# Cohabitation in Mountain Pastures: Tensions, Fantasies and Realities of Shepherds, Hut Caretakers and Outdoor Recreationists

Myriam Ribert, Emilie Crouzat, Philippe Bourdeau, Victor Andrade, Hermann Dodier

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Myriam Ribert, Emilie Crouzat, Philippe Bourdeau, Victor Andrade, Hermann Dodier. Cohabitation in Mountain Pastures: Tensions, Fantasies and Realities of Shepherds, Hut Caretakers and Outdoor Recreationists. Revue de Géographie Alpine / Journal of Alpine Research, 2024, Négocier sa place en montagne. Faire l'expérience de la domination et de sa contestation: perspectives radicales, 112-3, pp.13643. 10.4000/139tv. hal-05039845

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# Cohabitation in Mountain Pastures: Tensions, Fantasies and Realities of Shepherds, Hut Caretakers and Outdoor Recreationists

Myriam Ribert, Émilie Crouzat, Philippe Bourdeau, Victor Andrade and Hermann Dodier

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Cohabiter en alpage : entre tensions, imaginaires et réalités de bergères, gardiens de refuge et pratiquants d'activités récréatives - URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rga/13563 [fr]

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Myriam Ribert, Émilie Crouzat, Philippe Bourdeau, Victor Andrade and Hermann Dodier, "Cohabitation in Mountain Pastures: Tensions, Fantasies and Realities of Shepherds, Hut Caretakers and Outdoor Recreationists", *Journal of Alpine Research* | *Revue de géographie alpine* [Online], 112-3 | 2024, Online since 31 January 2025, connection on 11 April 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/rga/13643; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/139tv

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Cohabitation in Mountain Pastures:
Tensions, Fantasies and Realities of
Shepherds, Hut Caretakers and
Outdoor Recreationists

Myriam Ribert, Émilie Crouzat, Philippe Bourdeau, Victor Andrade and Hermann Dodier

*Thank you to everyone who contributed to the survey and to the writing of this article. Special thanks to the shepherds, hut caretakers and their assistants for their testimonies.*

1. Bearded vultures and runaway sheep, seasoned hikers and weekend trail runners, a Kangal sheepdog standing watch and a crouching alpine ibex, a shepherdess on a ridge and a hut caretaker with binoculars... Mountains and their alpine pastures are shaped by a multitude of actors and interacting uses of space. This dynamic landscape is the result of overlapping past and present land-use practices (Ingold, 1993), as well as the people moving through it contributing to its formation through their perceptions, representations and practices.

2. Over the centuries, pastoralism—based on grazing to feed domestic livestock, and dependent on close ties between humans, animals and the environment—has played an important role in shaping alpine landscapes. During the 20th century, however, pastoralism has faced a number of challenges including rural exodus, the decline of agriculture in mountainous areas, economic pressures related to agricultural modernization, and the return of wolf predation (Garde and al., 2014). The role of pastoralism in the Alps has also evolved: agricultural intensification has led to fewer operations with larger herd sizes, and a concentration of grazing in the most accessible pastures (Dumez and al., 2017). Meanwhile, tourism has become an increasingly dominant driver of activities and economic growth in mountain territories (Eychenne, 2018), and scenic above-treeline landscapes created by domestic grazing are now heavily frequented by outdoor enthusiasts and recreationists.
3

Since the 2000s, the structure of tourism in the Alps has evolved and diversified (Perrin-Malterre, 2016; Tuppen and Langenbach, 2021). Summer mountain experiences have become increasingly attractive as part of a larger transition in response to the climate crisis (Bourdeau, 2021). Certain outdoor recreationists are drawn to less developed mountain landscapes as a way to recharge away from cities (Debarbieux, 2001; Hagimont, 2020; Jousseaume, 2021) and urban hubs created by ski resorts (Mourey and al., 2023). There is growing interest in bivouacking (Andrade, 2021) and in backcountry accommodations such as mountain huts. Encouraged by outdoor tourism marketing campaigns (Gravari-Barbas and Graburn, 2012), outdoor enthusiasts are in a way colonizing mountain territories through their perceptions, narratives and practices (Granet-Abisset, 2019). They draw on dominant views of mountain environments (Debardieux, 2001) and collective representations that are then expressed through their discourse and practices. Consequently, recreationists are reconfiguring outdoor spaces and causing novel tensions in alpine pastures, which remain key sources of food for domestic grazing. Intersection and interactions between pastoral and recreational land-uses are becoming more frequent and can lead to overlap, competition and at times conflict.

