Table 2 Principal uses according to owners total of is higher than
100 Woodland use
Number of users Firewood
43 78 of participants Walking
36 65.5 of participants 33 60 of participants
Daffodils 4 7 of participants
Lily of the valley Mushrooms
3 5.5 of participants
and the plots form an integral part of family patrimony. The family lines go directly back to
parents and grandparents … and to great grand parents …; and this continuity is considered in-
deed to guarantee the permanent existence of the wood. There may also be a wider family clan,
with cousins and nephews this is more difficult to verify systematically. But in this case too, the
wood must ‘stay within the family’, and eventu- ally an internal family transaction often allows
this to happen.
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.
2
. The rural mentality and tradition of accumulation
The patrimonial character of wooded plot is reinforced by traditional rural attitudes concern-
ing the possession of land, which consists of accu- mulating as many plots as possible without ever
selling any. This helps explain why recent buyers have the same tendency to hold on to their plots
as those whose plots have been in the family for generations. These two elements — the emotional
character of wanting to keep the wood in the family, and the rural tendency to want to accumu-
late productive agricultural land as well as woods — further account for the existence of the
patrimonial value.
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.
3
. Essentially non-market uses The wood’s uses, according to the owners we
met, are divided between a principal use — the collection of firewood — and two secondary uses:
visiting the wood be it for walking or to relax or pick flowers or mushrooms and hunting see
Table 2.
The provision of firewood for the family is, without doubt, the most common use of the
wood, stated by 78 of those who responded to the enquiry. It is the only real ‘private’ use of the
wood. Cutting is done on the plot or plots pos- sessed. Any crossing of boundaries during cutting
is a source of conflict, which must be resolved by the intervention of a third person; for example, an
older person who will come to the plot to verify plot boundaries. The wood cut is not commer-
By contrast, this is not a question of ‘intrinsic value’ such as the variety and robustness of
species independent of human perception or utilisation; rather the study has documented
the human appreciation of the richness of the forest life forms.
What emerges from the enquiry as a whole is that there is only a weak linkage between the price
of a wood-lot at the moment of its transmission from a former to a new owner, and the economic
‘use values’ associated with it. Some survey re- spondents did remark that a high timber quality
of mature standing trees would be reflected in a higher transaction price. But this is relatively inci-
dental. For the most part, both the ‘use values’ and the ‘non-use values’ notably bequest are
outside the monetary domain. These non-market values as well as the mostly non-market labours
of wood-lot tending and other maintenance are inseparable from the tissue of a customary way of
life.
5. The non-market dimensions of the woodland value
5
.
1
. A family heritage first and foremost One dimension that immediately justifies a part
of the value attributed to a wooded plot, regard- less of firewood that may be found there, is the
family element. These are, for the most part, family inheritances and, more often than not, this
family element is what lies behind a refusal to sell a plot. Here, thus, we have an element that ex-
plains a patrimonial value attributed to the wood. The wood is, let us not forget, private property,
cially sold, and partial clearing and selective cut- ting prevails over the large-scale clearing of the
wood for firewood. A traditional practice of bois de moitie´ which gives half the wood cut to the
cutter and half to the owner, a sort of temporary sharecropping is still maintained, although wood-
cutting by ‘pieceworkers’ is developing. A small proportion of the wood is no doubt sold, but
informally.
The owners are well aware of the relation be- tween current domestic heating practices and the
cutting of firewood. Home heating from wood burning alone is now almost non-existent. The
quantity of wood required to heat a house accord- ing to current habits is often greater than the
amount of firewood that a small plot can produce in a year. Central heating, either gas or oil, is
increasingly popular. Sometimes a wood burning oven or frying pan remains used occasionally as
a back-up and fake living room fireplaces are common. Reasons given for changing from one
system to another are ease of use, easier storage, or
the cleaner
nature of
modern heating
systems. Yet a major factor — the fundamental transformation in agricultural practices which
leaves no time or place for ‘unprofitable’ annex activities like woodcutting — goes largely unmen-
tioned.
