Mountain Transhumance under social-ecological transformations

Abstract/Description

Natural or cultural resources, such as water and grazing land, are shared by many people in so called “Commons”. Due to their high substitutability and the difficulty of excluding them, it is difficult to find sustainable management strategies, a situation summarized by “Tragedy of the Commons.” However, studies have shown that resource users can organize themselves to prevent overuse of common resources. Establishing effective local institutions that organize access and regulate harvesting practices is essential to utilize resources over a long period of time.

As part of the interdisciplinary project RESILIENT RULES, this research focuses on a case study to better understand rules and norms that agricultural communities use to govern shared resources. It aims to examine such diversity’s spatial and temporal patterns and understand its contribution to long-term resilience under global changes. Therefore, we investigate the agricultural community/ Agrargemeinschaft in the Ötztal valley as one of 52 case studies performed globally within the project. To do so we use the theoretical framework “Governing the commons” developed by Elinor Ostrom. In this concept, different design principles are applied, which ensure equal rights and responsibilities of actors in communities for managing resources. Governance here is understood as a negotiating process between various actors on multi-layered levels. Using the analysis method of the “Taxonomy of Rules”, the different types of rules of the common management cases are analyzed regarding their adaptability, flexibility, and resilience in responding to dynamic environments.
In our case study in the Ötztal valley, a remote mountain valley in the southern part of Tyrol, Austria, we carried out 6 semi-structured interviews with farmers. The agricultural community is historically organized as a so-called Agrargemeinschaft, meaning that agricultural land, such as grazing land, summer pastures (Almen) are collectively governed. The transhumance system is one example of how local actors still today manage livestock farming on common lands. Our research contributes to the understanding of historically developed and still actively shaped governance structures of Commons which are crucial for the resilience and sustainable resource management of fragile mountain communities.