Land Commons kicks off in Galicia!

The Land Commons project is part of the Art Living Lab for Sustainability, funded by the Creative Europe programme, which supports three initiatives that promote partnerships between agents in the European Union to open up ecosystems of innovation and come up with nature-based artistic solutions in France, Belgium, and Spain. The aim of Land Commons is to implement a mediation process that helps the joint landholders or commoners of the communally-owned Montes de Couso to meet and fulfil their needs and wishes. It will culminate in a nature-based artistic response, from a contemporary perspective.

We kicked off the working process by meeting Xosé Antón Araúxo—who has been part of the Montes del Couso management committee since 1984—in León, at the Lessons from Mutualisms event organised by Concomitentes at the Fundación Cerezales, which was an opportunity to report back on the achievements, obstacles and scope of the processes that are taking place within the organisation. We took part in conversations about our interests and concerns related to the countryside, forests, woodlands, agriculture, the repopulation of native forests in Galicia, shiitake mushrooms, and much more. Xosé gave me some advice on how to gradually plant an ‘edible forest’ in the garden of my house in the village. Advice that I plan to put in practice throughout 2023, as we carry out this mediation process.

Since 1984, Xosé Antón Araúxo and his team have been on the management committee of Montes de Couso, an active community made up of 84 men and women who manage a total of 330 hectares of communal woodland, 300 of which are productive. Xosé estimates that some 30 or 40 people within this community are particularly active and involved in the many projects they carry out.

The communal woodlands are important for many reasons, but above all because they embody an ancient form of land management that has survived the passage of time. And because it is probably one of the most sustainable forms of land management for the uncertain future that lies ahead this century and beyond. Through this communal form of management, the woodlands play a very important role in attracting people and keeping them in rural areas, in bringing in new inhabitants and enabling self-sufficiency through the multifunctionality of the land.

Beyond the social and global significance of the communal woodlands, we are here to carry out an art-based process that will contribute to improving life for the Montes de Couso community. Through this process, we want to elicit the needs and wishes of the commoners, and then, working with the support of an artist, produce an artwork that will help achieve them.

On 14 February we had our first meeting in Couso: Concomitentes general coordinator Fran Quiroga and I, as the project’s mediator, met up with Xosé Manuel Araúxo at midday. We spent two hours with him, chatting over coffee and going for a walk through the Montes de Couso, getting to know the land and the community-run projects.

If we ask ourselves, what can a woodlands community do together? the answer is that a woodlands community can do almost anything. In Couso, Xosé tells us, they have an ambitious goal: to become a self-sufficient community. The challenges of self-supplying their own leisure and culture, energy, food, financial means lie ahead. That’s no small thing.

During this process we will see what a woodlands community can do, in Couso. Over and out.