The Spanish equivalent is 'dehesa'. There is no one word translation, since this traditional land-use system is unique to Iberia. Here is a good description of the term:



dehesa : Sparse wood pasture made up principally of holm and evergreen cork oak, grazed by livestock, and without scrub undergrowth. Unique to Iberia and Morocco.

Huge forests of holm oak or encina, believed to be the climax species of the true Mediterranean forest, once stretched over great swathes of Spain. This virgin forest has long-since disappeared through grazing, charcoal-burning and felling. A few patches of something approaching this vast primeval forest survive on isolated higher slopes and particularly in the Sierra de Guara on the edge of the Aragonese Pyrenees and in the Sierra Morena in Andalucia. Many of these forests grew on poor and arid soils, and when felled these could not support agriculture for long and were soon abandoned to be taken over by maquis and garrigue, which covers much of Spain and the Mediterranean in general today. However, elsewhere in Spain and parts of the Maghreb , instead being felled, huge forests of holm oak were thinned out, creating the sparse pasture parkland known as dehesa, which together with evergreen cork form a unique man-made, managed and bio-diverse ecosystem. These are grazed on by the classic Iberian pigs and to a lesser extent by cows and sheep. Dehesa often combines holm oak with evergreen cork trees, as the latter bears its acorns in winter, providing a staged supply of animal food. A hybrid between the two trees (known as a mesto) bears acorns between the two peaks, giving a constant supply.


Garcia-Mata
... classifications applied to Dehesa (wooded Dehesa and open Dehesa). ... say that
there are 9 million ha of wooded and open Dehesa in the peninsula. ...
www.veeru.reading.ac.uk/organic/proc/garc2.htm - 50k - Còpia en memòria - Pàgines semblants

REFERENCES
There are some areas of "dehesa" (clear oak-wooded Quercus rotundifolia forest),
with pastures and cereal, and also slightly undulated cereal fields. ...
www.ecwg.org/Areas/Winter/NavalvillardePela.htm - 16k - Còpia en memòria - Pàgines semblants


It is also sometimes described as an 'oak savannah':

Anytime Tours
The cork oak/holm oak savannah is called dehesa and is one of the classic landscapes
of Extremadura. It is a traditionally managed system, providing acorns ...
www.anytimetours.co.uk/spainextremadura.htm - 44k - Còpia en memòria - Pàgines semblants

Within-tree variation in transpiration in isolated evergreen oak ...
Within-tree variation in sap flow density (SFD) was measured in two isolated
evergreen oak (Quercus ilex L.) trees growing in an oak savannah (dehesa) in ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve& db=PubMed&list_uids=11282581&dopt=Abstract - Pàgines semblants




Spanish wine producers have rejected the plastic cork so popular with many new world wines, but why? The answer is the Dehesa.

A Dehesa is a traditional Spanish land-use system in which wood collection, raising livestock, and agriculture are all carried out in one area. Pigs and sheep graze on acorns and grass amongst oak woodland interspersed with orchards and cultivated fields. This combination of different land-uses has developed over thousands of years and is well adapted to the local environment. Dehesas are thought to be the most ancient land-management system still in existence in Western Europe.

The Dehesas of Spain along with the Portuguese equivalent, the Montados, cover more than six million hectares of the Southern Iberian Peninsula. They are remarkably sustainable and productive system that supports people, plants and animals.

The most important tree in the Dehesa both economically and culturally is the cork oak. Dehesas are responsible for producing three quarters of the world¿s cork. Cork oak, in Spanish, alcornque, can live to be 400 years old. A cork oak will be ready to be stripped of its bark from the age of 20 years onwards, but the best cork is produced once it reaches 50. Removing the cork takes a great deal of skill and requires a special curved axe – if you cut in too deep you can kill the tree.

Because the Dehesa system is so varied it supports a rich diversity of flora and fauna, in fact it's home to more species than it would be if it was left to become natural, unmanaged forest. The cork oak forests are home to both the Imperial Eagle and the Iberian Lynx. However the Dehesas are shrinking, the result of rural depopulation, Eucalyptus plantations, and deforestation and clearing for mechanized cropping, road building, and dams. Once abundant, the Iberian Lynx is currently recognized as the world's most threatened big cat. Today it is thought that less that 200 survive.

Using cork, even if it only means buying wine with a cork stopper rather than a plastic one, will help to justify these cultural landscapes and help protect the species that rely on them.


The word 'devesa' or 'dehesa' could be used in italics (if you like) and an explanation given, depending on the type of text you are translating.


# Spanish dehesa system with overwintering common cranes



http://org.eea.eu.int/documents/speeches/10-11-2004