The decline of mobile pastoralism, especially nomadic pastoralism, is often reported (Fratkin and Abella Roth 2005; Humphrey and Sneath 1999), despite evidence of more dynamic ebbs and flows in mobile pastoralism historically (Honeychurch 2010; Fernandez-Gimenez and LeFebre 2006). The ecological and risk management rationales for livestock mobility are well established (Niamir-Fuller 1999; Scoones 1994). Yet, few studies evaluate the economic benefits and costs of maintaining or resuming mobile, extensive livestock production compared to sedentary or semi-extensive production. Here, we empirically evaluate pastoralists’ claims that transhumance, a specific type of long-distance herd mobility, is a more profitable system compared to semi-extensive production in the Central Spanish Pyrenees. Specifically, we use enterprise budget data from transhumant and semi-extensive operations to develop a baseline typical sheep operation budget. We then use partial budget analysis coupled with economic simulations to determine the conditions under which transhumance by truck or on foot becomes profitable relative to semi-extensive production. We find that across a range of parameter estimates for feed and pasture costs and lambing rates, both types of transhumance outperform semi-extensive systems under most scenarios. Transhumance on foot is the most profitable management system when costs for all systems are high or typical and lambing rates are low or typical. The economic advantage of transhumance increases with herd size, with little or no advantage over semi-extensive production at small herd sizes (500 ewes). The difference in profitability among systems is driven by lambing rates for all management systems and feed costs for semi-extensive systems.
Transhumance is a form of mobile livestock husbandry in which herders move domestic livestock flocks regularly and repeatedly between defined seasonal pasture areas. In Spain, transhumance has a long history (Rodriguez Pascual 2001; Ruiz and Ruiz 1986; Starrs 2018; Manzano Baena and Casas 2010), dating back as far as the Neolithic (Geddes 1983). The ecological and production rationales for Spanish transhumance are well-documented (Manzano Baena and Casas 2010; Ruiz and Ruiz 1986; Starrs 2018; Perez and Saez 1990; Puigdefabregas and Fillat 1986), and recent works have revealed multiple ecosystem services associated with twenty-first century transhumance (Hevia et al. 2013; Hevia et al. 2016; Manzano and Malo 2006; Oteros-Rozas et al. 2012; Oteros-Rozas et al. 2014). However, Spain has also experienced an overall reduction in extensive livestock production in the second half of the twentieth century, including a decline in transhumance (O’Flanagan et al. 2011; Ruiz and Ruiz 1986; Chocarro et al. 1990; Manzano Baena and Casas 2010), as agricultural production restructured towards a more intensive industrial agriculture model. The principal drivers of this transition included rural outmigration to urban areas, resulting in agricultural labour deficits, and a parallel increase in the mechanization of agriculture (Chocarro et al. 1990; Estrada et al. 2010; Manzano Baena and Casas 2010). As agricultural communities in more remote and mountainous areas lost both human and livestock populations, the number of family-run farms declined, and intensive livestock production (feed-lot and stall-fed) increased with a concurrent increase in corporate farm ownership (Manzano Baena and Casas 2010) in order to meet demands of the growing urban market. These transitions were further reinforced with the introduction of the European Common Market in the late 1970s, which also contributed to price declines for pastoral products (Lefebvre et al. 2012; Estrada et al. 2010). In the twentieth century, transhumants also switched from walking with their herds to transporting them on trains, which was inexpensive. Over time, as road networks improved, more herders began to use trucks, train car conditions deteriorated, and train costs increased (Oteros-Rozas, personal communication). Eventually, the state-run train service eliminated livestock cars altogether in the 1990s, transhumant producers resorted to trucking or walking, and the cost and/or time needed for transhumance increased substantially (Bacaicoa Salaverri et al. 1993 cited in Oteros-Rozas et al. 2013). Thus, although conservation organizations increasingly highlight the value of transhumance for creating and maintaining valued habitat and cultural landscapes (Martin Casas 2003; Garzón-Heydt 2004), and herders recognize a variety of benefits to transhumance (Oteros-Rozas et al. 2012; Oteros-Rozas et al. 2014), the prevailing public narrative suggests that transhumance is a fading practice in rural Spain.
