A case of human ecology, climate justice, and food sovereignty.
Transhumance is a seasonal practice where families move livestock between grazing areas. For the Pewenche-Mapuche people of the Patagonian Andes between Chile and Argentina-it reflects a deep relationship with the land and the Pewen (monkey-puzzle tree).
In winter, families live in lower valleys. By mid-December, as snow melts, they guide their herds to highland pastures called veranadas for summer grazing. In autumn they descend again, continuing a cycle that has shaped Pewenche life for generations.
This practice is a living system of reciprocity with nature. People, animals, grass, water, and weather move within the same regenerative rhythm, allowing ecosystems to recover while sustaining livelihoods.
Climate change now threatens this balance. Rising temperatures, water scarcity, and economic pressures put a culture built on long-term adaptation at risk, despite Indigenous communities contributing almost nothing to global emissions.
Around 200 million people worldwide depend on pastoralism and transhumance. These systems provide low-impact food while supporting ecosystems: maintaining grasslands, reducing wildfire risk, improving soil health, storing carbon, and protecting biodiversity.
As droughts, warming, and shifting seasons disrupt grazing cycles, both rural livelihoods and food security are at risk. The loss of transhumance would not only erase a cultural tradition, it would increase risks of food insecurity, climate migration, and ecological instability.
What is happening here is not an exception.
It is a glimpse of a future approaching faster than we are willing to admit.
