Grazing Communities

Pastoralism on the Move and Biocultural Heritage Frictions

Letizia Bindi, Letizia Bindi

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781800734760
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Kultur- & Sozialanthropologie

Pastoralism is a diffused and ancient form of human subsistence and probably one of the most studied by anthropologists at the crossroads between continuities and transformations. The present critical discourse on sustainable and responsible development implies a change of practices, a huge socio-economic transformation, and the return of new shepherds and herders in different European regions. Transhumance and extensive breeding are revitalized as a potential resource for inner and rural areas of Europe against depopulation and as an efficient form of farming deeply influencing landscape and functioning as a perfect eco-system service. This book is an occasion to reconsider grazing communities' frictions in the new global heritage scenario.

PART I

Pastoralism as a Biocultural Heritage?

CHAPTER 1

Transhumance in Greece

Multifunctionality as an Asset for Sustainable Development

Athanasios Ragkos

Introduction

Sheep and goat transhumance (SGT) describes the seasonal movement of flocks between specific summer and winter domiciles, with the key objective to take advantage of natural vegetation in highland rangelands during summer and of mild weather conditions in the lowlands during winter (Nyssen et al. 2009). Therefore, transhumance is a specific form of “pastoralism,” as it is based on grazing natural vegetation (Farinella, Nori, and Ragkos 2017), but differs from “nomadism,” because flocks perform circular predefined movements (Vallerand 2014). It is also a multifunctional production system as it produces a wide range of goods and services jointly with food (milk, meat, and dairy products, etc.).

The multifunctional character of SGT provides important contributions towards sustainable and inclusive development and provides significant ecosystem services (D’Ottavio et al. 2018). The socioeconomic role of SGT is of utmost importance for mountainous/marginal/inland areas where the economic activity is not sufficiently diversified. SGT has been the main/only economic activity for centuries, and today it is still an important source of income even in communities in which other sectors have emerged (Farinella et al. 2017). In addition, SGT protects rural livelihoods, reducing depopulation of marginal and remote areas and is in fact critical for maintaining life and productivity in the more marginal and fragile territories of the Mediterranean region. Tailored to local conditions, SGT plays a vital environmental role by enhancing biodiversity and providing ecosystem services (Varela and Robles-Cruz 2016; D’Ottavio et al. 2018). In a variety of Mediterranean settings, transhumant systems make efficient use of natural resources and have shaped unique natural landscapes (Caballero et al. 2009), while also protecting genetic diversity by rearing autochthonous breeds. In addition, pastoral systems effectively mitigate climate change effects (e.g., soil carbon stock in rangelands) towards ecosystem resilience. The cultural heritage of SGT and the heterogeneity of its sociocultural contributions have characterized territories up to now: tacit knowledge concerning the functioning of local ecosystems, farm and land management; habits and customs; traditions, norms and tacit rules; processing skills. SGT in Greece, Italy, and Austria was recently included on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO 2021).

The European Union has addressed the issues related to the multifunctionality of agricultural and livestock production systems through a broad array of policy measures. Since the accession of Greece in the European Union (EU) in 1981 the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been applied, replacing all previous national agricultural policies. The CAP generally uses two types of policy tools available to all farmers in the EU, as described in Regulations and Directives, which are generally referred to as first-pillar and second-pillar policies. The former type includes all the measures that provide income support to EU farmers, either in the form of coupled subsidies to production and/or to cultivated land and animals reared or of direct payments, such as the Single Farm Payment and decoupled payments. The latter policies support rural development and provide financial incentives to farmers who wish to ameliorate their performance and competitiveness; to undertake commitments regarding their production practices; or to supply society with particular environmental and social services. These payments include agri-environmental and mountainous areas payments, financial support for investments of various types and other types of structural measures. However, it has been documented that, in Europe, pastoral systems share common challenges which are poorly addressed by the current policy framework (Ragkos and Nori 2016).

Transhumance in Greece has been examined by several authors from a rather broad range of disciplines. The available literature can be categorized into two types. The first approaches transhumance from an ethnological point of view (Nitsiakos 1995) and examines its historic evolution (Gkoltsiou 2011; Ntassiou, Doukas, and Karatassiou 2015). These studies present various aspects of the life and social structure of transhumant societies in the past, the evolution of the system under volatile historic and economic conditions, and the process of integration of nomadic and transhumant communities within the modern Greek society. A part of these studies considers the sheep and goat farming systems currently prevailing in the country (extensive or semi-intensive sedentary systems) as the natural evolution of animal production systems (for instance Hadjigeorgiou 2011). The second type of studies examines transhumance in terms of its ecological and environmental implications (Sidiropoulou et al. 2015; Sklavou et al. 2017) or evaluates its economic performance (Galanopoulos et al. 2011; Ragkos, Siasiou, et al. 2014) and management practices (Gidarakou and Apostolopoulos1995; Siasiou et al. 2018). Since the sector is undergoing a modernization process and is struggling to integrate to market conditions without compromising its traditional elements, the studies of the second type are actually gaining increasing attention.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an outline of the Greek sheep and goat transhumance sector. In particular, detailed structural data of the system are presented, which demonstrate its dynamics across the country. Then, the actual operation of the system is described in detail, focusing on the particularities of SGT regarding the management of the three basic production factors (land, labor, capital). The chapter closes with a critical presentation of the main problems of the system that hinder its development and of measures to increase its dynamics and potential.

