Abstract
A village example, Vergons in Upper Provence near Castellane, manifests a triple evolution that led to soil degradation and erosion during the Little Ice Age (17th-18th centuries). In the lower Middle Ages, while human population increased, livestock raising declined in favor of an increase in cropland and clearing on fragile slopes. Around 1640, inhabitants were forced to sell or draw immediate gain from communal forests and pasturelands. This sharp turn, generalized in Provence, ended in a profound shift in the use of common spaces. The «economic» and its utilitarian rationale appear to be have been constructed and encouraged by the prevailing powers notably the royal estate. Accompanying this evolution, which was statistically tallied for Vergons in 1769, was the rise in the threat from torrents.
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