In contrast to the dominant discourse, we observed a revitalization of transhumance in one area of the Central Spanish Pyrenees, the Valles Occidentales (Western Valleys) of the Aragonese Pyrenees in the Province of Huesca. In this region, transhumance on foot and by truck never completely disappeared, but its prevalence diminished significantly in the 1980s and 1990s, due to the factors discussed above, as well as increasing competition for winter grazing in the lowlands, harsh living conditions for transhumants, and shepherds’ preference to live at home with their families year-round (Fernández-Giménez 2019). Some claim that a general shift in the public perception of pastoralism, from an honourable profession to an occupation connoting poverty and backwardness, also likely contributed to the overall decline in extensive pastoralism, including transhumance (Pallaruelo 1993). In the central Pyrenees, transportation by train was never as popular as in some other regions of Spain (Pallaruelo 1993). During this period, most enterprises converted to a semi-extensive management model, where sheep and cattle graze communal high mountain pastures in the summer and spend the winter enclosed in barns and stall-fed on hay and grain. By 2010, only one operation continued to transhume on foot in one of the study villages. In 2018, however, several multi-generational herding families had resumed transhumance. Several new incorporations of young herders opted to use transhumance from their inception (Fernández-Giménez 2019). A variety of factors contributed to this resurgence (see Fernández-Giménez 2019 for a full discussion), including increased availability of low-cost winter pastures and technological advances that decrease labour requirements and improve quality of life for transhumant herders (e.g. electric fences, mobile phones). Herders reported in interviews that the primary reason for maintaining or taking up transhumance is its relative profitability compared to semi-extensive livestock husbandry, where animals are stall-fed in barns during the winter (Fernández-Giménez 2019). Herders who sought to expand their herd sizes were also more likely to take up transhumance. Herders’ explanations align with literature on adoption of innovations that posits that relative advantage in terms of profitability is a key attribute of practices/innovations that influence adoptions (Rogers 1995).
Economic studies of extensive livestock production generally, and specifically mobile systems such as transhumance, are relatively scarce. Several papers have assessed the total economic value of extensive or mobile pastoralism in the context of national (Nyariki and Amwata 2019; Casas Nogales and Manzano Baena 2007), regional, and global (Davies and Hatfield 2007) economies, focusing on both market and non-market values. Research at the regional or sub-national level has used discrete choice experiments to assess the values attributed by respondents (pastoralists, local stakeholders) to different land uses (Mazzocchi and Sali 2019) or grazing management practices (Lutta et al. 2019). Other research has used data from producer surveys to compare economic performance of different extensive and intensive production systems using a variety of methods and metrics, such as technical efficiency (Galanopoulos et al. 2011; Gaspar et al. 2009; Perez et al. 2007; Shomo et al. 2010), benefit-cost ratios (Hamadeh et al. 2001; Qtaishat et al. 2012), and relative profitability based on partial budget analyses (Legesse et al. 2005). Findings from these studies offer mixed evidence on the economic benefits of extensive mobile production systems. Work from Jordan (Qtaishat et al. 2012) and Lebanon (Hamadeh et al. 2001) showed that benefit-cost ratios were highest in mobile extensive systems, even when profitability was lower. Two different studies in Spain found technical efficiency was generally high in extensive systems, even when productivity per ewe was low, due to low costs and management systems highly adapted to exploit available resources (Gaspar et al. 2009; Perez et al. 2007). Other studies found technical efficiency in transhumant systems was low (Galanopoulos et al. 2011), or lower than that in more intensive production systems (Shomo et al. 2010). A partial budget analysis of feeding trial results in Ethiopia for two goat species found that for one breed, semi-extensive was most profitable, followed by extensive, while intensive was least profitable. For the other breed, no system was profitable, but losses were minimized in the extensive system (Legesse et al. 2005). In summary, evidence exists for the total economic value (Davies and Hatfield 2007; Nyariki and Amwata 2019) and perceived social value (Lutta et al. 2019; Mazzocchi and Sali 2019) of extensive, mobile livestock production. However, determining the relative profitability of transhumance compared to more settled production systems at the firm level is critical to understanding producers’ decisions to take up or maintain this practice.
In order to empirically evaluate Pyrenean herders’ widespread perception of the profitability of transhumance, we collected primary data on the costs and revenues associated with three types of operations, used these to parameterize a typical “model operation”, and compared the three operation types using a Monte Carlo simulation. This approach is based on a simple partial budget analysis approach (Alimi and Manyong 2000) that has been applied to ranch decision-making in the western USA. The partial budget analysis together with a sensitivity analysis is used to compare the relative cost and revenue from different management choices, such as the alternative choice to sell cattle or buy hay in a drought (Feuz and Ritten 2014), under a range of cost and revenue scenarios. In this analysis, we compared three alternative management choices: stable-feed ewes during the winter, transhumance on foot to winter pastures, and transhumance by truck to winter pastures under multiple cost and revenue scenarios.
Study area
This study takes place in the westernmost valleys of the Aragonese Pyrenees, in the Province of Huesca, an area known as the Valles Occidentales or Western Valleys (Fig. 1). Most of the herders interviewed reside in the villages of Ansó or Hecho, although one is from the hamlet of Novés, at the easternmost edge of the study region. The territories used by transhumants range from the summer pastures in the high Pyrenees (maximum 2700 m) to the winter pastures in the Ebro River Valley (~ 500 m) with corresponding variability in mean annual precipitation from > 1800 mm in the high mountains to < 400 mm in the valley (Cuadrat et al. 2007). The seasonality of precipitation also varies, with the majority of precipitation falling in the form of snow from November to February in the mountains while peak precipitation in the valley occurs as rainfall from April through June (Cuadrat et al. 2007). Similarly, mean annual temperatures range from 4–6 °C in the high mountains to 14 °C in the Ebro Valley. The mean minimum temperature in the mountains is < 0 °C and the mean minimum in the valley is > 9 °C, with corresponding mean highs of 6–8 °C in the mountains and 20–22 °C in the valley (Cuadrat et al. 2007). The variability of precipitation and temperature over space and seasons is an important factor driving the availability and quality of forage over the year, and a principal driver for the development of transhumance as a management strategy (Puigdefabregas and Fillat 1986).
