Mandra School of Traditional Shepherding:Training for Young Shepherds from the Shar Mountain Region
For centuries, rural communities have shaped and have been shaped by their landscapes. The depopulation of villages has cornered practices such as transhumance and their knowledge systems into disappearing. This training would give young and ambitious shepherds from the Shar region access to informative workshops, study visits, and knowledge transfer from experts and experienced shepherds. The main goal is to provide them a blended toolkit of traditional knowledge and contemporary solutions.
Regional
North Macedonia
Shar Mountain Region
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
One of the biggest global challenges in today’s world is the depopulation of young individuals from rural communities. North Macedonia is not exempt from this migration. Seeking economic stability in urban areas, the youth often lack motive to remain in more traditional jobs such as shepherding. Focusing on the centuries-old practice of transhumance, Mandra School of Traditional Shepherding would provide relevant training for the rural youth deciding to remain in this line of work. As the average age of a shepherd is increasing, important traditional ecological knowledge and the practice is disappearing. This is important to discuss as the reality of living in a particular area and the experience that it provides an individual engaging with it can stimulate a sense of belonging. Furthermore, as sculptors of the landscape, local people and their traditional land-use are important in ongoing sustainable landscape development, which aims toward toward bottom-up approaches. The shepherding youth in North Macedonia largely regard the future of this practice as bleak and unprofitable, therefore, the shepherding school would aim at providing a group of young shepherds from the Shar Mountain access to important tools, such as: traditional practice and knowledge training (shared by experienced shepherds), contemporary sustainable livestock keeping methods (shared by ecologists/experts), branding and promotion workshops, rural tourism workshops (including study visits), access to grant/funding opportunities, etc… The shepherding school would also provide an opportunity for collaboration amongst the participants themselves. The course would last from a couple of months to a year, with its design having input from shepherds and other relevant stakeholders - making the curriculum relevant to the participants. As this idea is still in its early development stage, further additions/modifications could be made to the course and its conception.
Transhumance
Education
Landscape
Identity
Tradition
The key objectives that relate to sustainability can be understood in the context of environmental sustainability as well as the sustainability of shepherding as a practice and rural livelihood/rural economies. Traditional land-uses have been documented to promote biodiversity as the historical and consistent maintenance of land sustains a certain ecosystem. Continuous, low-intensified disruption can provide various less competitive species to be able to coexist in an area as opposed to a dominant form taking over the habitat. The vegetation succession that occurs when traditional land-uses decline, or are abandoned wholly, changes landscapes. Another dilemma is the intensification of industrial land practices, over-exploiting and over simplifying the land that occurs once traditional practices begin to disappear. Pastures hold an equally beneficial role for the invigoration of local biodiversity. Sheep are able to generate habitat diversity and allow an existence for other animals and plants by ways of grazing, water places, carcasses...etc. Additionally, through their wool, manure, and hooves they are able to disperse seeds.
Another aspect of sustainability is sustaining the practice itself. A course such as this one would provide a younger generation of shepherds a toolkit on how to persevere in the modern world by learning the essential traditional aspects of shepherding, sustainable practices in farming, whilst also learning vital re-adaptations to the current context of society (important new policies, rural tourism opportunities...) Since rural depopulation, especially of younger individuals, is a big problem in North Macedonia, this school and what it could offer could boost the morale of the younger shepherds who have decided to remain in the practice.
The curriculum of the course will be created so as to provide information that young and older, experienced shepherds deem essential to learn for successful traditional shepherding and its continuation. Shepherds will have significant input in course design and review so as to increase maximum satisfaction, as they are the main target group. Additionally, suggestions from relevant institutions will also be greatly considered to incorporate important contemporary knowledge for young shepherds (such as important policies, grant/funding options, rural tourism activities). The course itself will not only consist of theoretical knowledge transfer, but also practical workshops and study visits which will undoubtedly enrich the experience of the participants. The course will highlight the value of traditional shepherding, and its importance in the culture of the region and its history. The social image of what it means to be a shepherd in this day and age in North Macedonia is poor. One of the underlying goals of the concept is to boost a more positive image of shepherding amongst the rural community as well as urban, eventually.
The way that this concept will promote inclusion is that it will be free of charge for participants and they will have access to expert lectures and information. I will aim towards creating partnerships with organizations working with different socioeconomic and regional groups to develop funding support, further on. The course will be open to all ethnic/religious groups and in case that it is needed, translations that would be provided during activities. Gender equality will also be an important aspect of the course. By engaging the young shepherds in the design process of the course, the education and training that would be organized could be considered inclusive and from a bottom-up approach.
