By Marcos Pradas
This story provides updates to the IUCN Guidelines Case Study titled The Spanish National Network of Drover’s Roads (Vías Pecuarias).
The Royal Drover’s Road of Cuenca (Cañada Real de Cuenca) © https://www.lifecanadas.es/trashumancia-y-canadas/
Mobile pastoralism provides numerous benefits for sustaining nature. The Spanish system of drover’s roads provides a good model for sustainable development and conserving ecological connectivity: lessons learned that could apply to other countries. Many Spanish droves – routes for moving livestock – are taking over the ecological role of extinct megafauna migration routes. In fact, post-glacial wild migration routes seem to overlap with current droves. More than 7000 years of transhumance (a period beginning shortly after the end of the last Glacial Period) make droves an integral part of the ecosystems they traverse. Furthermore, active and abandoned droves can be turned into formal ecological corridors since they’re always legally protected. In Spain, the 42/2007 Natural Heritage Act states that the connecting function of vías pecuarias is a priority for conservation.
Since we published The Spanish National Network of Drover’s Roads (Vías Pecuarias) in 2020 as part of the IUCN Guidelines for conserving connectivity, the science, research, and conservation of drover’s roads has advanced along several fronts. Nearly every month, there are new developments for Spanish droveways, mobile pastoralism, and their environmental services. It’s an ongoing project that involves raising public awareness of the real importance of this heritage, both inside and outside Spain. Here, we would like to share a number of important updates:
1. Transhumance, the seasonal droving of livestock along migratory routes in the Mediterranean and in the Alps, entered UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (No. 01470).
2. A new European LIFE Project (LIFE Cañadas) is enhancing drover’s roads for connecting Nature and for enhancing their multifunctionality.
3. Scientists used genetics to demonstrate the role of drover’s roads as ecological corridors. The authors found connectivity benefits for both dispersion and pollination. Their work is presented in the journal PeerJ under the title “Herbivore corridors sustain genetic footprint in plant populations: a case for Spanish drove roads.”
4. The University of Valladolid found evidence for the first confirmed transhumance in Europe, dating it back to the Neolithic, some 7300-7500 years ago. This work was published in a PLOSOne paper and summarized by El País.
5. Catalina Gómez won the 2019 OIE Photo Competition of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) with his photo-report about transhumance activities in Spain.
6. One of the last Spanish transhumant horse herds, which was nearly extinct ten years ago, now has a future again. Local communities and institutions are helping and requesting this transhumance to: Control invasive species (mainly Arundo donax); fight wildfires; reverse the clogging of freshwater wetlands by the vegetation; maintain the drover’s ways and their biodiversity; maintain a green corridor; and conserve cultural heritage. See additional news coverage or read more in El Heraldo.
7. Filmmakers from Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera and Universidad de Murcia produced a beautiful and informative documentary (in Spanish) about the cultural and ecological benefits of transhumance in Spain.
As demonstrated in the IUCN Guidelines case studies, connectivity conservation can take many forms. Drover’s roads, and the connectivity that they sustain, are unique in their historical, cultural, and ecological significance. As these updates show, efforts in Spain are ongoing to conserve these special places and the benefits they provide to people and the landscape.
This Royal Droveway is being improved as an ecological corridor in a highly important Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) zone in Sevilla, Spain. Many drover’s roads are multifunctional or are integrated into PAs, or adapted as ecological corridors. © Marcos Pradas
About the Author: Marcos Pradas
Born in Spain and Universal citizen at heart, I’ve become a ranger (terrestrial and maritime patrol) as my lifelong vocation demanded it. Being a forest engineer with two MSCs and a science buff, I volunteer with IUCN and several NGOs. My main focuses are Mediterranean seagrasses and ecological corridors.
Questions about this story?
Contact: Reconnecting Nature through Drover’s Ways (LIFE Project): Department of Ecology Autonomous University of Madrid: coordinacion@lifecanadas.es
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