A IMPORTÂNCIA DO MONTADO PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO RURAL. QUE FUTURO NO DISTRITO DE BEJA?

The montados are agro-forestry-pastoral systems which have developed an important role in the biodiversity preservation, revealing balanced and sustainable systems that flatter the natural resources conservation. 1If in one way they permit agricultural and grazing exploration, as well leisure activities (hunting and others), on the other hand, they allow the habitats conservation and threatened species, and the mitigation of the desertification processes, performing ecological, economical and scenic functions. Its decline is explained by the association of the presence of pathogenic Phytophthora Cinnamoni and the human activities pressure, a situation that is quite visible in the municipalities of Beja district, which justifies this area as the case-study. It is pretended not only to evaluate the degradation state of this system, but also, understand how its valorisation will lead to the rural development, in a region affected by the continuous population loss, caused by the lack of elements that can hold them