Ansó and Hecho are considered among the most conservative communities in this region of the Pyrenees with respect to maintaining traditional pastoral culture, which has made them the focus of previous studies on pastoralists’ traditional ecological knowledge (Fernandez-Gimenez and Estaque 2012; Fernandez-Gimenez and Fillat Estaque 2012). Both villages maintain their distinct local dialects of Aragonese, residents of Ansó speaking Ansotano and those of Hecho, speaking Cheso. In 2018, Ansó’s human population numbered 411 and Hecho’s 568 (the valley of Hecho had 852), and the hamlet of Novés had 32 inhabitants (Foro-Ciudad.com 2019). Ansó reported 20 livestock operations with a total of 5829 sheep, 145 goats, 924 cattle, and 19 horses. Hecho reported 43 operations with 6380 sheep, 472 goats, 2010 cattle, and 15 horses (Instituto Aragonés de Estadística 2018a; b).
Most of the transhumant operators we interviewed for this study identify Ansó or Hecho as their home town (pueblo), rather than the town where they spend the winter months. One identifies equally with both summer and winter villages, or with neither, stating, “I am from the mountains; from where my sheep are.” Both Ansó and Hecho are typical villages of the central Aragonese Pyrenees, with a dense cluster of tall stone buildings, cobblestone streets, and a cathedral seemingly out of proportion to the size of the village in population and area. Privately owned hayfields and meadows surround Hecho on the valley bottom, while the steep slopes around Ansó prevent cultivation, and most of the formerly open hillside pastures have been lost to encroaching shrubs. The area of the Valles Occidentales became a regionally-administered natural park in 2007 and beckons tourists with its natural beauty and cultural heritage. Picturesque Ansó was recently designated one of the “prettiest pueblos of Spain”.
The abundant and high-quality summer pastures in the high Pyrenees are the communal property of each village (Fig. 1). Ansó’s community grazing rights date to the reign of King Jaime I in 1272. Any individual who is officially resident in the village for more than 2 years has the right to graze summer pastures for a minimal fee of 2 euros per sheep for the entire summer. Specific summer grazing areas known as puertos are allocated to stockgrowers by each village’s livestock association. If the amount of forage available exceeds the demand by village stockgrowers, the excess is sold to herders from other villages or regions at a higher price. The availability and affordability of these rich natural pastures historically drove the region’s mountain livestock industry and remain a major driver today. The two valleys’ differing terrain influences their use of land and favoured species of livestock. The steepness of Ansó valley makes cultivation of hay and crops impossible. Thus, Ansó historically favoured sheep production and was renowned for its fine-wool local sheep breed, the Ansotana. The broader Hecho valley allows for hayfields, making it more favourable for cattle, although both villages raise both types of livestock, as well as smaller numbers of goats and horses. Here, we focus on sheep transhumance, because today, only sheep operators practise long-distance (> 100 km) transhumance on foot.
Figure 2 illustrates the two most common transhumant routes used by the interviewed herders. Residents of Ansó and Hecho practise “descending” transhumance, as their home villages are located in the Pyrenees and they descend to the Ebro River valley in the winter. The western route descends from the valley of Ansó and crosses the pre-Pyrenees mountains to an agricultural area known as Cinco Villas. The eastern route follows the Río Aragón Subordán down the valley of Hecho, passes the impressive rock formations of the Mayos de Riglos, and concludes in the region of Monegros (Fig. 3). The shepherds mostly follow established drove roads (cañadas and veredas), which sometimes overlap with paved roads and sometimes are little more than rough trails through the mountains (Fig. 4). Although the government is legally obliged to maintain these stock drove roads (vías pecuarias), transhumants frequently complain about the poor conditions of the drove roads. Each transhumance by foot operation takes a slightly different approach. The largest operator relies on the unpaid assistance of friends and relatives, in addition to a hired herder. The shepherd and helpers spend the night camping alongside the flock, which they enclose within a portable electric fence each evening. Other transhumants by foot leave their penned flocks under the watch of guard dogs overnight and return to their villages to sleep. All of the transhumants by foot have one person who drives a truck and trailer behind the herd, to carry food and camping equipment and to pick up weak or lame animals along the way. Three of the five transhumants interviewed spend the winter in a different village, near their winter grazing areas in Cinco Villas or Monegros, living in a rented apartment or a family-owned house. One had an arrangement where their rented winter grazing included a shepherd and one commuted daily from Hecho to their winter grazing place.