Project description
A closer look at centuries-old agreements for sustainable Pyrenean communities
For centuries, Pyrenean valleys maintained peace and regulated resources through ancient pacts called pacerías. Yet, these agreements, crucial for community sustainability, remain overlooked. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the PYREPAX project will focus on Guarrinza and Cerbillonar pastures in the Aragonese Pyrenees. Specifically, it will explore these historic agreements, their societal impact, and environmental implications. By combining historical analysis with ecological and economic perspectives, PYREPAX aims to understand the evolution of human-nature relationships. Through fieldwork and interdisciplinary collaboration, the project seeks to redesign pacerías, fostering sustainable practices and community engagement. Ultimately, PYREPAX strives for environmental benefits, while bolstering rural economies and social cohesion.
Objective
For centuries, the relationships between Pyrenean valleys were regulated by pacts called paceras. These agreements were intended to maintain peace between valleys (hence their name, which derives from the Latin word pax), and to regulate the ownership and use of the natural resource which was at the basis of the Pyrenean communities: grassland. The paceras between valleys on the same side of the frontier have received little historiographical attention, and their environmental dimension has barely been studied.
PYREPAX focuses on the agreements regarding two mountain pastures in the Aragonese Pyrenees, Guarrinza and Cerbillonar. Each of them was a common of two valleys, the former of Ans and Echo, and the latter of Panticosa and Broto. The project examines the paceras, the practices associated with them, and their role in shaping the environment since the mid-eighteenth century. More widely, PYREPAX studies the reciprocal influences between society and nature, and the co-evolution of those relationships across time. The project intends to explain why and how the relationships between human societies and nature have changed by examining the evolution of the paceras and the practices related to them.
Furthermore, PYREPAX examines the current situation of the pastures and the communities from a historical perspective and through an interdisciplinary approach (ecology and environmental economy), by carrying out fieldwork, surveys, and interviews. In the last phase, the project will put into dialogue the ancient pacts with local actors, natural scientists, and regional management authorities with a view to redesigning some paceras, thus creating permanent fora for debate based on interdisciplinary scientific knowledge, providing tools for bettter management of the pastures, promoting economic activity such as extensive livestock breeding, fixing population in rural areas, and, in short, achieving social, scientific, economic, and environmental benefits.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsanimal husbandry
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
28006 Madrid
Spain