrees and measures issued by the central government, which are cited in the Elucidário Madeirense but which did not produce the beneficial results expected of them.

Over time, all the Municipal Councils, believing themselves to hold inalienable rights over the forest vegetation of the mountains, drew up various ‘by-laws’ (posturas) to regulate its use and exploitation. These were local provisions, allowing greater or lesser administrative latitude; they lacked any real harmony of principle, and they were applied with great arbitrariness. Even today certain rural council sessions occasionally invoke ancient and obsolete municipal by-laws and try to enforce them. This is hardly surprising, since even the central department itself does not apply consistent measures across the various branches of these services.

As we shall see, a brief reference at this point to what in Madeira are called the baldios is closely related to our subject. These are lands not given over to farming, generally lying at an altitude of more than eight hundred or nine hundred metres. They belong to private individuals, to the Municipal Councils (Câmaras Municipais) and to the State, and the boundaries between the various owners are not clearly drawn. In former times the ‘baldios’ were separated from the cultivated land, as in part they still are, by hedges or fences made of stakes and tree branches, which are also called baldios; their main purpose was to stop livestock from getting into the crops.

Since the limits of these lands have never been precisely marked out, it is easy to imagine the abuses that must have occurred, the bold claims that surface from time to time and the frauds used by wholly unscrupulous individuals to take unlawful and permanent possession of them.

A large part of these ‘baldios’ were regarded as ‘common grounds’ (logradouros comuns), where the farmers, under certain conditions and under the supervision of the ‘Forestry Service’ (Regência Florestal), gathered fodder, material for manure and fuel. This was a valuable privilege for them, one they could not do without in the toil of their busy and modest lives. If we allow these ancient, traditional privileges to be steadily whittled away through the sale to private individuals of ‘baldios’ belonging to the State or the municipalities, we shall see the legitimate prosperity, the prized household economy and the relative well-being of thousands of people of merely modest means seriously threatened, for the benefit of a small number of well-off but unscrupulous persons.

Not long ago, at a State department in a rural municipality (concelho), some common lands (baldios) were sold at public auction for a few paltry hundreds of escudos (Portuguese currency from 1911, = 1,000 réis), on the grounds of certain hypothetical property rights, although the public enjoyed their use by customary right. The Municipal Council had reported that these lands were not ‘common grounds’, yet the said department went ahead with the sale and collected the corresponding tax due to the public treasury (1944).

There is no need to stress the pressing and unshakeable necessity of delimiting these ‘baldios’ as exactly as possible, whether they belong to the State, the councils or private individuals. This is demanded by the preservation of the woodland, by the strict supervision to be exercised by the forest guards, by the policy to be adopted by the central department, and also by the need to maintain the privileges enjoyed by countless farmers, as mentioned above.

We know that in several parishes of this island there has been great surprise at the ease with which licences are granted to fell various tree species that are becoming remarkably rare and whose exploitation ought to be absolutely forbidden, as it once was. It is worth recalling here that an old municipal by-law (postura) contains this sensible provision: ‘It is expressly forbidden to cut timber, firewood, bark and branches from the following trees and shrubs: laurel, til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel), Madeira mahogany (vinhático, Persea indica) and any other forest species, whether trees or shrubs, native or acclimatised (the pine excepted), whatever the situation or place in which they grow. This prohibition extends to the owners themselves of the properties on which the said trees and shrubs grow, who, if they infringe this provision, incur like any other person a fine of 2,000 to 20,000 réis according to the damage caused.’ Some have given the groups or stands of these and other very rare species the name of ‘spontaneous forests’, which ought to be preserved as religiously as were, in remote times, the so-called Sacred Forests, objects of fervent worship among ancient peoples, who paid them the deepest veneration.

These precious relics of our old wealth of forest are a ‘true title of glory’ for Madeirans, for they are indissolubly bound up with the name given to this island and this archipelago, which our glorious epic poet immortalised in the well-known and so expressive phrase: ‘which from its many trees is so called…’

It is easy to suppose that acts of vandalism, and even of outright extermination, must have been committed deep in those mountains, in our already so impoverished woodlands, under the legal cover of this lavish generosity in concessions and licences – above all by those who consider themselves owners of ‘baldios’, lands that ought to be the legitimate and inalienable heritage of the poor and of those less favoured by fortune.

Until our own time, the relentless enemies of the woods and forests were held to be the ‘shepherds’, the ‘charcoal-burners’, the ‘woodcutters’ and the ‘timber merchants’. To these have recently been added new and more dangerous enemies, sheltering behind questionable rights protected by certain public departments and based on elastic, ill-defined licences…

But, as the experience of centuries has amply shown, it is still not enough… to publish a certain number of legislative decrees, with their showy train of ‘instructions’ and ‘regulations’ meant to secure the full and strict enforcement of those same laws.

It is indispensable – absolutely indispensable – that the overall direction of the various forestry services be entrusted to a department which, besides the fundamental qualities of zeal and integrity that should distinguish the exercise of public office, also possesses the full body of knowledge, theoretical and still more essentially practical, needed to carry out these important and specialised services properly. This aim can only be fully achieved by creating a Forestry District (Circunscrição Florestal), as we have repeated more than once in the pages of this work.