Transhumance and climate change

Mitigation and adaptation in cultural heritage landscapes: lessons from transhumant pastoral systems for managing novel climate risks

As our climate changes, it will be more important than ever to reinforce the adaptive capacity of heritage livelihood systems, but is important to recognize that cultural heritage is not something that is just under threat. Rather, it offers capacity and lessons for both mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its effects. This research examines the cultural landscapes of transhumant pastoralism in France, Norway, and Spain to understand:

• how these landscapes are threatened by climate change 

• what they can tell us about ecological knowledge and social organization for climate resilience

• how can we sustain them through community action and policy

For this work, we build on our existing project in the French Basque Country, expanding it to the Valdres region of Norway, and the Spanish drove roads. We will integrate climate, social, and ecological date across the three sites in partnership with local organizations. In each site, researchers have long histories of engagement with local institutions and farmers. 

Expected products

• A tool for evaluating vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity in cultural landscapes (CACHET) that can be used by others engaged in stewarding cultural heritage

• Briefs for policy makers to help them understand the importance of cultural heritage and ways to support it in a changing climate

• Collaborative films with farmers to introduce the general public to these concepts

• Training for a cohort of journalists to more effectively communicate about climate change and cultural heritage

This project is led by Tom Mote and is funded by the Belmont Forum.

In addition to the project team already in place for the Sustaining Pastoral Systems project, the Transhumance and Climate Change project includes these additional partners:

Dominique Barjolle (University of Lausanne)

Sebastian Eiter (NIBIO)

Francesca Pasetti (Concejo de la Mesta)

Hanne Sickel (NIBIO)