Text document

Cristina Joanaz de Melo PhD researcher of the European University Institute - EUI Professional interests: - Environmental history - Tourism of nature natural tourism Professional expertise: Historical Landscape interpretation

Breaking the whiteness in the alpine landscape: an heritage of the Nation-state building process (19th century)

Summary This paper aims to provide an overview of the Alps forestation during the Nation-State building process in Europe (1850-1919). It will be pointed out at what extend, the variability of international borders influenced forest policies and how the stability of political frontiers determined the chronological boundaries for systematic forestation in different regions of the Alps. Further more how landscape and forestation, used as symbols of national identities and culture national certificates, became a launch for forest more. Breaking the whiteness in the alpine landscape: an heritage of the Nation-state building process (19th century)

Forest legislation in Alpine States In the early 19th century torrential rains and floods occurred in the water basins of the rivers Lint, Rhine, Rhone and the Po1. The Hydrologic masses provoked situations of public calamity by dragging and devastating cultures, infrastructures and people, in the voracity of the mud-floods. Once these situations had been verified, rulers supported scientific investment to find the causes and solutions for torrential. In the lowlands stagnant waters were the major channels of diseases contamination2. Public Health became the sector of 1

Speich, Daniel, Environment and History, “Draining the Marshlands, Disciplining the Masses: the lint Valley Hydro Engineering Scheme (1807-1823) and the Genesis of Swiss National Unity” Vol. 8, nº 4, 2004, pp 429-447; Cioc, Mark, The Rhine: An eco-Biography 1815-2000, University Washington Press, 2002; Whithed, Tamara Louise, Forests and Peasant Politics in Modern France, Yale, University Press, New Haven & London, 2000; Hall, Marcus “Restoring the Mountains: Finding Blame for Piedmont’s Floods.18-20th Century” in Diboscamento Montano e Politiche Territoriale, (cura di, Antonio Lazzarini), Milano, Franco Angely, 2002. 2 Speich, Daniel, Environment and History, “Draining the Marshlands, Disciplining the Masses: the lint Valley Hydro Engineering Scheme (1807-1823) and the Genesis of Swiss National Unity” Vol. 8, nº 4, 2004, pp 429-447; Derex, Jean-Michel La Gestion de l’Eau et des Zones Humides en Brie (Fin de l’Ancien Régime- Fin XIXe Siècle), Preface de Andrée Corvol, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001.

major concern for public authorities3. Already in the first to decades of the nineteen century, hydraulic works were developed to drain waters from wetlands. But the problem of regular floods due kept on repeating annually since the thirties, in France as in other countries, provoking devastating damages in agriculture and infrastructures, due to an increase of torrential rains. In order to control this hydrological framework, the French government betted on finding solutions to block the torrential regime in its origin: in the mountains. In 1841, the French engineer Surrel presented forestation of the Highlands as the solution both to prevent as to control torrential regimes4. However, (with the exception Bavaria) only in the second half of the 19th century forestation laws were promoted for a wide range of the alpine landscape.

3

Speich, Daniel, Environment and History, “Draining the Marshlands, Disciplining the Masses: the lint Valley Hydro Engineering Scheme (1807-1823) and the Genesis of Swiss National Unity” in Vol. 8, nº 4, 2004, pp 429-447. 4 Meyer, Rui, Noções de Hidráulica Florestal, Alcobaça, Direcção Geral dos Serviços Florestais e Aquícolas, 1941.

Table I – Forestation laws, rain, floods and definition of political borders Convention Quercus

Forestation

Alpine

castanea

Laws

tours

Altitude

Rain/floods

Borders

1830-40s

France and Italy

1855-56

1860

altitude France

3000 m

1500 m

1860

Monaco

3000 m

1500 m

(1859/1860?)

(1855-56)

Bavaria/

3000 m

1500 m

1852

1857-1859

Germany

Germany and Austria 1866-7081

Liechtenstein

3000 m

1500 m

(1876?)

(1852-1868)

Swiss

3000 m

1500 m

1876

1852-1868

Swiss and Italy – 1874

Italy

3000 m

1500 m

Italy and France-

1877/1882

1860 Italy and Austria – 1866 Italy and Swiss 1874 Austria

3000 m

1500 m

1852/1884

(1858-59)?

Austria and Germany – 1881

Slovenia (Austrian

3000 m

1500 m

1884?

(1852 – 1859?)

