Paper short abstract:

Alpine pastures have become the focus of the media South Tyrol. This interest was triggered by the return of the wolf, drawing attention to an imbalance in the management of pastures. This paper deals with a group of shepherds who elude the mainstream discourse aiming to revitalize alpine pastures.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1980s, alpine pastures in South Tyrol (Italy) have increasingly become tourist resorts, while alpine dairymen, -women and shepherds have played only a marginal role. Herd animals such as sheep, goats and cattle became fewer and their economic role increasingly insignificant. The media rhetoric against the wolf was intended to cover up this imbalance. The shepherds I am working with rely on pastoral practices learned from their relatives, in the Italian lowlands and in Switzerland. They plea for a renewed professionalization of herding practices. This includes the understanding of their relationship with the environment and animals that is characterized by their sole human presence amidst livestock and predators in a harsh alpine mountain context. The practice of these shepherds is to stay with the herd and take care of it during daytimes, fencing it during night. To protect the herd, electric fences and herd protection dogs would also be needed, assets and tools provided with support from EU subsidies.

In my paper, I look at the relationship of these shepherds with their environment, domesticated herd animals, wild animals (eagles, vultures and wolves) and the alpine pastures. Their understanding of places and practices is embedded in a network of relationships that makes use of the technical possibilities and yet builds on an active dialogue with the animals. In this sense, the paper will shed light on the human and animal relationship networks that a renegotiated understanding of locality in the South Tyrolean Alps calls for.