The Structure of Sheep and Goat Transhumance in Greece

In Greece there are currently two different types of transhumances with notable differences. The first involves cattle and the second, sheep and goats. Cattle transhumance is becoming increasingly popular, as it is supported heavily through the implementation of CAP Pillar I measures (Koutsou, Ragkos, and Karatassiou 2019) and has considerably lower requirements in human labor and capital. These characteristics render extensive bovine production an alluring alternative to sheep and goat transhumance, and it is thus being expanded in recent years, standing, however for no more than 6.5 percent of total cattle raised in Greece (Ragkos et al. 2013). Nevertheless, this chapter focuses on sheep and goat transhumance, which has played a significant role in socioeconomics for decades.

Compared to data from previous decades, sheep and goat transhumance has shown a decline in Greece. However, during the last thirty years the population of transhumant small ruminants has remained stable while the number of farms is decreasing, which indicates the formation of larger, viable farms. This structural evolution has been interpreted as a shrinkage of the system, and sheep and goat transhumance has been considered as a system of trivial importance. In the general context of support for the intensification of the Greek farming sector—which was further strengthened by EU CAP policies—SGT was ignored as an anachronistic system of little market potential and unable to support the modernization of the Greek farming sector. Nevertheless, available data show that this is not the case.

Collecting data about transhumance in Greece is not an easy task for two reasons: one, the lack of cohesive statistical databases, and, two, the multiple facets of the system in Greece. Based on processed data originally retrieved from the Greek Payment Authority of CAP Aid Schemes (OPEKEPE) for the year 2011 (THALES 2015), SGT is practiced in most parts of Greece by 3,051 farms, and transhumant sheep and goats account for almost 7.5 percent of the national flock. The center of SGT is Thessaly where 805 farms (26.4 percent) rear almost 338 thousand animals (33 percent), closely followed by Central Greece with a slightly lower number of farms (787, 25.8 percent) and a significantly lower transhumant sheep and goat population (214 thousand, 20.9 percent). Peloponnese, in the southern mainland part of the country, is ranked third (19.7 percent of farms, 16.8 percent of animals), followed by Epirus in the western part, Macedonia and Thrace in the north, and the islands, including the island of Crete. Compared to statistical data quoted by Syrakis (1925), the percentage of farms spending winter in Thessaly is almost stable (28 percent in 1924) but the percentage of farms in Central Greece and Peloponnese was much lower in 1924 (10.1 percent and 13.6 percent respectively). Since the 1960s, the contribution of transhumant sheep and goats to the national flock has been reduced from 30 percent to 7.5 percent (Hatziminaoglou 2004). In the summer, almost all mountainous areas of the country are grazed, to some extent, by transhumant small ruminants. Southern parts of the country (Peloponnese and Central Greece) are home to almost 42 percent of transhumant flocks during summer accounting for 34 percent of SGT. Nonetheless, more than 26 percent of the transhumant sheep and goat population move to Macedonia during summer, especially in the western mountainous areas of Pindos.

The average size of transhumant farms as well as the importance of sheep and goats vary across regions. The average farm size is 335.5 sheep and goats, with smaller flocks prevailing in southern mainland regions (with average sizes of 272.3 and 286.5 animals in Central Greece and Peloponnese respectively), and relatively larger flocks in the northern parts: 419.8 animals per farm in Thessaly, 387.0 animals per farm in Macedonia, 333.9 animals per farm in Thrace. Sheep farms prevail in the central regions of the country yet the importance of goat farming is escalating. In Peloponnese, goat farms correspond to about 28 percent of the total—as they are well adapted to the rocky pastures of its southern part—while in Crete the percentage of mixed farms is very important (41 percent). In Macedonia the majority of farms are mixed or rear goats exclusively. The size of the average goat farm is significantly higher than the average sheep farm, both at the country level (403.3 animals versus 280.2) and at the regional level, with the exception of Crete.

Considering the distances of movements SGT flocks, “trasterminance” is the prevailing type (56.6 percent of all sheep and goat mobilities), which is also the case in Italy, as pointed out by Pardini and Nori (2011). Movements of up to 100 km are more common for the central/west part of the country and Peloponnese. Remote movements of over 100 km flocks—which usually exceed the conventional boundaries of Regional Units or Region—are the most typical in the eastern part of Thessaly and also very common in Etoloakarnania in the western part of Central Greece. Very remote movements exceeding 200 km and up to 350 km are also common to the central part of the country, of which the most interesting are those of flocks whose winter domiciles are in the capital district of Attica, around the urban web of Athens.

