Ecological re-interpretation of Medieval resource management regulations from Central Europe

Traditional ecological knowledge connected to resource management is more and more often used in nature conservation – also in Europe. Medieval oral (and later written) laws and regulations of traditional resource management techniques of Hungarians living in Transylvania (Romania) have been collected by historians. We have re-evaluated these laws from an ecologist's perspective. Data published in four books (Imreh, I. “The self-regulating Transylvanian village”, “Chronicle of Kászonszék”, “Order in the Transylvanian village”, “Remembering on our Transylvanian ancestors”; sum. 1626 pages) were sorted into tables based on the DPSIR framework (driving force, pressure, state, impact, response). Results show that 16th-century people aimed for the long-term sustainable use of resources, especially protecting timber, soil, and water. Some of these regulations survived till present and are used by villagers in landscape management (e.g. in pasture and forest commons). It is a big challenge for modern Europeans to learn and integrate these historical regulations in present resource management.