Socio-ecological metabolism and rural livelihood conditions: Two case studies on forest litter uses in France and Poland (1875–1910)

By the end of the 19th century, shifts in forest property rights and associated forest uses by rural communities in Europe had affected both rural livelihood conditions and ecological functioning of forests. This was the case in the Landes of Gascony in France and Western Galicia in Poland—two European regions that became major international suppliers of forest products in the second half of the 19th century. In this context, we developed an original approach inspired by socio-ecological metabolism studies. We investigated how ecological resources could meet the social needs of rural livelihoods by constructing a new dataset. This dataset includes livestock requirements for feed and bedding, as well as the local resources available to meet these requirements over the 1875–1910 period. This approach allowed us to highlight that in the Landes of Gascony, forest litter played only a minor role in rural livelihood conditions. Quite the contrary, the expansion of forest area occurred to the detriment of moorland, which was actually the main resource for livestock breeding. By contrast, in Western Galicia, forest litter played a slightly secondary yet meaningful role, as the absence of forest litter would have further intensified the already severe pressure on local rural livelihood resources.