The baldios are an ancient tradition in Portugal, dating back to the Middle Ages, as a privilege granted to the inhabitants of each village, recognized in the royal registers. In a feudal economy, the commons was a necessary resource for farmers to obtain firewood and pasture, thus ensuring their livelihood. Until the end of the 18th century, the commons were properties that could not be subject to individualization. However, certain laws promulgated by Pombal and D. Maria I tended to ignore the differences between common property and municipal property, which gradually led to the disuse of common property (1869). In the 19th century, this traditional form of communal property was considered an obstacle to the development of agriculture. Common property was then the subject of individual appropriations or became the property of parishes and ecclesial counties, but not without strong resistance from commoners, mainly in the north of Portugal, who, through a few riots and successive petitions to the court of the king, were able to prevent the total absorption of the commons in large properties or in afforestation projects (Abel 1988). However, according to Brouwer (1995), the surface area of ​​the commons was reduced from more than 4 million ha in 1875 to 450,000 ha with the advent of the Estado Novo (new state regime) in 1933. new state regime (…) literally interpreted the meaning of the word baldio (derived from a Teutonic idiom meaning barren, devastated or bald). The government considered these lands either to be completely unused, or at least to be used in a way that, in its view, was inappropriate or undesirable (Government of Portugal, 1940). Communal ownership was equated with abandonment in terms of use and administration...... middle of paper ...... community. The president of Baldio, Luís Ferreira, is also a man with a certain cultural and social capital, essential for seeking new business opportunities. Part of the Baldio's social and institutional recognition project was the organization, in 2007, of a debate on "New Perspectives for the Administration of Baldios" in order to find answers to the following concerns: Today we live in an urban and individualistic society, in what sense can we speak of a community way of life? Is the decline of the rural world an accelerated process that can be reversed with the natural resources of the commons as a lever? With the exodus of villages, will the commons also die out? What calls into question the future of the commons? ... These are just a few questions that reflect the need to adapt the management of common goods to new realities..