Empire) Sources: Forestation laws, rain, floods and definition of political borders 5

5

Sorces: Bruggemeier, Josef-Franz, Proceedings, 19th International Congress of Historical sciences “New developments in Environmental History”, Oslo, 2000; Corvol, Andrée L’Homme aux Bois. Histoire des Relations del l’Homme et de la Forêt XVIIe-XXe Siècle, Paris, 1987; Idem, (dir.) Les Aux et Forêts du 12e 20e Siècle, Editions du CNRS, Paris 1987; Derex, Jean-Michel La Gestion de l’Eau et des Zones Humides en Brie (Fin de l’Ancien Régime- Fin XIXe Siècle), Preface de Andrée Corvol, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001; Eça, Bento Fortunato de Moura Coutinho de Almeida d’, Acerca do Regímen do Tejo e Outros Rios ao Ministério das Obras Públicas nos Anos de 1867 e 1872 pelo Engenheiro Bento Fortunato de Moura Coutinho de Almeida d’Eça, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1877; Guerra, M. J. Júlio, Boletim do Ministério das Obras Públicas Commércio e Indústria, “Reconhecimentos Feitos no Rio Tejo na Occasião das Cheias que tiveram Logar em 1855. Extractos de Estudos Feitos no Mesmo Rio, Sobre que se Fundam os Projectos de Obras Propostas para Melhoramentos dos Campos Inundados”, vol. 12, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1856, pp. 455-468; Mather A.S.; Fairbairn J. “From Floods to Reforestation: The Forest Transition in Switzerland” in Environment and History, November 2000, Vol. 6, no. 4, 2000, pp. 399-421(23); Mehlum, Halvor, Miguel, Edward, Torvik, Ragnar, Rainfall, Poverty and Crime in the 19th Century Germany, Memorandum n.04/2004, University of Oslo, Department of economics,

http://www.oekonomi.uio.no/memo/; Morais, João Cândido de Relatório da Administração Geral das Matas Relativo ao Ano Económico de 1879-1880, Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa, 1881, Regulamento Para a Execução da Lei de 6 de Março de 1884 Aprovado por Decreto de 2 de Outubro de 1886, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1887; Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, Property Rights, Litigation, and French Agriculture, 1700-1860, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992; Sansa, Renato, Ambiente e Risorse Nel Mezziogiorno Contemporâneo, “Il Mercato e la Legge: la Legislazione Forestale Italiana, nei Secoli XVIII e XIX,”, a Cura di Piero Bevilacqua, e , Gabriella Corona, Roma, Meridiana Libri, 2000; Weiss, G., Environment and History, “Mountain Forest Policy in Austria: A Historical Policy Analysis on Regulating a Natural Resource”, August , Vol. 7, no. 3, 2001 pp. 335-355; Whithed, Tamara Louise, Forests and Peasant Politics in Modern France, Yale, University Press, New Haven & London, 2000.

In Bavaria and Switzerland legislation on this matter has been published in 18526, in Piedmont in 1859 and 1872. But the approval of legislation doesn’t mean its immediate and efficient implementation. Actually, Historiography considers this measures as the first attempts to intervene locally but tends to give crucial importance to the National Forestation Laws promulgated in France (1860), Swiss (1876), Italy (1877) and Austria (1884)7. These pieces of legislation would have marked the moments for the crucial change of environmental policies in the Alps. Giving for granted that biodiversity hasn’t ever been equal all over the cordon of mountains, which present different altitudes, shapes and diverse geological fails oriented differently towards the Sun, the gap of 24 years between the first and the last piece of legislation could explain different Alpine biodiversity between the 1500m and the 3000m of altitude, in those different nations. Still, it doesn’t explain why National politic units sharing the same frontiers and contiguous territories developed even the promulgation of forestation laws in so different chronologies. We know that there was real effort from rulers to support forestations in the regions more likely to provoke torrential regimes. However we cannot ignore that there were a complex set of geopolitical and economic interests attached to the implementation of territorial management in areas that frequently changed sovereignty between 1815 and 1919. One of the reasons if not the main one to explain differences on managing forest in the Alps was the instability of borders in all the arc of the alpine chain, since France till Austria during the period Of the Nation sate Building process and the inherent redesigning of political frontiers. Political Framework: the swing of borders The almost “la Palice “ statement that one can make about Europe in 19th century is that: the territories belonging to the nations we’ve been accustomed to see in a political map fort the 20th century were much different in the 19th century. Like the revolution (always in motion) the redesign of frontiers was in constant progress or redefinition. Between 1850 and 1919, especially in the Alps, frontiers kept changing like tides between France and Italy (1859-1860), Italy and Austria (1866, 1919), Italy and Swiss (1574-1874), Bavaria and Prussia (1866-1871), Bavaria and Austria (18661871) and the United Germany (1881) and Austria. In 1851 France occupied Savoy. The territory changed ruling sate from Italy to France, provisionally for nine years. Its definitive inclusion under the French borders took place only in 1860. The law for the Alps forestation took place still in 1860. In the case of France it can be established a direct correlation between political stability in the borders and promulgation of forest legislation if we compare this situation with what happened in the Pyrenees, between the French and Spanish Border. If we trace 6

