Sustainable Transhumance Practices in European Landscapes. A Comparative Study

Transhumance practices are a clear diachronic example of sustainable use of pastureland, taking advantage of climatic and environmental differences between summer and winter. Past uses of pastureland incorporated a more balanced use of natural resources, making it possible for local communities to exploit areas that would not otherwise have been used for agricultural purposes. In contrast, industrialisation, globalisation, and the collapse of the rural economy in the twentieth century led to a profound transformation of these traditional pastoral practices. We present an overview of transhumance from Northern Iceland, Scotland, England, the Italian Alps, and Eastern Spain. The implementation of seasonal schedules for use of pastures not only avoided overgrazing but assisted settling disputes between different social groups with access to the pastures. We examine archaeological and ethnoarchaeological evidence and compare five case studies.