Paper Short Abstract:

Nomadic multi-species herds in Northeast Italy navigate unstable landscapes, shaping and co-creating ecosystems as they move through diverse terrains. This paper explores how these herds engage with rapidly changing environments, contributing to reimagining landscapes and challenging anthropocentric narratives.

Paper Abstract:

Nomadic pastoralism has been practised in the Friuli, Veneto and Trentino regions of north-eastern Italy for over 2000 years. Today, the three regions are home to several dozen large herds, each consisting of more than a thousand sheep, some goats, donkeys, dogs, herdsmen and women, shepherds' assistants and occasionally birds, insects, bacteria and viruses. These nomadic multi-species assemblages travel long distances in search of grass, and as they make their way through different landscapes and ecosystems, they leave their marks and traces - visual, acoustic and olfactory. Along the routes, the herds cross fallow agricultural land, suburban and industrial areas, nature reserves, scrubland, riverbeds and mountain pastures, actively shaping and co-creating them. They develop a distinctive perception and ability to read landscapes, tuned by their intimate knowledge and constant observation of changes as they move across different terrains. Their wayfinding responds not only to ecological rhythms, but also to local administrations and bureaucracies, national laws, European agricultural and conservation policies, global market pressures and the accelerating effects of climate change.

Drawing on ethnographic data collected while travelling with different herds over the past two years, my paper explores how multi-species nomadic herds engage with, co-create and narrate the rapidly changing landscapes and ecosystems of the lowlands and highlands of north-eastern Italy. In doing so, my paper contributes to the panel's call for a reimagining of landscapes and ecosystems that embraces the complexities and non-human interconnections of nomadic herds and challenges anthropocentric narratives.