Sustainable transhumance practices in European landscapes. A comparative study

Abstract

Abstract Transhumant practices are a clear and diachronic example of sustainable use of the available pasture land, taking advantage of climatic and environmental differences between summer and winter pastures. This more balanced use of natural resources has an ancient history and made it possible for local communities in rural societies to exploit areas that would otherwise not have been used for agricultural purposes. Industrialisation, globalisation, and the collapse of rural economy in the 20th century led to a profound transformation of these traditional pastoral practices. In this paper, we present a cursory look on transhumance from Northern Iceland and Eastern Spain to give us an insight regarding how different communities strived towards sustainable livestock practice and landscape management in the past. Traditional pastoralism aims to use balancing strategies to prevent the degradation of land and the environment. The implementation of seasonal schedules of pasture areas to avoid overgrazing, implementing control regarding the utilisation of the grazing areas, and setting disputes between different social groups that have access to the pasture lands are great examples of social strategies maintained by transhumance communities to promote sustainable landscape management. This paper will examine archaeological and ethnoarchaeological evidence to enable the comparison between the two selected case studies. We believe that the diversity and complex history of these case studies can offer us a valuable lesson of good practice for a sustainable and environmentally friendly use of European pastoral territories in present-day societies.