După coada oilor: long-distance transhumance and its survival in Romania

Caroline Juler

doi:10.1186/2041-7136-4-4

Abstract

Long-distance transhumance still exists in Romania, but is becoming increasingly rare. This article gives some of the reasons why the phenomenon arose, why it has survived for so long and what are the main threats to its continuation. It attempts to show how deeply ingrained pastoralism is in Romanian culture. After giving a historical and geographical perspective on the practice, the article focusses on four transhumant families from an area which is famous for its shepherding skills. The area's name is Mărginimea Sibiului and it lies in the southern Carpathian Mountains. One family from the village of Jina is singled out for particular attention. The article looks at how this family manages its sheep, its hired shepherds and its journeys between seasonal pastures. It assesses the economic viability of sheep farming in Romania and the pros and cons of walking sheep over long distances, outlining some of the social, cultural and environmental benefits which would be lost if transhumance were no longer practised.

Highlights

După coada oilor, or ‘going on the road’, is a term that Romanian sheep farmers and hired shepherds use to describe long-distance walks with their flocks between summer and winter pastures
The World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP under the International Union for Conservation of Nature), the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism, the Spanish Asociación Transhumancia y Naturaleza, and a Polish initiative are a few of the organisations dedicated to promoting transhumance because of its role in nature conservation, environmental health, food quality and cultural traditions
By retracing a medieval droving route which is known to have existed between these two points since the fourteenth century, Carpathian Sheep Transhumance (2013) highlighted the value of traditional pastoralism in developing the Slow Food Movement

Summary

Background

‘going on the road’, is a term that Romanian sheep farmers and hired shepherds use to describe long-distance walks with their flocks between summer and winter pastures. Quoting the Romanian Center for European Policies, he says: ‘...agriculture is one of the most important economic sectors in Romania. The historian Deletant (2010) points out that ‘Collectivization was completed in 1962, and its results put 60 percent of the total area of fifteen million hectares of agricultural land in collective farms, 30 percent in state farms, and left 9 percent in private hands. Deletant ends his review with a quote that is highly relevant to the attitudes which policy-makers take towards sheep farmers and shepherds: ‘“seven million peasants, who barely reach subsistence levels, have no idea of the difference between the political right and left, and buy on average a single toothbrush in a lifetime, pose a development problem not just for Romania, but for the European Union [EU] in general. Poland and Russia were other powerful neighbours that threatened Romanians' sovereignty, and raids by Crimean Tatars were common until 1717 (Boia 2001, pp. 11–27; Juler 2009, pp. 41–49, 306)

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