Romania, transhumance guardian of biodiversity

The traditional passage of shepherds and sheep tramples the ground but does not destroy biodiversity – rather, it creates spaces and opportunities to make animals, plants and even people more resilient. A researcher studied it in the lab and in the Romanian mountains where she grew up

“It is difficult to find someone in Romania who does not have a relative who is a shepherd, here transhumance is part of everyone’s life”. Roxana Mihaela Burbulea has no doubts about the importance of this activity in her country: she was surprised when she did not find Romanian Transylvania in the first list of transhumance areas to be protected drawn up by UNESCO.

She was born and raised there and speaks the shepherds’ language, thanks to her parents who insisted that she learn it, but she is also a researcher in Landscape Sciences at the University of Padua. The firmness of her words is not only linked to her origins; it has scientific evidence.

With over ten million  breeding sheep, Romania is home to the third largest sheep population in the EU. 70% of these animals are kept by small local breeders: no intensive methods, therefore, and there is even a national law  (Legea nr. 197/2018 to muntelui) that since 2018 officially recognises both the environmental and historical importance of transhumance.

“The climbs and descents from the mountains mark the time of the seasons, even in the cities, and on October 14, the day of Santa Parascheva, an incredible party is held to greet the end of summer”, says Burbulea.

Aware that memories are not enough, to bring out the value of these practices indisputably, the researcher has dedicated an entire scientific study  to “her” transhumance areas, which describes the benefits for those who practice it but also for European biodiversity.

Burbulea “traipsed” for three months through her mountains, meeting over fifty shepherds and thousands of sheep and dogs, and has documented their habits and traditions. She also made a documentary video, which transforms Romanian transhumance into the spokesperson for the European one.

More green corridors, more resilience

“This activity is fundamental for the creation and maintenance of ecological corridors, for natural areas and for the animals that live there. In addition to being a historical tradition, it contributes to the protection of European biodiversity,” explains Burbulea. It promotes the restoration of natural environments – which the European law  of the same name obliges all EU member states to start by 2030.

Thinking of enormous flocks trampling green areas, this is counterintuitive. However, the researcher assures that “the soil, being very fertile, has a high resistance, and the shepherds know what they are doing. They have always lived with this environment and have never destroyed it so far.”

What threatens the mountain environment in the areas affected by pastoralism is in fact something else. For example, the new road infrastructures that connect the territory: they literally cut off the path of shepherds and sheep, but in a less visible way they disturb many other forms of plant and animal biodiversity.

“It would be useful to preserve some passage strips to mitigate their impact, but European policies seem more attentive to intensive, more productive farming, and pay little attention to the needs of small farming – says Burbulea – despite its advantages being scientifically proven”.

By connecting different mountain areas and putting them in communication with urban areas, the ecological corridors traced by transhumance make the environment and those who live there more resilient, “mixing” species of different origins and characteristics.

Burbulea explains that “when animals from different environments come into contact, they become more resilient and biodiversity expands. Even the wool of sheep alone enriches us, transporting pollen from one area to another”.

During her three months of transhumance along the interrupted corridors, Burbulea saw that many herbivorous animals “are starting to suffer from the lack of biodiversity. If they decrease, their predators will look for food in indirect ways, for example by going to the cities”. Bears included.

Reinventing transhumance together

Having documented the environmental importance of transhumance and its social and cultural value, Burbulea returned from her trip more convinced than ever that the challenge has just begun, and that it must be faced together – shepherds, legislators and scientists.

“With the new dynamics and new risks that each territory has developed, including infrastructure, it is certainly necessary to rethink this tradition – says Burbulea – but not to erase it, and not to leave the burden of making it more sustainable to shepherds alone”.

She recalls some of those she met: some moved, some cynical, some bitter, but “all with an extreme love for their land, despite the great difficulties they are facing”, she explains, describing a widespread feeling of abandonment. “No one explains to us how we can manage ourselves better”, many have told her.

Others, however, have done like young apprentice Andrei:after school, during the summer, the young man would go up into the mountains with someone else's flock and now, at 17, he has bought his first two hundred sheep. This is not an isolated case: of all the shepherds Burbulea met on her way, at least a third were under 45, and almost all had a decent level of education.

Burbulea also met three women, including Maria, a "daughter of transhumance, from the Danube area to the Transylvanian Alps" - one of the many whose traditional route was cut off by a highway. Unable to oppose it, this woman found a way to take advantage of it, starting a tourist sheep farming business.

“She started by chance when, while she was cooking for herself, tourists began to show up at her mountain hut attracted by the authentic smell of her sheep, lamb and goat dishes,” Burbulea says. “Now she also sells the products of her flock of almost four thousand heads: the ability to react of this 65-year-old woman shows the key to the rediscovery of this activity.”

New European projects

The key word is “convert,” therefore, transforming traditional sheep farming and finding new mountain and strategic paths for it. This is what two European interregional projects dedicated to transhumance are also trying to explore, such as CAMBIO VIA  and  CAMBIO VIA pro , both supported by cohesion funds.

The first, completed in 2020, made the material and immaterial value of the transhumance areas of Tuscany, Liguria, Sardinia and Corsica more attractive and usable, connecting them through a network of tourist routes that allow environmental, economic and historical-cultural heritage to be intertwined "with doses at will".

The "pro" phase of the project, still ongoing, continues along the same path, aiming above all to protect the biodiversity that traditional agricultural and breeding practices enable, making rural communities more resilient to climate change.

The goal is to develop a cross-border Italy-France action plan by 2027 to introduce truly low environmental impact practices in the territories and to share good practices between the various transhumance areas throughout Europe, including Romania.

This material is published in the context of the project "Cohesion4Climate" co-funded by the European Union. The EU is in no way responsible for the information or views expressed within the framework of the project; the sole responsibility for the content lies with OBCT.