The Shepherds Challenge

In order for the Church to impact this world with the good news of Jesus, we are going to have to take on the very character of Christ - the heart of a shepherd.
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The comparative analysis of TRAMed data and information needs to be further elaborated, the aim of this article being to present indicative trends and dynamics, with the goal of inspiring a debate and collecting contributions from other colleagues on these themes.

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Overall today, more than one-third of the officially employed agricultural workforce in Italy, Spain and Greece is of foreign origin Caruso and Corrado, Table 1 — Recent demographic trends in the Euro-Mediterranean countryside. This is the case in livestock farming, where the presence of the foreign workforce is increasing in both quantitative and qualitative terms.

With their commitment and know-how, these immigrant workers allow EUMed livestock productions to remain at a level of global excellence. In Italy, for example, immigrants make a strategic contribution to the value chains of Parmesan, Fontina and Pecorino cheeses. Although such contributions have been appreciated to an extent for intensive livestock production Lum, ; INEA, , extensive livestock farming has not attracted much academic attention, despite its relevance throughout the region.

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Such systems make it possible to exploit and manage the natural resources of marginal territories with agro-ecological characteristics that make agricultural intensification difficult. Pastoral flocks represent a significant proportion of livestock production in the Mediterranean, especially when it comes to small ruminants, which is the domain of concern for TRAMed. In the Mediterranean, the breeding of sheep and goats is often associated with the practice of transhumance, the seasonal mobility of flocks — mountain pastures during the summer and coastal areas or valley bottoms in winter times.

This system assists in making the best use of the agro-ecological diversity, as well as of the marked seasonality in the region, in complementarity with sedentary agricultural activities. Picture 1 — Traditional areas of pastoralism in the Mediterranean. Despite the lack of precise references, it can be assumed that at least two-thirds of the EUMed small ruminant flocks take advantage of open grazing during a significant period of the year Nori and Marchi, Picture 2 - Evolution of the number and size of flocks in the sheep meat industry in France over about two decades , including extensive and intensive farms.


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As elsewhere, the polarisation of agricultural development has widened the gap between the intensification of agricultural production in the plains and coastal zones and a gradual abandonment of marginal areas Gertel and Breuer, For pastoralism, a practice forged to produce in marginal ecosystems, it is obviously difficult to be competitive inside parameters defined solely by productivity performance. The recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy CAP have shifted the focus of public support and rural welfare towards a multifunctional vision of agriculture; in such a context, pastoralists are increasingly asked to play their part in managing natural resources in marginal settings and maintaining landscapes and to contribute to stabilising the population and enhancing socio-economic development in difficult areas Nori and Gemini, ; Beaufoy and Ruiz-Mirazo, At present, CAP support and subsidies play a significant role in the budgets of pastoral farms.

Without this support, sheep and goats would have already disappeared in many places, with significant consequences for the livelihoods and the landscapes of marginal rural areas. The role of this public policy is essential to keep these territories populated and productive Pastomed, , although this does not seem to be enough to guarantee the permanence and the reproduction of these systems, as the decrease in operators seems to attest. Despite the extensive characterisation of pastoralism, the work of the shepherd is intense and encompasses both physical labour and technical and managerial skills, ranging from climatology and botany to animal physiology and health, ethnology of predators, etc.

Through this restructuring, the working and living conditions of shepherds have hardly improved in the face of a significant increase in their tasks and responsibilities. Similar findings about the difficulties related to youth engagement can also be found in the reports of several projects Domestic, Thales, ReThink , academic works Kasimis, ; Nadal et al.

France is a notable exception in the Mediterranean context in terms of being an enabling environment for extensive livestock farming: The labour conditions, rights and wage levels are significantly higher here than in other countries in the region. It is the outcome of years of political struggle, as well as social and economic investments.

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In France, an important process of generational renewal took place in the s with the arrival of urban citizens who sought in shepherding an alternative lifestyle. By contrast, political and local authorities saw in this phenomenon an opportunity to revitalise territories that risked abandonment.

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No matter the entrepreneurial trajectory pursued to adapt to the sector restructuring, immigrant shepherds have provided quite a skilled labour force at a relatively low cost. Without foreign workers, many pastoral farms today would face great difficulty in pursuing their activities; this resource represents a critical asset for young European entrepreneurs who take up this activity INEA, ; Nori and Marchi, The typical profile of the immigrant who works as a salaried shepherd is a man between 25 and 40, a native of a country from the Mediterranean region predominantly Romania, Morocco, FYROM and Albania and often with previous, direct experience in animal breeding, albeit at different scales.

Immigrant shepherds are appreciated for their endurance, flexibility and adaptability; some breeders have raised concerns over technical gaps in certain aspects related to the adequate management of forestry resources, wildlife presence and relationships with farming as well as with protected areas.

Table 3 summarises the information available on the presence and contributions of immigrants in EUMed countries. This information is clearly indicative because it is the result of necessary generalisation and simplification. These communities have contributed substantially to keeping the pasturelands of destination countries populated, alive and productive.

In this regional logic, it is not surprising that immigrants who work as shepherds come from other parts of the same Mediterranean ecosystem, as mobility and migration are factors embedded in and characterising pastoral systems. Table 4 — Migratory flows of shepherds through the Mediterranean in the 20th century. End of the This rationale underpins the recent dynamics of ethnic replacement that characterise the foreign workforce in certain regions as a result of changes in the political and administrative framework.

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In the case of Provence, in southern France, it is interesting to note the gradual change in the origins of foreign shepherds. In fact, it is widely acknowledged that foreigners have long been employed in local flocks, though from different areas: Paradoxically, modern society is increasingly appreciating the products and services of pastoralism quality proteins, organic production, biodiversity, ecosystem services, landscape and culture, etc.


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    • Nevertheless, this practice remains a very important asset to tackle climate change, as well as desertification patterns affecting marginal territories in the Mediterranean Nori and Davies, In this respect, it is necessary to get a more effective policy framework in support of the pastoral economy — from CAP support schemes to those regulating pastoral products value chains to the efforts aimed at recognising and appreciating this profession patrimonialisation.

    While the call for a growing, fairer institutional and market incorporation may seem contradictory for a practice typically conceived of as anarchic and self-sufficient, pastoralism has in fact evolved through history thanks to important exchanges and interactions with the rest of society.

    According to Nadal et al. In these situations, immigrants not only participate in productive agro- silvo- pastoral activities but also represent an overall strategic resource for the sustainability of mountain societies, providing a critical contribution to repopulate remote villages and most marginal communities INEA, ; Kasimis, ; Osti and Ventura, ; Corrado, Despite socio-cultural divergences in certain cases, the impact of immigration in these areas is rather positive, as competition in the local labour and land markets is limited because shepherding is not an attractive profession to local workers, and flocks make productive use of land that would otherwise be abandoned.

    This perspective makes it possible to consider Mediterranean pastoralism as a regional system, where mobility affects flocks, as well as shepherds and their families, at different levels and in different places. In order to capitalise on these migratory flows, there should be consistent efforts to improve the viability of pastoralism and the attractiveness of mountain areas and to facilitate the integration of foreign workers accordingly. This in-migratory phenomenon represents an invaluable opportunity to deal with rural depopulation trends, generational renewal flaws and the overall socio-economic desertification that affects much of the rural areas in EUMed, while also representing a good opportunity to contribute to managing migratory flows.

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