Speich, Daniel, Environment and History, “Draining the Marshlands, Disciplining the Masses: the lint Valley Hydro Engeneering Scheme (1807-1823) and the Genesis of Swiss National Unity”, Vol. 8, nº 4, 2004, pp 429-447; Hall, Marcus Earth Repair: George Perkins Marsh and the Restoration Tradition, University of Virginia Press, 2005. 7 Bruggemeier, Josef-franz, Proceedings, 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences, “New Developments in Environmental History”, Oslo, 2000.

back the history of French forestry laws, we end up concluding that, some historians claim that the success of the Pyrenees forestation was due precisely to the opposite: the peace with Spain. France had inaugurated the first European National forestry code in 1827, which would postulate the rules for management of state forests. In 1828, the central Government tried to implement forestation in the uplands. This attempt failed due to the guerrilla opposition of the mountaineer’s communities, which became known as the war of demoiselles8. That means that forestation didn’t take place due to internal opposition, but had nothing to do with Spanish intervention. Twenty years later, in 1846, under Guizot’s government its forestation was lead ahead, under the army protection. It was successful and from that moment on the forestation of the French Pyrenees was developed regularly9 (table II). Equivalent measure wasn’t taken under the Empire of Napoleon III, between 1951 and 1860, in the Alps. Here the condescendence of not interfere with forest rights in the territory of Savoy was due to a strategy of softness administration to persuade these populations that belonging to France was better than make part of the kingdom of the Italian ruler. According to the French public discourse, the Savoy dynasty hadn’t improved their life conditions and the French administration would provide them facilities to ameliorate their lives10. In reality, the e emperor feared a political implosion from the Savoyard people. It would be unwise force forestation in the Savoy without the borders have been consolidated. The conquest of the Piedmont to the King Vitctorio Emmanuelle II took place in 1851. It was uncertain for how long it would remain under French sovereignty, at least until the agreement of 1860. France with need the cooperation of the Italian population to keep the other in the border and avoid a coup d'État that would swing Savoy again to Italy and as soon as the treaty of this region was signed between the two States (By Napoleon III and Garibaldi); the law for the Alps forestation was proclaimed11. . Table II Forest laws, political events and electoral regimes France Forestation 1789

Political events Liberal Revolution

Forest keepers institution 1827

Forestry Code

1828

Pyrenees forest law - I – implementation failed

8

Shalins, Peter, Forest Rites. The War of the Demoiselles in Nineteenth-Century France, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Cambridge USA, 1994; Withed, Tamara Louise – Forests and Peasant Politics in Modern France, Yale, University Press, New Haven & London, 2000 9 Whithed, Tamara Louise, Forests and Peasant Politics in Modern France, Yale, University Press, New Haven & London, 2000 10 Idem, Ibidem. 11 Idem, Ibidem.

1830-1845

Torrential rains and floods in the alps and Pyrenees

1846

Pyrenees forest law –

(Borders established between

Implementation achieved

France and Spain)

1849 1850-1870

Napoleon III Empire

1851

Invasion of Savoy -

1855

Torrential rains and floods in the alps and Pyrenees

1860

Alps forestation law – over state

Savoy formal annexation

and commons 1861-

Attempts of forest law implementation and social conflicts

1864

Draw back in state capacity of ruling over commons

1870

End of Napoleon III Empire

1871

II Republic

1882

Forestation of water basins law

Universal suffrage

over all property regimesimplemented 12

Sources

In the process of Italian Unification, started in 1860, Italy lost Savoy to France but in 1866, took back from Austrian Empire the sates of Alto Agide, Venetia Giulia and Friuli13. Again, only in 1919, recovered the Trent and Trieste regions. Which means that, the attempts to forest the water basin of the Po river, lead ahead by Piedmont in 185914, and the built up of the Canal Cavour in 186015, in the low plain of the Padana Region, could only been an half accomplished job. The middle part of 12

