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The important role of livestock pasture for biodiverse and sustainable mountains in Andorra

27.08.2020

Around mid August, every year, stockbreeders of Ordino, one of the highest parishes of the Principality of Andorra, celebrate a blessing of their animals. The breeders, around that date, transfer the livestock from the high pastures (Rabassa d’Ordino), where the herb has dried, towards the upper valleys, where the grass is still fresh, nutritious and enjoyable for the animals (Vall de Rialb).

In such occasion, the animals are blessed by the priest of Ordino, Mossen Joan Fenosa, and a lunch is celebrated, gathering the farmers with the local authorities, friends and relatives. Among the authorities, the Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Sustainability, Mrs Silvia Calvó, National Parliamentarians, Sandra Codina, Berna Coma, the Director of Agriculture Mr Josep Maria Casals, the Municipality Counsellor of Ordino in charge of Agriculture, Mr Eduard Betriu, and Mr Xavier Coma, President of the association of farmers and breeders, raisers, farmers, journalists all come by foot to the Vall de Rialb, preceding the livestock, to enjoy this moment in the late summer. It is a moment to contemplate and admire the good health and wellness of the animals (around 200 heads), and to realise that new generations have also taken this path of life.

This is one of the reasons why the authorities in charge of agriculture and livestock in Ordino have the desire to highlight the important role of the livestock in shaping the mountain landscape of Andorra and to preserve its biodiversity.  They would like to be able to quantify, through a field study, the beneficial impact of livestock breeding in the management of other sectors, such as forestry and biodiversity protection. Without the presence of the animals pasturing in high lands, the biodiversity of flora would be extremely different, while their free roaming and feeding does have a real influence on the biotopes and therefore also on the fauna biodiversity. The Vall of Rialb is located in a Natural Parc that ranges an extremely high biodiversity (Parc Natural de Sorteny).

Animal husbandry and the traditional pasture system developed in Andorra is a fine example of how mountain communities, whilst working within important biophysical constraints, have been able to adapt to those limits. By interacting with natural resources available in very specific climatic conditions, they have also shaped the landscape through the research of viable sources of livelihood, enhancing all the way the biodiversity and conservation of the land, developing a unique social organisation and communities who chose to live and stay in the mountains where they were born.

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News and photo from Patricia Quillacq