Man, forestry, and forest landscapes. Trends and perspectives in the evolution of forestry and woodland history research

Most of the present approaches in forestry and forest history, as well as their potential to meet and explain the present problems of sustainable development can be understood with a retrospective analysis. Modern forestry developed as the re- sult of a process that originated in the Enlightenment, when traditional practical knowledge was systematized in an effort to develop a body of scientific disciplines whose main purpose was to ensure the steady wood supply. Until then, forestry techniques had been based on information handed down by Greek and Roman authors. During the medieval period for- estry techniques were particularly well developed in the Vene- tian Republic, whose dominant shipping power in the Medi- terranean was tightly connected to the high technical level of its forestry and the strong control it exerted on forest resourc- es through the most advanced forest legislation in Europe. Its forest management was based on selective cutting, un- even-aged stands and repeated forest inventories and its for- est utilization and transport systems were well organized (A GNOLETTI 1994). The Venetians also experimented with the negative affects of growing pure stands of broadleaved trees, in their attempt to increase the amount of oak timber avail- able for shipbuilding, as later experienced by German forest- ers with conifer plantations. The scientific development of forestry science started in the German territories at the beginning of the 18th century. The end of feudalism had left most of the forest in the hands of landowners who preserved them mainly for hunting. Forest management was left to the «Jäger», i. e., hunters, while the administrative aspects were in the hands of cameralists (mer- cantilists). A change in the relative importance of the hunters