A História Ambiental em Portugal: a emergência de um novo campo historiográfico

Abstract

This text describes the recent developments of theEnvironmental History in Portugal, their main themes, researchprojects, institutions and study groups. In spite of a historicalgeographical tradition on Portuguese historiography, theenvironment was a neglected theme to Portuguese historiansuntil recently. The authors reveals three major areas ofresearch development in the recent spurt of the environmenthistory in Portugal: one, being part of interdisciplinaryresearch teams to built knowledge regarding urgent globalissues, providing historical data and empirical evidence ofenvironmental changes; the second one, concerning historicalprocesses emphasizing the interaction between nature andhumans; and the last one, focusing on how resilient societieshave built irreversible environmental changes, environmentalunsustainability, create predatory governance systems anddealt with environmental conflicts. The final note reflects onthe challenges that cultural institutions (archives, libraries andmuseums) and historians in Portugal had to face to respondto the current society needs to build sustainability and peace.