‘Land tenure and social changes’ (N¼ 6). The main causes within
this category were related to land regimes which had begun to shift
from public to private, especially in the case of pasture lands. Most
pastures in the study area are at present privately owned by nonlocals
who have fenced off portions of the land, thereby prohibiting
animals from grazing. As a consequence, large pasture lands on
marginal soils and those of poor productivity are no longer maintained,
thus slowly succumbing to replacement by natural afforestation.
Causes in this category refer also to land abandonment as
the population ages; the young people have reportedly migrated to the city as farming is no longer a desirable way of life.