Citizens benefiting from the concept will be directly involved within the concept, starting from guiding the design process of the course to directly benefitting from the activities and outputs. The beginning of the concept would involve: a) fieldwork conducting questionnaires and interviews with shepherds in different villages in the Shar Mountain region concerning their views on the practice and their experience, and b) focus group meetings with young and older/experienced shepherds on what they seem necessary to learn so as to increase their productivity and morale within the job. It is expected to also have experienced shepherds to give lectures or provide study visits to the group of chosen participants. The impact of their involvement will be reflected in a more relevant and useful course that would be molded to the contemporary needs towards an effective and sustainable management of livestock.
As mentioned before, on a local level shepherds will give insight on what they would like to be present in the course structure. On a regional level, the curriculum would be geographically focused on the Shar Mountain region and the cultural aspects that this area encompasses. The Shar Mountain region would be a great pioneering region to hold this kind of course because of its present shepherding practices (compared to other regions in the country), rich biodiversity, plentiful underground water and it being the first national park to be proclaimed since the country’s independence. Therefore, having the curriculum and participants be focused on a more regional level would allow for a more concrete programme structure. It is planned that expert lectures and study visits be on a national and if possible, on a European level. The added value of this is that having these kinds of exchanges from different geographic areas enrich the experience and knowledge of groups. There are certain topics that external experts could provide an innovate outlook toward.
To be able to grasp a phenomenon such as transhumance shepherding, one must approach the topic with a multidisciplinary method that would include equal parts sociology, rural geography and ecology. The topic is heavily human-nature stimulated and therefore requires an approach that would encompass rural development strategies which would respect sustainable conservation of the natural environment. Although expert lectures on the topics of product branding, grant opportunities, rural tourism, innovative sustainable methods are important- the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of the practice will be highlighted throughout the whole course and interweaved in the curriculum. By highlighting the TEK, acknowledgement is given to historical and relevant information that sustains cultures and rural societies to this day. The course will be structured so as to respect the validity of both contemporary scientific/business expertise and local ecological knowledge that is indispensable and should be transferred onto newer generations.
In North Macedonia, transhumance and traditional shepherding still acts as an important economic income for rural families, albeit livestock and workforce numbers declining progressively over the years. Often, initiatives that target this issue use the mainstream approach of organizing dispersed and limited workshops that rarely have an after-project action plan created to maintain the network established. The innovative character of this concept is that for the first time in this region, a proper school of shepherding would be promoted and available to a group of young shepherds. Having the shepherds themselves be involved in the curriculum creation process would also be innovative, opting for a more bottom-up approach to the programme. Having a clear programme available would help in the consistency of theoretical and practical learning, motivating younger shepherds to undertake the workshops/study visits more seriously and expand their knowledge systems in a more sustainable way.
The framework of the concept is completely transferable to any other agricultural sub-group (f.e. beekeepers), and geographic location as theoretical/practical workshops, knowledge transfer, an expanded network, and study visits could all aid in boosting capacities of younger generations throughout the country. The essence or topics that would be covered could be changed and re-adapted to reflect the theme of the course. The concept would act as a pilot project for this framework of training and upon completion the same could be replicated to be able to provide similar opportunities to many more individuals. By allowing for a bottom- up approach, we allow space to rethink development practices and further motivate agency amongst the rural youth.
Transhumance is anything but a unified practice and although traditional shepherds face some similar issues globally, geographical and societal/historical differences dictate multifariousness in the issues that we all aim to solve. One of the first global challenges that this concept aims to address is the depopulation of rural areas and the resulting struggle of sustainable rural economies. In North Macedonia, transhumant shepherding still acts a vital economic income for some rural households. As there is an increasing depopulation trend in the country, it is important to invest in concepts and projects that will stimulate younger generations to want to stay in the practice-rather than leave. Another global challenge is the industrialization of farming which is environmentally unsustainable in the long run. This kind of farming also leaves little room for the survival of small-scale traditional farming which, although producing less, produces more sustainably. Last but not least, another challenge is the loss of traditional ecological knowledge- and with it the cultural identity of a region. Re-invention and re-adoption of transhumance should be seen as possibilities in contemporary times and recognition of the intimate knowledge between local populations and their landscapes should be continuously supported. By having a school for traditional shepherding, providing opportunities for theoretical/practical information, and access to a network of experts and other young farmers- the concept attempts to address the mentioned global challenges within the shape of a pilot project.
