Women shepherds in the Pyrenees Mountains, Spain
This case study is located in the Pyrenees mountains, in the cross-border region between Spain and France. This region provides a case for examining the social-ecological system of communal management of land pastures and forests focused on the particular role of women shepherds, artisans of cheese and wool, within the system. This mountain region is a remote and marginalized environment, disproportionately vulnerable to climate change. Land tenure regimes are complex and communal land has different types of governance regimes in different counties of the Pyrenees. Traditional and novel institutional arrangements, such as communal land access and use, innovative multiple scale networks and cooperative systems influence changes in power, gendered management of environment and decision spaces. Yet, the role of women in decision-making processes in the management of communal land has not yet been investigated. A life history approach is applied to better understand the socio-cultural and ecological heritage of agri-pastoralist systems in the Pyreness, and the role and agency of women within these systems.