El articulo presenta los resultados de un erperimento para conocer la percepcion de la poblacion urbana sobre diferentes aspectos de la gestion de areas de montana del noroeste espanol. El objectivo era identificar los aspetos de la gestion mas claramente percibidos por la poblacion potencialmente demandante de los ervicos recreativos y paisakisticos y conocer sus preferencias sobre las difernetes alternativas de gestion factibles en cada casp. Se utilizaron entrevistas personales para obtener puntuaciones individuals de atributos del paisje, representados mediante fotografias, a partir de las cuales se constryeron Indices de Preferencia Paisajustica. Los resultados muestran una clara preferencia por el incremento de la superficie arbolada, aproximadamente hasta la mitad de la superficie total actual, preferiblemente con especies tradicionales, en espacios arbolados de baja densidad, con arboles de diferentes edades y en parcelas de forma irregular. La metodologia y los resultados son utiles para orientar decisiones de gestion, y la informacion obtenida sobre las preferencias sociales puede utilizarse como premisa para estimar el valor social de medidas agroambientales utilizando metodos de prederencias declaradas multiatributo...This article presents the results from an experiment into attribute perception of the urban population for management of woodland and mountain areas typical of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The aim of the research was to identify those aspects of forest management most clearly perceived by the potential demand of recreation and landscape, and to elicit preferences for the different management alternatives available in each case. Social perceptions were represented by photographs and to elicit social preferences for those landscapes, a survey was developed and applied through personal interviews of a representative sample of landscape users. From the interviews, individual ratings of various characteristics of the landscape were obtained in a two-stage process: first, the total set of images was rated and second, the sample rated subgroups of the total set, each one representing the variation of levels within each attribute. The responses were used to construct a Landscape Preference Index and a regression analysis was also carried out, providing similar and consistent information. Results show clear preference for an increase in woodland cover to over half the current surface area, with replanting of traditional trees, in woodland cover to over half the current surface area, with replanting of tradition trees, in woodlands of low density and trees of different age and, replanting of traditional trees, in woodlands of low density and trees of different age and, preferably, in irregular shaped plots. The results are useful as a guide to policymakers in the management of protected mountain areas that have been proposed to be included in the European Natura 2000 Network. The information obtained about preferences is also useful as a premise to obtain the social values of EU agro-environmental measures relative to these spaces using multi-attribute state preference methods.