Vide footnote 5. Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984. 14 Hall, Marcus Earth Repair: George Perkins Marsh and the Restoration Tradition, University of Virginia Press, 2005. 15 Agnoletti, Mauro, Diboscamento Montano e Politiche Territoriali. Alpi e Appennini dal Settecento al Duemila, “Le Sistemazione Idraulico-forestali dei Bacini dall’Unità d’Italia alla Metà del XX secolo”, a cura de António Lazarini, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2002, pp. 389-416. 13

the water basin of the Po, was located in mountains belonging to Austrian Administration, in Lombardy, Trent and Alto Agide. Only after these territories had been incorporated in the Italian political and bureaucratic unified State, it could be a target of Italian intervention. Therefore, a national forest law, for the Alps forestation, could only be promoted after the existence of the Italy itself. After 1870, the Italian leaders, dealing with the process of the internal political and territorial unification, had to structure an all set of legislation to homogenise the bureaucracy in the country and dilute previous administrative organization of former independent kingdoms. Due to geopolitical maters and internal process of unification we can induce that, the Italian law for the Alps forestation was delayed till 187716. Table III Forest laws, political events Italy 1859

First attempt for Cuneo forestation

Rain and floods in Piedmont

1859

- Loss of Savoy

1860

- Start up of the Unification

1866

- Recover of Austria Italian states in the Alps

1870

- End of territorial – military political unification

1872

Forestation of Cuneo

1877

- Forest national law over state properties and communal land - National Forestry guards implementation (poorly implemented)

1881

Universal suffrage

1882

Forestation national law in water basins over all property regimes Sources17

16

Sansa, Renato, Ambiente e Risorse Nel Mezziogiorno Contemporâneo, “Il Mercato e la Legge: la Legislazione Forestale Italiana, nei Secoli XVIII e XIX,”, a Cura di Piero Bevilacqua, e , Gabriella Corona, Roma, Meridiana Libri, 2000. 17 Vide Footnote 5 and (Serge Noiret Ed.), Political Strategies and Electoral Reforms: Origins of Voting Systems in Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, No Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 1990;

The case of Switzerland also strengthens the importance of the frontiers being established in order to promote forestation. The location of the border in the canton of Tessino, went back to the 16th century between Swiss and the Ducat of Milan, since 1574. In this period, the border was changed several times, and still in 1815 and again in 1861, the two regions didn’t arrive into agreement18. The definitive border was established finally in 1874. We can observe that, it was not before the settlement of this frontier, in 1874, that a National Forest Law as been published. In fact it happened two years later in 1876, and ended to be the most decisive case of forest implementation in the Highlands of the Alps (that will be explored further on in this text). In the central Alps, the problem was due to the undetermined location of the border between Italy and Swiss in the Tessino ducat, which seemed to have been moving like the tides between the two sovereignties, for centuries19. In Austria the forestation of the Tyrol was due to different maters. With the German unification (1881) and the Russian expansionists aspirations over Asia and Europe, the Austrian Empire lost the control over the Danube, ceasing the direct access to the timber market of Northern Sea20. This was fundamental to hold the tunnels and mines of the salt industry, explored in regime of monopoly by the Hapsburg Crown, in the territories of the Empire. Allegedly due to environmental problems of torrential water and mud-flows, the crown decided to rule the forestation of Tyrol in 188421. This appear quite odd since floods and destruction of soil and built patrimony had been taking place at least since 1852, in Bavaria and contiguous territories in Austria and Italian states, under the Hapsburg administration till 1866 (When Garibaldi restored Italian sovereignty over Venetian states, Trent and Alto Agide)22. In Austria, the delay on this process was clearly due to an alternative market of timber supply, which was more economic than the investment on forestation for the crown23. On the contrary, Switzerland seams to be the most unique case of forest implementation that took ahead the plantation of trees in the highlands between the 1500 and the 3000m and above, as a clear measure to mark the borders in the landscape. At the same time the cordon of trees and the increase development from stains of trees to fairly continuous forest in the several cantons of the Helvetica Confederation, was part of a political plan to confer uniformity and a common ground for national identity24 in areas originally influenced by Italian, German and French culture and administrations. 18

Lowenthal, David, Environment and History, “Marsh at Cravairola: Boundary-Making in the ItalianSwiss Alps”, 2000. 19 Idem, Ibidem. 20 Weiss, G., Environment and History, “Mountain Forest Policy in Austria: A Historical Policy Analysis on Regulating a Natural Resource”, August, Vol.7, no. 3, 2001 pp. 335-355; Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984. 21 Idem, Idem. 22 Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984. 23 Weiss, G., Environment and History, “Mountain Forest Policy in Austria: A Historical Policy Analysis on Regulating a Natural Resource”, August, Vol.7, no. 3, 2001 pp. 335-355. 24 Speich, Daniel, Environment and History, “Draining the Marshlands, Disciplining the Masses: the lint Valley Hydro Engineering Scheme (1807-1823) and the Genesis of Swiss National Unity”, Vol. 8, nº 4, 2004, pp 429-447.

