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This article studies the impact caused by the success and dissemination of Broussais’ theories on the use of leeches as a medical supply on Spanish–French trade relations, as well as its consequences for the Spanish market between 1821 and the 1860s. Analysing the documents produced by the different public administrations, together with newspaper and archival sources in both Spain and France and the literature and legislation of that period, allows us to understand the evolution of this trade and the heavy impact it had on the autochthonous population of this animal resource. The article reveals how, at the beginning of the 1820s, leeches became an important medical supply and how the demand for them increased significantly. This gave rise to a trade relation between Spain and France that led to the overexploitation of the resource, the issuing of regulations on the matter, and the search for technological solutions to increase the production of leeches

Galicia is a region situated in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula where community forests are very much spread. This kind of ownership is held by local communities that, collectively, decide how to manage the forest and its mycological resources as part of its non-timber forest products. In this work, we characterize and analyse the existing governance modalities for the collective use of mycological resources in both their material and immaterial aspects, and we do it by applying a social-ecological system framework combined with a knowledge economy model. Up to 21 mycological use initiatives have been identified and inventoried. Most of them manage the common resource through mycological reserves (open or closed), but there are others that produce and sell mushrooms. The work shows how communities use their governance mechanisms to define rules aimed at improving sustainability and the influx of revenues. In addition, we analyse how some of these initiatives are starting to manage their common immaterial resources (associated with values such as quality and with ecocertifications, etc.), and to develop innovative strategies (short supply chains) for the purpose of improving their position in the value chain. The text discusses community management as a strategy that allows combining sustainability objectives in the management of mycological resources with the raising of revenues in the long term. Finally, we underline the need for public policies that support successful experiences and strengthen the capacity of community institutions to appropriate the value they generate.

Galicia é un territorio cun forte desenvolvemento da enerxía eólica. A instalación de parques eólicos tivo lugar rapidamente afectando a espazos con relevancia ambiental. Este feito é especialmente importante no caso da Serra do Xistral, un espazo que forma parte da Rede Natura 2000 e que conta con hábitats prioritarios, especialmente os vinculados coas turbeiras. O presente traballo analiza, a partir do marco da xustiza enerxética, como foi o proceso de desenvolvemento eólico neste espazo natural facendo fincapé en dúas compoñentes do marco analítico: a xustiza procedimental e a xustiza distributiva. Deste xeito, o traballo identifica e caracteriza os parques eólicos que se atopan dentro do espazo protexido, estuda os procedementos e a participación pública nas avaliacións ambientais dos parques eólicos proxectados dentro da Serra do Xistral e discute sobre as implicacións ambientais das políticas públicas no desenvolvemento de parques eólicos na Rede Natura.

This work evaluates and discusses the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential of agroecological policies implemented in public food procurement for school canteens. Using a life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology (cradle-to-grave approach) and the information gathered from the Red Municipal de Comedores Escolares (Local Network of School Canteens) in the municipality of Ames (A Coruña, Galicia, Spain), the results show how organic production, dietary change (less animal protein), seasonal consumption, and packaging reduction, among other measures, can mitigate the climate impact of school meals. The food policies implemented in Ames have allowed mitigating the GHG emissions of local school canteens by 13.4%. Under realistic conditions, this reduction could rise to 40.6% should the agroecological transformation of the food system continue to advance.

This paper aims to identify the factors leading to strong wind energy development in Galicia from 1995 to 2009, in the absence of social conflict. Using participatory research techniques, our work indicates that the absence of local opposition is associated to the regulatory framework throughout this period. The central elements contributing to a better understanding of the success of this wind energy development with no social conflict are vertical decision-making and wind energy planning; the lack of institutional information and participation mechanisms and, above all, the process that declared it as Public Utility, thus opening the possibility of land expropriation. Our work concludes that, in the case under study, communities had no relevant role; their participation in the wind energy development process was a mere formality emptied of decision-making capacity. The scope of community benefits therefore became irrelevant in explaining wind dynamics within that territory.

