The mountains of Tenerife through their history

The island has 50,000 hectares of forest cover (more than La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, and Gran Canaria combined). This represents the largest forest area ever to have occupied our territory. This work provides a comprehensive study of this forest cover and explains its uses and how it was managed during a specific historical period. It is organized into fifteen chapters. It begins with the distribution and granting of the island's municipal forests to the Island Council in 1506, the legislation governing forest ownership in Tenerife, and the reforestation efforts following fires. It traces over 500 years of the history of these forests, offering extensive information on each area of the territory during this period. This leads us to conclude that understanding the current situation requires grasping the interaction between natural conditions and the social strategies adopted at each stage to organize the exploitation of forest resources.