Table IV Forest laws, political events Austrian forestation Tyrol laws and Bavarian rain data (Alto Agide, Friuli e Venetian States were included in the Empire) 1852

Alps forestation Austrian Law- no

Floods

implementation 1857-1859

Torrential rains and floods (Bavaria and Italian Alps)

1866-1870

Loss of the Italian states

1868

Torrential Rain and floods in Bavarian and Swiss Alps

1881

German annexation: lost of the control over the Danube

1884

Tyrol forest law – Implemented

Sources25

Breaking the whiteness: In territories with no clear elements of geographical distinction, forestation became a tool to create difference in the landscape with the purpose to create a distinctive symbol of national identity in the whiteness26. In Switzerland, carved in the mountain system, which territory inscribed in its borders was indistinctive from French, Italian, Bavarian and Austrian landscapes; the Helvetian rulers felt the need to create distinction in the cantons landscape. The forest law of 1876 was not only promulgated but was seriously implemented, even at high altitudes such 3000m27. The trigonometric and parallel alignment of the trees corridors, above the 1500 in Switzerland, can be still identified. They were mostly planted after 1876. Thus, Man restored forest in altitudes where it naturally existed previously but also created biodiversity over the altitude where Quercus Perenaica, or other species, would 25

Bruggemeier, Josef-Franz, Proceedings, 19th International Congress of Historical sciences “New developments in Environmental History”, Oslo, 2000; Mehlum, Halvor, Miguel, Edward, Torvik, Ragnar, Rainfall, Poverty and Crime in the 19th Century Germany, Memorandum n.04/2004, University of Oslo, Department of economics, http://www.oekonomi.uio.no/memo/; Pfister, Christian, Das Klima der Schweiz von 1525-1860 und seine Bedeutung in der Geschichte von Bevölkerung und Landwirtschaft / Christian Pfister Band 1 Klimageschichte der Schweiz 1525-1860, Bern ; Stuttgart : Paul Haupt, 1984; Weibel, Ernest, Histoire et Géopolitique des Balkans de 1800 à Nos Jours, Paris, Elipses Éditions, 2002; Weiss, G., “Mountain Forest Policy in Austria: A Historical Policy Analysis on Regulating a Natural Resource” in Environment and History, August , Vol. 7, no. 3, 2001 pp. 335355; Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984. 26 Speich, Daniel, Environment and History, “Draining the Marshlands, Disciplining the Masses: the lint Valley Hydro Engeneering Scheme (1807-1823) and the Genesis of Swiss National Unity”, Vol. 8, nº 4, 2004, pp 429-447. 27 Idem, Ibidem.

naturally spring up. A great deal of the Swiss landscape was therefore made up by human intervention. In same cases, like Switzerland, foresting the mountains was used as a tool to create a common national identity through and in the landscape. The border line of Switzerland had to be differentiated “artificially” from the continuous geographical mountains. Something had to be done to break the immense whiteness shared by Switzerland, France, Austrian Empire and Italy in the same mountain chain. Foresting the landscape was not only useful to prevent torrential regimes but to create a different landscape in order to exclude – visually and aesthetically – the Swiss territory from the others producing its specific and unique trace of differentiation that we nowadays recognized as the beautiful landscape of the country. Part of it was artificially created and designed in order to look at it does, today. But there were other reasons to forest areas in national territories apart from the attempt to prevent torrential regimes and create landscapes as symbols of national identity. At an internal level the excessive exploitation oh heavy industry and it’s consequences on poisoning environment lead to decision making on foresting for public health reasons. Table V Forest laws, political events and electoral regimes Switzerland 1804-1820

Floods

1812

Regulation of lakes and Lint valley

1852

Forest law – with no

- Bring up together of the

implementation

Helvetica Confederation - New attempt for the definition of the border between Switzerland in Italy in Tessino canton at Lungano Convention (in changing since 1574) – Non recognized by Swiss and Italians

1868

Biggest floods of the century in Switzerland (52 people died due to mud floods)

1874

-

- Achieved attempt of for the border between Switzerland and Italy

1876

Forestation National law over state

lands and commons and Forest National Guards Institution Sources28

Cultural heritage and landscape contradictions: the false perspective of Romantic period In a very short outline and simplified scheme, it will be presented the contradictions between the Romantic idea on marketing forestation of landscape as a sign of elevated culture while part of this movement came from social conflicts due to health problems verified in industrial areas of steel and iron exploitation29.