Wind development creates a range of economic impacts at different territorial scales and sectors, one of which is the local sector at the rural level. Yet few studies make an in-depth study on the relationship between the implementation of wind farms and rural development. The literature scarcely analyzes the impact of payments to landowners and their potential for revitalizing rural areas above all in areas lacking public property where community wind farms are legally banned. These two circumstances converge in Galicia, a region in the northwest of Spain that currently operates over 3300MW of wind power. This paper aims to analyze landowner payments and study their role in the rural development of the Galician territory from the perspective of the current regulatory framework. To this end, it uses different quantitative and qualitative methods such as participatory research tools used in the field work and developed for over 10 years. Our work estimates average payments to landowners and the total flow of wind-generated income reaching the rural areas, which was 0.84 million euros in 1999 and 10.1 million in 2015. It also analyzes final wind revenue destinations and identifies several examples of the dynamization of rural areas based on the innovative use of this income. Rural landowners developed very innovative community initiatives triggering local economic revitalization despite the averse current regulatory framework. The paper concludes that a more advantageous regulatory framework could have had a much greater local impact.

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo contribuir al conocimiento de la industria apícola cerera a partir del estudio histórico de esta actividad económica en el territorio gallego, en un período que abarca desde mediados del siglo XVIII hasta mediados del siglo XX. El artículo permite constatar la relevancia de esta industria ligada a la cera de abeja en determinados espacios geográficos del rural de Galicia. El estudio realizado posibilita la caracterización de las diferentes fases de este oficio vinculado con las abejas, así como los principales elementos patrimoniales específicos vinculados con la industria cerera, los lagares y los tendales de cera. El trabajo concluye que la cerería apícola fue una actividad relevante en lugares como Forcarei o Covelo, donde aún resulta posible encontrar patrimonio específico del prensado o el blanqueo de la cera de abeja.

Through the process of globalization, food has experienced an intense territorial restructuring process. Local agric-food links have weakened at the same time as daily products arrived from distant lands. There is presently a wide international debate on the importance of transport in the configuration of the agric-food system and its contribution in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG). The direct environmental costs of the transport of imported food, that is the ‘external food miles’, have been estimated in kilometer (km), ton (t), ton-kilometer (t-km) and GHG in Spain between 1995 and 2011. The analysis is made by ten food groups including 136 products, with special attention to the most important ones (cereals and animal feed), as well as by means of transport (air, rail, road and water) and from 113 different countries belonging to six geographical areas. Two phases are identified during this period: an expansive phase (1995–2007), in which the t-km of imported food increased from 81.8 to 147.8 million t-km and environmental pressure rose from 3.1 to 5.4 million CO2-eq t, and a recession phase (2007–2011), in which environmental pressure subsided as a consequence of the reduction of imports, even though it still remained above the 1995 level. The article reveals a clear interrelation between amounts, distances and modal distribution when it comes to determining the environmental cost of transporting food imports in the two periods studied. It also reflects on the role of the external food miles in the Spanish agri-food system from a sustainability perspective.

[EN] The role of policies and public school canteens as drivers of sustainable and healthy diets is increasingly becoming the center of attention of academics and policy-makers alike. This work therefore aims to assess the environmental, economic and nutritional quality dimensions of the menus consumed across the Local Network of School Canteens in the municipality of Ames (Galicia, Spain). It additionally performs different scenarios to evaluate the effects on the environment-cost-nutritional quality trilemma of implementing two major dietary changes in these menus: introducing more organic products, and shifting toward a more plant-based consumption pattern. To this end, this study considers the following indicators: a) those obtained from an energy and carbon life cycle assessment of the school menus (cradle-to-grave approach), mainly the cumulative energy demand (CED) and the carbon footprint (CF), complemented by some energy efficiency indicators; b) the total cost (TC) of the menus, obtained from their life cycle cost assessment (cradle-to-fork approach); and c) the nutritional quality of the menus, calculated and assessed based on the nutrient rich diet index (NRD 9.3). The CED, CF, TC, and NRD 9.3 index of a daily meal at school canteens are, respectively, estimated at 18.87 MJ, 1.30 kg CO2-eq, EUR 4.65, and 278 per meal. The consumption of animal products and labor (for food preparation) are identified, respectively, as the main environmental impact and economic cost of the menus. The results of our research show how implementing changes in consumption habits toward a more vegetarian diet in school menus makes it possible to include organic products to generate the most positive effects in terms of the environment and nutrition without incurring in cost overruns. Our work discusses the main barriers to be overcome and the political actions that must be enforced to advance the procurement of more sustainable and healthy public food.