Abstract
Transhumant pastoralism has moulded the Pyrenean landscape for thousands of years. Ancient forests have ceded their dominance to verdant pastures that, today, symbolise the mountains; ‘wild’ life has ceded its historical presence to domesticated livestock. Now, the mountains are undergoing a process of rewilding: charismatic large predators have returned. A contested (re)introduction programme has reinforced the brown bear population, and natural agency has encouraged grey wolves to remake the Pyrenees their home. Conservationists and environmentalists argue that Pyrenean pastoralism has historically coexisted with large predators, and should simply (re)adapt its methods and practices to revalorise and reinvigorate a broader return to a once-present, but suppressed, level of biological and cultural diversity. On the other hand, far from imagining a more resilient natural and cultural landscape, pastoralists view these changes as a threat to their livelihood and identity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I explore these complex and conflicting interspecific relationships. I argue that conservation management programmes must seek interdisciplinary collaboration with social science in order to more profoundly understand the human and cultural implications of biocultural diversity.
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Notes
- 1.
From an anthropological perspective, wilderness is also knowable through mystique and magic which interact with otherwise ‘natural’ elements in ways that challenge nature-culture dichotomies. A discussion on such alternative epistemologies is beyond the scope of this chapter.
- 2.
This particular aspect is very disturbing to me, for it is becoming the de facto essence of dominant climate change and conservation discourse.
- 3.
“Casseurs” (from the verb “casser” which means “to break”) is the name given to radical protesters who often join peaceful demonstrations with the single purpose of precipitating riot conditions, which often result in cars being burned and widespread looting of local businesses.
- 4.
Imagine a flock of 1500 sheep, owned by ten different farmers. The dominant farmer own one-third of the total, but a very small-scale farmer has only 60 sheep. A bear attack results in 30 sheep being killed, of whom, 15 belong to the small-scale farmer. In this case, recounted to me by a shepherd, this particular farmer lost 25 % of his flock.
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Knight, T. (2016). Rewilding the French Pyrenean Landscape: Can Cultural and Biological Diversity Successfully Coexist?. In: Agnoletti, M., Emanueli, F. (eds) Biocultural Diversity in Europe. Environmental History, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26315-1_10
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