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The Alpine grazing season is now recognised as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. © Maria Naynar

When we talk about Alpine farming today, we usually mean the grazing of Alpine pastures in high mountain regions. However, this tradition, documented since the Middle Ages, encompasses far more than just driving livestock up to and down from the pastures during the summer months. The dossier submitted by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (BAK), for example, also includes the production of high-quality foods and the craft techniques used to make the tools and utensils required – all in the context of Alpine farming.

The 18^th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee also added transhumance, which is associated with the Alpine season, to the list. Ten European countries – including France, Italy and Austria – submitted this dossier. The aim is to preserve the tradition of transhumance.

Launched in 2023, the CIPRA project “Dialogues on wolves – strengthening shepherds’ networks in the Alps” also builds on this. It promotes the exchange of knowledge between the Alpine countries with regard to Alpine farming and the associated challenges – for example the return of predators such as the wolf, which were once eradicated by humans but are now protected. The project is also producing a multilingual handbook on terms used in the everyday lives of shepherds that is intended to support the exchange of experiences across geographical and linguistic borders.

Sources and further information:

www.alpwirtschaft.ch/die-alpsaison-wird-immaterielles-kulturerbe-der-unesco/#:~:text=Die%20UNESCO%20hat%20am%205.12,Rituale%20rund%20um%20die%20Alpwirtschaft (de), www.bak.admin.ch/bak/de/home/aktuelles/nsb-news.msg-id-99168.html (de), https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/alpine-pasture-season-01966  (en), https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/transhumance-the-seasonal-droving-of-livestock-01964#:~:text=Transhumance%20refers%20to%20the%20seasonal,animals%20along%20traditional%20pastoral%20paths.  (en), www.laregione.ch/svizzera/svizzera/1719590/riconoscimento-stagione-svizzera-patrimonio-unesco (it)