Los Pirineos como proyecto de Estado: de municipios, comunales, ingenieros forestales, sociedades de propietarios y parques naturales

In this article the contemporary Spanish Pyrenees are explained as the result of the transformative agency of the modern state. The process of reorganization of the natural resources of these mountains through different types of public policies is explained. The analysis of the historical progression of the different waves of transformation of the Pyrenean Mountains since the beginning of the nineteenth century shows interesting common characteristics. This concludes that there is succession of territorial policies implemented by the Spanish state with cumulative effects on the social and ecological landscape of the Pyrenees. This succession, which can be studied as a genealogy due to its commonalities, connects historical and political moments as diverse as municipalization, disentailment campaigns, forest expropriations, and the massive implementation of protected areas occurred at the end of the twentieth century. It is argued that each institutional endeavor has prepared the ground for the next one. Although the impacts of these policies have tended to displace resources and jurisdictions towards the centralized public administrations, they have often been challenged by local communities. These challenges have often resulted on the reinvention of traditional managerial institutions such as the commons, transforming them into ownership societies or creating cooperatives.