Behind firewood, a number of other practices are linked to the wood as a whole — they range
from walking and enjoying the shade, to the picking of daffodils and other flowers and mush-
rooms. These uses, walking, picking daffodils, appear fairly banal and were given by most of the
participants in the enquiry, provided that their age and health still allowed them to visit the
wood. Amongst these activities, walking is the most popular year round activity. Here also the
participants, especially the old, lapse quickly into reminiscences of times past. The picking of daf-
fodils is necessarily limited to the flowering sea- son, when there is a stampede. Some note that it
always seems necessary to have a pretext to go to the wood: to look over the plot, to verify the
boundaries, to check the state of growth, to pick flowers. For others, on the contrary, walking is a
goal in itself. Walking and flower picking take place throughout the wood, without taking prop-
erty boundaries into account. For those owners who hunt 16 of the survey
participants, this activity represents an important use of the wood. Here once again there exists a
separation between the plot possessed and the activity of hunting: hunting could not, in most
cases, be carried out exclusively on one’s own bits of wooded land. Importantly, the possession of
land in the wood is a criterion for membership of the
local hunting
association of
Bromeilles de
la Gorce,
1994. Some
hunters would
like to give the impression that hunting is more akin to a walk with the dog rather than an
organised massacre. However the ritual element of the opening of the hunting season, with the
deployment of the hunters, also has its supporters. Here too, nostalgia for past hunts and openings
recurs.
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.
4
. An existence 6alue For many owners the value given to the wood
seems to include a strong element of something close to an ‘option value’ or existence value. They
are happy that the Bois de Bouchereau exists. It is perceived
as adding
variety to
a rather
monotonous landscape, which is an in situ aes- thetic value. And beyond that, many persons
derive pride from the existence of the wood, nota- bly in comparison with neighbouring communities
who have seen their own woods disappear as a result of the regrouping of land. There is thus a
collective dimension to the value of the bois de Bouchereau. This is almost metaphysical. To the
question ‘How do you see the bois de Bouchereau in 50 years?’, the vast majority of participants
responded with a real profession of faith in the long-term existence of the wood. Yet, there are
some uncertainties expressed regarding the future form or size of the wood. For some the size of the
wood will increase; for others, more pessimistic, it will shrink. Finally, a doubt creeps in: many are
concerned about the lack of interest in the woods shown by current generations which, it is feared,
will mean their being abandoned in the years to come.
5
.
5
. Indi6idual property and collecti6e management
We have observed no cleavage of behaviour or opinion between the owners of relatively large
pieces of land ten owners currently possess more than 1 hectare each in the Bois de Bouchereau
and those who possess smaller areas of land, 2 to 10 ares for example. In all cases, being an owner
in the wood seems to enhance one’s social stand- ing. It enables one to take an active role in the
community of Bromeilles, and, on a broader level, in the neighbouring villages. For example, for
those who do not possess agricultural land, the possession of wooded plots may be a means of
becoming member of the Bromeilles hunting asso- ciation, which remains a strong social element
within the community.
If collective identity is important, the partici- pants remain, nonetheless, fierce supporters of
private property. In response to the final question of our enquiry, which asked them to envisage
collective management policies for the wood viz. ‘Do you think that people other than its current
owners may eventually manage the Bois de Bouchereau?’, only nine people felt that this was
desirable, 22 replied that it would not be desirable and three felt that it depended on the extra costs
generated. The general discourse showed an in- transigence of the participants regarding respect
for property rights. The collective feeling concern- ing the wood does not displace the respect for
individual property rights. The two dimensions are complementary and reinforcing. The free ac-
cess allowed throughout almost the entire wood only one owner has fenced his plot and the
public nature of certain activities walking, flower- picking, etc. ought not to lead anyone to believe
that the owners are ready to abandon their prerogatives.
5
.
6
. A shared regional heritage The very strong sentimental attachment to the
wood of some of the participants is fed by nostal- gia for past uses of the wood, those of their
youth. Here can also be found legends persisting from far back in history the role of the wood in
the Middle ages, the supposed presence of a con- struction in the centre of the wood, the existence
of underground passages. Also having a clear historical dimension is real knowledge of the
wood, whether it concerns identifying the plot boundaries, the memory of certain family transac-
tions, maintenance and woodcutting techniques, or the historical or legendary background to the
wood. This is considered by the participants as being the reserve of the older members of the
community and inseparable from the patrimony. Some express very clearly the need to pass this
knowledge on, at the same time as the wooded plots, from generation to generation, because
‘without the knowledge that goes with it, the wood is nothing’.
The proximity of the wood, either geographic or in terms of the role it fulfils within a family,
seems to play an important role in the enhance- ment of the wood’s value. To a large extent
interest or indifference in the wood is a function of geographic distance from the ownerfamily
members. Outside Bromeilles and the neighbour- ing communities, it is difficult to visit the wood on
a regular basis; and indifference soon sets in. This is without doubt one of the keys to the future of
the Bois de Bouchereau. Departures from the region are leading to the disappearance of the
historically and geographically rooted knowledge.
6. Outlook: will the woodland value be sustained?
