DEHESAS

Dehesas (Spanish), see also Montados (Portugese): The Dehesa systems are genuine forms of exploitation of the Mediterranean forests in which the native trees, holm oak, oak and cork oak, are spaced out or inserted in a continuum of grasslands. The resulting landscape, which combines mature ecological elements (oak trees) with other rejuvenated ones (grasslands) maintains a high biological diversity. A balance is thus obtained between exploitation and conservation making up a diverse landscape produced by the combination of small units with different agricultural uses. This dehesa-type mosaic of crops, grasslands, shrublands and scattered trees provides the necessary ecological conditions for a large number of plant and animal species.

Source: GÓMEZ-LIMÓN (1999), p. 166. ZIMMERMANN (2006), p. 364.

http://feal-future.org/eatlas/en/landscape-category/dehesas