Transhumance and livestock trails in Spain and their study

Transhumance, or the seasonal movement of livestock from upland pastures (agostaderos, summer pastures) to lowland ones (invernaderos, winter pastures), was historically essential in the modelling of the landscape and the economy in Spain. This complex way of life generated a huge network of public paths of different widths and a fixed itinerary, known as «vías pecuarias» (livestock trails) including cañadas reales (royal tracks), cordeles (pathways), veredas (footpaths), coladas (ridgeways) and callejas (alleyways), with a total length of 125,000 km. Long-distance transhumance —from León, Soria and La Rioja or the montes Universales to Extremadura, southern La Mancha or Andalusia— is the best known in the media, but other kinds of transhumance exist.

I don’t just mean transterminance, which is, by definition, the moving of livestock from one municipality to another (for example, to make use of stubble fields). There are many other movements of livestock, not so well-known to the media, with longer routes, though not as long as the north-south route, which may take up to two weeks on foot, for example from Sierra de Segura to Eastern Sierra Morena, movements in the Pyrenees and a long etc. This kind of movement can mean changing provinces or Autonomous Communities and involve a real short-distance transhumance, with a much greater number of animals than in long-distance transhumance in Spain. Furthermore, they have always been carried out (and still are, normally) on foot, thus making an important contribution to preserving the network of different kinds of livestock trails.

Following the rise of the Mesta (the large guild of Castilian and Leonese stockbreeders founded by Alfonso X in 1273), which boosted the merino wool trade on an international scale to become the country’s main industry (a large number of emblazoned houses bear witness to its importance), several circumstances led to a decline in transhumance and itineraries on foot. Among them, the position taken by the Enlightenment on the conflict between agriculture and livestock-rearing, or a fall in the price of wool (due to the flight of merino sheep to other countries) and later the abandoning of livestock trails in favour of the new trains and then trucks. In the end, more and more livestock-breeders became sedentary. The great importance of transhumance practically disappeared from our general culture.

Over the past two decades, however, research into transhumance and, to a great extent, activities like crossing Madrid with flocks along livestock trails (an initiative of the association Transhumance and Nature. Shepherds without Frontiers) gradually attracted the attention of public opinion and institutions, leading to the passing of the Law on livestock trails of 1995. Livestock trails are now better-known, and among shepherds there is a growing sense of dignity. Independent of the length of their seasonal migrations, all currently working shepherds now call themselves transhumancers. 

After the Mesta, responsibility for the livestock trail network kept changing. First it fell to the Asociación General de Ganaderos del Reino (The General Association of Shepherds) and then to ICONA, the National Institute for Nature Conservation, and it is now in the hands of the Agriculture and Environment ministries, as well as the different Councillors from the Autonomous Communities. Following previous research mainly focussing on the history and economics of transhumance, the late 1980s and especially the 1990s saw a series of studies of great importance, based on the ICONA archives on livestock trails, a huge collection of cases with maps, official measurements, litigation, etc. for the network of trails in most municipalities. This type of information can now be found in the autonomous community offices. Livestock trails were then studied from the historical perspectives of ecology, economics (with a positive balance) and their potential for tourism. Likewise, a catalogue of both private and public intrusions into livestock trails was drawn up (reservoirs, roads, petrol stations, illegal rubbish tips, crops, etc.) and a systematic study of all the transhumant areas of Spain was begun. The Cuadernos de la Trashumancia (Transhumance Notebooks) were published by ICONA between 1991 and 1998 and, in the words of their instigator Jose Manuel Mangas Navas, brought together «the documentation of transhumance and livestock trails in the 20th century». For each area, the natural settings and use of the land were described, as was a census of breeders, their problems –fundamental aspects of the increasing sedentarianism of breeders- and the state and use of each kind of livestock trail network.

Likewise, a study of interesting communities around the Mesta was undertaken, such as those of the Cornisa Cantábrica: vaqueiros de alzada (upland cattlemen), pasiegos (from the Pas valley), and those of Sierra de Ancares and the Basque country —with studies such as that referred to at the end of this article. In addition, restoration programmes were carried out based on projects like Life-ICONA/Fundación FEPMA in 1996, or restoration and signalling activities by different Autonomous Communities.

Many ecological aspects have also been studied by different research groups, like those at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) among others, and there is currently research into the connectivity and biodiversity of the livestock trails (Life-UAM). Although the study of tourist and leisure uses of the trails started in the 1990s, there is less work on the subject. We consider this approach —which we are currently undertaking— to be very interesting and complementary to the others, for the preservation of the vast natural and cultural heritage which the network of trails represents as a way of connecting all the country and for public use.

2013 saw the publication of the Libro Blanco de la Trashumancia en España (White Book on Transhumance in Spain) and in 2017 the Spanish Government declared transhumance to be Intangible Cultural Heritage.

José Luis Rubio de Lucas is member of the Department of Ecology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). His work combines two lines of research: Human Ecology, looking at the study of transhumant activity, and of the relationships of human and animals (large reptiles) and its implications for conservation. The second research line, Herpetology, encompasses mainly eco-evolutionary aspects. On the topic of this Work of the month, he has published several books and articles, including six volumes (numbers 2, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 23) of the collection of monographics Cuadernos de la Trashumancia (ICONA).

Complementary reading:

Flores, E. 2003. Estudio de ecología humana en la Comunidad Pasiega-Cantabria. Santander: Fundación CDESC , 20.

Rubio JL.2003: Desplazamientos de ganado y caminos pecuarios en la cornisa cantábrica. En JV Elías y FNovoa, Un camino de ida y vuelta. La trashumancia en España. Ed. Lunwerg.

Ruiz M, Ruiz JP 986. Ecological History of Transhumance in Spain. Biological Conservation, 37, 73-86.  

Valladares JA. 2005. El brañeo en Asturias. Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos.

Also of interest: Plataforma Ibérica para la Protección de los Caminos.