28

Idem, Ibidem; Pfister, Christian, “Strategian Zur Bewaltigung von Naturkatastrophen seit 1500” in Am Tag Danach – Zur Bewaltigung von NaturKatastrophen in der Schweiz1500-2000, Haupt, Bern, 2002, pp.209-255; Pfister, Christian, Das Klima der Schweiz von 1525-1860 und seine Bedeutung in der Geschichte von Bevölkerung und Landwirtschaft / Christian Pfister Band 1 Klimageschichte der Schweiz 1525-1860, Bern ; Stuttgart : Paul Haupt, 1984. 29 Dogliani, Patricia, Richerca e Memoria “Territorio e Identità Nazionale: Parchi Naturali e Parchi Storici Nelle Regioni d’Europa e del Nord America”, Vol. I, Carocci Editori, 1998, pp. 7-37.

Table VI – Forestation and pollution German

Forest

Poisoned rivers 19th century

Saxony

Rhine

Wuttenberg Baden Baden Liechtenstein Bavaria France

Pyrenees

Garrone

Alps

Rhone

Switzerland

Borders -

Lint

Austria

Tyrol

Danube

Italy

Piedmont

Po

As Joseph Bruggmeir pointed out for the Germanic case, heavy industry colived in harmony with the forestation and deforestation of Germanic sates in the 19th century30. As Peter Serfiele noticed, charcoal produced from Saxony, Wuttenberg and Bavaria forests, for instance would supply heavy high industry in Prussia. Iron and still production industry would stimulate forestation and timber investment31. But on the other hand, Marc Cioc proved that Rhine was intensely polluted in that same period32. Due to this miners started to die once heavy metals were poisoning water. In reaction to this, as Patricia Dogliani pointed out, miners started strikes and developed riots against lack of health conditions33. For this reason, the Governments started to consider forestation as well in industrial places in order to restore landscape. This wasn’t exactly the message that poets like Slëgel passed in they praise for nature. Nor intellectuals that attributed the love for nature as a sign of cultural development. They just forgot to mention how industrial revolution led to social revolts and this obliged public power to attend health policies. Something similar might heave happened in other countries where we can find Heavy industry like France. In its territory, the Rhone and the Garrone were pretty polluted34. In conclusion we can maybe had that not only political borders had been varied due to natural resources run for their exploitation but also the health problems caused by mining industry forced public health policies to think about forestation. 30

Bruggemeier, Josef-franz, Environmental History Review, “A Nature Fit for Industry: The Environmental History of the Ruhr Basin, 1840-1990” Vol. 18, Number 1, Spring 1994,1994, pp.35-54. 31 Sieferle, Rolf Peter The Subterranean Forest. Energy Systems and the Industrial Revolution, The White Horse Press, 2001 [1982 Alemanha]. 32 Cioc, Mark , The Rhine:An eco-Biography 1815-2000, University Washington Press, 2002. 33 Dogliani, Patricia, Richerca e Memoria “Territorio e Identità Nazionale: Parchi Naturali e Parchi Storici Nelle Regioni d’Europa e del Nord America”, Vol. I, Carocci Editori, 1998, pp. 7-37. 34 Woronoff, Denis, Forges et Forêts, Paris, 1990 ; Woronoff, Denis, Histoire de l’Industrie en France: du XVI Siecle a Nos Jours, Paris, Seuil, 1994.

Conclusions In conclusion we can assume that from 1851 to 1881, the process of redesigning European frontiers took a decisive role on postponing forestation intervention in the Alps. The extensive areas submitted to sovereignty changes didn’t help to project forestation in the regions that would need a massive intervention of this kind. At the same time this was not the only cause to justify immediate campaigns to renew forest after they definitive settlement, as it had been shown in the case of Italy. It doesn’t explain either how the eruption of fast cutting timber during the period of increase industrialization of iron and cold, wood crafting and building activities played an enormous role in the destruction of forest and its linked ecosystems.