The Paraños CMVMC. An example of the valorisation of ethnographic heritage.
Mountain communities are often a driving force in rural Galicia, serving as the catalyst for various initiatives that improve the lives of the residents of the parishes in which these mountains are situated.
Village commons often provide the resources for the construction of community centres that allow residents to meet and organise various activities, in which communities typically participate as well as help to organise and finance them. They also create jobs and economic activity in their local area through the management of their own resources.
Among the various case studies and management approaches for these forests, there is a growing number that opt for a multifunctional production model seeking to reconcile economic, environmental and social functions.
An example of this model of management of the community woodland is the CMVMC of Paraños, in the municipality of Covelo, which has developed various initiatives to enhance the parish's natural and ethnographic heritage. Among these is the creation of the “The Xabriña Route”, a 17 km accredited route that runs through the parishes of Paraños, Prado da Canda and A Lamosa, with the River Xabriña and its tributaries as its main feature. Along this route, various vegetation formations and several elements of ethnographic heritage can be found, such as bridges, soul chapels and mills. Among the points of interest on the route is a visit to the architecture related to the beekeeping profession, a trade with a long tradition in the municipality of Covelo that disappeared from these parishes in the mid-20th century.
Given the large number of elements related to candle-making that can be found along the trail, the CMVMC of Paraños promoted their enhancement by creating the “Interpretation Centre of Candle-making and other Trades”. At the same time, a study was commissioned covering all aspects of traditional beekeeping and candle-making, highlighting the close relationship between the two trades and emphasising their uniqueness and high degree of specialisation. In “Favum, the place of wax”, one of the restored buildings, visitors can see everything related to the craft, from the threshold to the different stages of wax processing: obtaining the raw material, making yellow wax in the press, bleaching, the manufacture of candles and votives, marketing, etc. Other restored buildings include the “press house”, where the press used to extract wax from the honeycomb is located, and the 'bleaching grounds', open-air spaces covered with stone slabs where the wax was bleached in the sun.
