Abandoned fields form an integral part of the landscape of Mediterranean mountains. For centuries, very steep slopes with poor soils were cultivated to feed the local population. From the mid-20th century, agriculture on many slopes has been abandoned and secondary succession is taking place with environmental, socioeconomic and landscape implications. This paper investigates the role of physical (climate variability and topography) and human (age of abandonment and field type-flat, sloping, terraced) factors in the process of secondary succession in abandoned fields in a representative Mediterranean mountain area. Aerial photographs from 1956 and 1978 were used to map the space-time process of land abandonment, and field types. Data on vegetation cover in abandoned fields was obtained in the SIOSE, the information system on land use in Spain (2006). The map was incorporated into a GIS and statistical analysis was done with R software (R, version 3.2.3). The results show that altitude and climate variability are the principal factors explaining the distribution of areas of forest and shrub. The slope and solar radiation are less important. Human management, although apparently a lesser determinant, has a strong influence. Management before abandonment conditions the spatial distribution of the seed bank and the extent of soil degradation. Management following abandonment (afforestation of conifers, shrub clearings and livestock grazing) decides where pine forest and pastures are located. The results of our case study suggest, that unlike most of cases in the literature, the age of abandonment is not the main factor explaining the natural succession processes. The knowledge about how natural and anthropogenic factors affect secondary succession should be considered a tool for land management in mountain areas.

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El fomento del enoturismo se está convirtiendo en una estrategia cada vez más frecuente en las comarcas vitivinícolas del Duero que han consolidado su faceta productiva en torno a los vinos de calidad, y que ahora ponen en valor los elementos patrimoniales de unos paisajes vinculados al productivismo. Pero al tiempo, en los entornos más frágiles, en los espacios menos transformados y de alta concentración de bienes patrimoniales que los han posicionado como destinos turísticos, este sector está operando como palanca de reactivación y de inserción competitiva de unos viñedos cada vez más reconocidos y valorados. Para ilustrar este proceso, el artículo analiza la dinámica de unos viñedos cultivados en entornos de “alta densidad patrimonial”, la Sierra de Salamanca. The promotion of wine tourism is becoming an increasingly frequent strategy in the Douro wine regions. They have consolidated their productivity around quality wines and now highlight the heritage elements of landscapes linked to production. However, at the same time, in the least transformed areas with fragile environments but a high concentration of heritage assets -that position them as tourist destinations-, this wine sector is acting as a stimulus in the revival and competitive conservation of vineyards, more and more valued and recognised in the landscape as a tourism generator. To illustrate this process, this paper analyses the dynamics of vineyards cultivated in environments with a high density of heritage elements such as the Sierra de Salamanca (Spain).

El viñedo ocupa una escasa superficie en el mundo, pero crea paisajes agrarios llamativos, duraderos, a menudo espectaculares, acompañados generalmente de lagares y bodegas. La modernización de su cultivo, la creciente demanda de vinos de calidad y el auge del enoturismo han creado un nuevo paisaje agrario, potenciado por el reconocimiento institucional y social. El Convenio Europeo del Paisaje ha contribuido a resaltar sus valores, pero, frente a las dudas de las administraciones para incorporar sus recomendaciones, han surgido iniciativas privadas que ven en el paisaje una oportunidad para reforzar la identidad de sus vinos. El artículo analiza el creciente valor de la imagen de marca (winescape) en los viñedos del Duero de Castilla y León.

In contrast to the industrial agricultural systems aimed at producing unlabeled origin foods without unique characteristics, Multifunctional and Territorialized Agri-food Systems (MTAS) claim their identity in productions whose singularity comes from specific environmental conditions and distinctive knowhow—factors often linked to tradition. Their systemic complexity goes beyond the agri-food production function (high quality, sustainable, and differentiated by origin) because the territories gain cohesion and viability from the positive effects resulting therefrom: environmental quality—in the context of sustainable agriculture based on practices that respect the environment and the local productive vocation of the territories—, landscape value, greater economic diversification by stimulating integrated production chains, tourism potential, etc. In this context, the MTAS finds in the geographical indication one of the most expressive quality reference formulas for the identification of agri-food products. This paper delves into the regulatory nature of the main territorial indications (PDO, PGI) and explores their configuration and regulatory evolution, particularly focusing on the wine geographical indications—the first and most common ones. The Spanish indications are taken as the object of analysis, whose operational maturity reveals their solidity, but also their inadequacies, with the demand for adjustments for greater flexibility in the regulatory framework that identifies them as collective marks. Along the same lines, emphasis is placed on the recent advance of individualistic PDO figures, which call into question the very collective basis of the territorial trademark. These conceptual adaptations of geographical indications provide future lines of research necessary to interpret the coherence of these figures with the sustainable development of the territories, whose name they adopt to gain distinction and market competition.