In the last decades, movements with trucks are the established means, especially in cases of movement over 100 km, but even for shorter distances; only short local movements are still performed on foot throughout the country. According to a survey of a sample of 551 transhumant farms, 27 percent of them moved on foot, 65 percent used trucks and 8 percent used both means (Lagka et al. 2015). Changing lifestyles and integration to the market economy with intensification trends are some of the reasons behind this shift. With truck movements, farmers achieve considerable time savings and higher milk production, but renting trucks is sometimes costly, especially under reduced liquidity and low revenues when product prices are low (Ragkos, Karatasiou et al. 2016). For this reason, in the last decade a “return” to movements on foot has been seen, reviving old transhumance routes (for road distances over 100 km), especially when returning to winter domiciles, where the downhill road and the fact that the animals are not milked make the movement easier, quicker, and more comfortable.

SGT in Greece in general is predominantly for milk production (dairy ewes). According to the results of a technical and economic analysis on a sample of sheep and goat transhumant farms in the region of Thessaly (Ragkos, Siasiou et al. 2014), milk was by far the most important product of transhumant flocks (56.4 percent), with an average milk yield of 96 kg/ewe(dam)/year. Siasiou, Galanopoulos, and Laga (2020) reported 97.45 kg/ewe(dam)/year for the whole country based on a sample of 551 farms, which is substantially lower than for other production systems. For instance, milk production in intensive farms rearing Chios-breed sheep was 226 kg/ewe/year (Theodoridis et al. 2012) and 218.6 kg/ewe/year in semi-extensive sheep farms in northeastern Greece (Ragkos, Koutsou, and Manousidis 2016). For goat farms, Gelasakis et al. (2017) reported an annual yield of 207±115.3 kg/goat/year in mainland Greece. Meat was also an important source of income (28.3 percent) while on-farm transformation of milk (cheese production) was of low importance for the overall income of the average farm (4.9 percent) because this activity is restricted to only a few farms. The farm income was supplemented through subsidies (10.4 percent).

Aspects of Management of Transhumant Flocks in Greece: Modernization and Tradition

SGT has not remained unaffected by the general trend for intensification in the Greek livestock sector (Ragkos, Koutsou et al. 2016; Karanikolas and Martinos 2012). The sector has developed a dualistic pattern, being (semi-)intensive in winter and (semi-)extensive in summer, with more use of concentrates for animal nutrition and modern buildings and machinery. This intensification has not altered, however, its predominantly traditional character. This can be seen in more detail based on previous research (Ragkos, Siasiou et al. 2014; Lagka et al. 2014; Siasiou et al. 2014; Galanopoulos et al. 2011; Loukovitis et al. 2016). The management practices of transhumant farms have been evolving through time and continue to adapt to technological advances. Indeed, SGT typically incorporates traditional elements appropriately adapted to today, along with practices that can be characterized as innovative.

Depending on soil and climatic conditions as well as local habits, management practices of transhumant farms vary across the country. In the northern and central areas (Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly, Epirus, and Central Greece), the movement to the mountains starts in May and the flocks remain there for four to five months, returning to the lowlands usually by the end of October. In southern areas—parts of Central Greece and Northern Peloponnese as well as on Aegean islands—the stay in the mountains can be longer (from late April until mid-November), while in southern Peloponnese and Crete the weather conditions in the mountains are milder and flocks may graze there up to eight to nine months every year. An important characteristic of SGT in Greece is that in most cases the family moves along with the flock in the highlands when the distance between the lowlands and the highlands is not small.

The lives of transhumant farmers are intertwined with the needs of their flocks. The production period starts with the birth season of sheep in November. By that time, flocks in northern Greece are already in the lowlands, while in southern Greece it is not uncommon that births take place in the highlands. The weaning period lasts about forty-five days so that lambs are sold to markets before Christmas, in order to profit from higher meat prices. The birth season of goats and of ewes at first lambing takes place by the end of February or early March, to meet the high demand for meat during the Easter period.

On Christmas—or soon after—the milking season begins. Typically, animals are milked twice and—more rarely—three times a day. The milking period usually lasts for six to seven months—most commonly until late July—which means that animals are milked regularly during their stay in the mountains for about two months. Regarding nutrition, animals graze and/or are fed indoors, depending on weather conditions. In northern and central parts of the country, animals are kept indoors almost exclusively from November until March, and only by early spring do animals start to graze in natural or cropped pastures. In southern parts animals may graze throughout the year, depending however on weather conditions and the availability of rangelands. In the highlands, animals are fed exclusively in natural rangelands freely throughout the day or under the supervision of shepherds, if predators are present. The period from August to the beginning of October is the most relaxed for transhumant farmers, as they do not milk or feed the animals, until they start their return to lowland communities.

Sheep and goat transhumance in Greece exhibit important particularitie...