Contenu du sommaire

The Guérande Marshes : An Ecosystem as a Means of Production. Salt production used to be the primary economical activity of communities living on the border of Guérande's marshes. Land tenure formation of salt producing units and social organization of work in the marsh were factors which contributed to the establishment of the social structure of those communities. Actually the marsh is an ecosystem which, although changed to a means of production, has to be maintained if salt ponds are to be kept in good order. There is a close relationship between its reproduction and the marsh communities' production. Because of the salt production crisis on the Atlantic coast, 50 % of the salt ponds are now out of exploitation. Reduction of available work power implies the non-performance of some of the tasks that would be necessary to maintain the ecosystem in a way compatible with salt production. To get around the problem, marsh people have come to resort to a series of precarious technologies whose succession led to an increasing degradation of production set up, along with a disintegration of the traditional social structure. The process is now continuing and enlarging on its own. ment of the social structure of those communities. Actually the marsh is an ecosystem which, although changed to a means of production, has to be maintained if salt ponds are to be kept in good order. There is a close relationship between its reproduction and the marsh communities' production. Because of the salt production crisis on the Atlantic coast, 50 % of the salt ponds are now out of exploitation. Reduction of available work power implies the non-performance of some of the tasks that would be necessary to maintain the ecosystem in a way compatible with salt production. To get around the problem, marsh people have come to resort to a series of precarious technologies whose succession led to an increasing degradation of production set up, along with a disintegration of the traditional social structure. The process is now continuing and enlarging on its own.

A Cartographical Rendering of the Evolution of Land' Use in the Vescovato Commune (Corsica). With the help of three maps which were drawn at different times (1794, 1957, and 1970), one can follow the evolution of land-use in the Vescovato commune (Eastern Corsica). Such a synoptical rendering makes easier our understanding of the agrarian structure according to historical developments. In the actual system, the persistence of earlier methods pertaining to traditional economy can still be observed — mixed cultivation: vineyards being grown together with fruit-trees, cereals, etc. — , but some changes can already be detected — as, for instance, the introduction of viticultural single-farming, and of market-gardening — which point out to the new agricultural trends in the considered area.