Common and conflicting objectives and practices of herders and conservation managers: the need for a conservation herder

Abstract

The mutual dependence of extensive land-use and conservation management has become apparent in Europe in the last 20-30 yr. Extensive land-use often survives in protected areas only, in the form of conservation management. Knowledge of extensive herding and that of conservation management are parts of two knowledge systems (traditional and scientific) which often leads to conflicts between locals and conservationists. We studied two herding/conservation systems (salt steppes and wood-pastures), and developed an inventory on the common/similar and conflicting/different objectives and pasture management practices of herders and conservationists. Data were collected by participatory knowledge co-production in teamwork of the co-authors (herders, conservation managers, and scientists). Data were analyzed and discussed in teamwork too. Herders and conservationists identified 23 objectives and 29 management practices. We found a number of common interests with respect to herding, the ideal state of pastures, legal provisions, and communication. Conflict resolution recommendations (e.g., on time and place of grazing, pasture improvements) were also developed. We argue that by co-production of knowledge, and establishment of a herder "school" the mitigation of the existing conflicts would be more effective. Our conclusion is that a new profession is needed: that of the conservation herder. The conservation herder shall be an individual knowledgeable about herding and pasture management, trained in conservation and ecology, able to design management experiments, and develop novel but tradition-based management practices. As such, he/she could facilitate adaptation of extensive herding in the changing socio-economic environment.

Wolf and Bear Depredation on Livestock in Northern Sweden 1827–2014: Combining History, Ecology and Interviews

“…Swedish summer farmers can be seen as pockets of local and traditional knowledge, in the sense that their community remains true to their traditional ways, comparable to the Spanish farmers described by Gómez-Baggethun et al [71]. Similar traditional pastoral knowledge in the Pyrenees has been described by Fernández-Giménez and Estaque [72] and from Hungary by Molnár [41,42]. Conditions at the summer farms have gone through substantial environmental changes through history, among others the decline and later increase of carnivores.…”

“…The herding practices indicate the use of practical experience-based knowledge, not only about handling livestock and knowing the grazing grounds, but also about the behavior of carnivores and how to protect the livestock [5,7,[40][41][42]. Ethnological initiatives from the early twentieth century have contributed to the written documentation of such knowledge in Sweden [9,43].…”

“…At summer farms with an unbroken tradition of keeping livestock, the knowledge complex on taking care of livestock, maintaining the grazing grounds and processing milk has been in continuous use. However, like the practices of Hungarian [41,42] and Spanish [24,47,48] sheep herders, the knowledge of Swedish summer farmers has also constantly adapted to changing socio-ecological environments. Carnivores represent one such changing environmental condition.…”

“…New local and traditional knowledge can evolve in response to changing environments and also merge with other existing forms of knowledge as part of the adaptive process, thus creating new and refined knowledge systems when needed [41,42,48,71]. In this study area, as the carnivores increased the summer farmers learned again to protect their livestock.…”

Using traditional ecological knowledge in discovery of rare plants: a case study from Turkey

“…Traditional ecological knowledge could help understand which practices are appropriate for which species. Local people are increasingly aware of the goals of nature conservation which may lead to new types of cooperation and knowledge coproduction between locals and botanists/conservationists (see, e.g., the case of the "conservation herder" [40]). …”