Extensive farming and transhumance

Photographer : Josep Marti Fornons

Location : Place CEGERDEV

Spanish photographer born in 1971 in Almenar, Josep Marti-Fornons was trained as a television cameraman. He studied photography and film in Barcelona. In 2010, he won the “Man and the Environment” contest under the Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay and published his first book “Pastores” (shepherds). He worked previously on various documentary projects (television and film in Spain).

Transhumance paths have served as a means of communication for residents all over the Iberian Peninsula, especially in Spain. They were once the trade routes of products and culture, beyond the migration of animals. Thus, the pastoral paths (drailles) act as ecological corridors, linking areas of great ecological interest and promoting the biodiversity of flora and fauna.

Traditional pastoral practices are adapted to the cycles of nature. The hardiness of different breeds of, sheep, goats and cattle, allows them to travel along these difficult routes. Instinct guides the animals. During the length of the path, the landscapes change becoming more mountainous. We discover a land shaped by extensive farming and transhumance : the Pyrenees in Catalonia, Aragon and in Navarre, the grain fields, the salt and the mountain.

Nowadays, transhumance has changed with new vehicles and means of communication, but the spirit of these migrations on foot stays the same. Although the busy world of today defies traditional transhumance, sheep, cows and shepherds will go again in another year and face the draille.

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