Transhumance
The seasonal movement of herders and their animals between summer and winter pastures.
Also: seasonal migration, vertical transhumance
Transhumance is the regular, seasonal movement of livestock between pastures, usually up into the mountains for summer and down to the valleys or plains for winter, or between wet-season and dry-season grazing. It lets herders use grass that would otherwise go unused and gives lowland fields time to grow hay. It is practised in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, the Himalaya and the Sahel, among many other places. In 2019 UNESCO inscribed transhumance in the Mediterranean and the Alps on its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, and widened the listing to more countries in 2023. Unlike nomads, transhumant herders often keep a permanent home at one end of the route.