4

Mountains and their alpine pastures are thus becoming, according to the expression of Michel Lussault (2009), the stage for a “struggle for access”, defined by confrontations between actors with opposing views and uses of space. Depending on the land-use practice in question—touristic, recreational or pastoral—land is not approached or understood in the same way (Stock, 2007). Constant negotiations between the individual and the landscape, and among individuals with different practices, priorities and perceptions, destabilizes traditional uses of space and resources in alpine pastures (Fort-Jacques, 2007). Shepherds and farmers are forced to come to terms with new and diverse uses of alpine pastures, while simultaneously contending with other constraints imposed by a constantly evolving profession. As witnesses of change in mountain territories, shepherds along with hut caretakers are becoming, voluntarily or involuntarily, key actors of coexistence in the Alps.

5

Between tension and sharing of space, what forms of co-existence can we observe in alpine pastures? How do different land users, including hut caretakers, shepherds, and outdoor recreationists negotiate and make use of available space? Is the balance of power equal? We explore these questions using a field survey² carried out in 2023 in the context of three study sites, which combined pastoral activity (alpine pastures grazed by flocks of between 900 and 1300 sheep watched by a professional shepherd) and outdoor recreation (defined by close proximity to a mountain hut³), distributed across three massifs in the French Alps: Cercès, Écrins and Mercantour.

# Methods
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1. Location of the three study sites (Cerces, Écrins and Mercantour) in the French Alps, characterized by contrasting pastoral and recreational land-use practices</figcaption></figure>

6

The field survey was carried out during summer 2023 over the course of several multiday *in situ* research sessions conducted at each of the three sites. We used a qualitative approach, including observation, participatory observation (assisting with daily tasks in huts, exchanging with hikers on the trail, and helping to herd the flock) and semi-directive interviews. The idea was to be immersed in order to understand and analyze tourism and pastoral dynamics in target alpine pastures and to investigate the use of space by different actors and their interactions, while exploring the spatial-social dimension of possible power dynamics. We observed contrasting uses of time and space by way of drawings, sketches and note taking. Participatory observation alongside hut caretakers and their assistants, outdoor recreationists and shepherds allowed us to adopt a critical and iterative approach based on re-investigating collected data in light of the various discourses of our interviewees.
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2. Example excerpts from field notebooks. Notes and drawings depict places, people and interview accounts</figcaption></figure>

7 We carried out nearly 50 individual and collective interviews in the presence of 130 outdoor recreationists on hiking trails, in huts and their immediate vicinity, and in campsites. We interviewed subjects using a grid of semi-directive questions aimed at investigating their practices, landscape perceptions and their knowledge of pastoral activities. In parallel, we interviewed almost 20 hut caretakers and shepherds before the season and in the field, in some cases using an informal approach and in others using a more flexible grid of questions in order to adapt to the daily life of these interviewees. Finally, at times we conducted biographical interviews aimed at understand their backgrounds and life trajectories. The goal of the interviews was to understand how caretakers and shepherds approached interactions with recreationists as well as understand their landscape perceptions. Analysis of the accounts of their lived experiences of interactions brought to light contrasting representations and perceptions, while also elucidating sources of conflict and underlying power dynamics.

Misunderstood Pastoral Mountain Environments and
Invisible Workers

8 “Calm”, “tranquility”, “cool temperatures”, “nature”, “wild”, “disconnect” and sometimes “physical effort and pushing my limits”⁴: the responses of interviewed recreationists echoed each other and were similar across the three study sites. “I like this wild nature, the climate is different...”, “It’s a feeling of freedom! There are no houses, no enclosures, it’s the end of the earth...”: the hikers we encountered come to experience the otherness of mountain environments (Bozonnet, 1992; Debarbieux, 2001; Lazzarotti, 2006). They come in search of a “change of scenery” and to “escape their daily lives”, looking to conquer one of the “last wild places we can experience”⁵. More authentic and archaic, mountain environments allow them to “get back to the essentials”. These expectations,
stemming in part from the American myth of the wilderness (Cronon, 2009), have been adopted by the outdoor tourism industry and leveraged to achieve what Hagimont calls the “merchandising of the environment” (2020, p. 30). Accessible to a highly mobile economic and cultural elite, outdoor recreation invites users to consume the places that they visit (Urry, 1995; Pociello, 1999) and in so doing change alpine pastures through their practices and perceptions (Lazzarotti, 2006).

In the context of pastures, the results of our survey show that recreational perceptions of mountains are prevailing over a pastoral mindset that has become increasingly misunderstood and invisible. In their imaginations, hikers confine shepherds to static clichés far removed from the reality of their work. In discussions with recreationists, the male shepherd is part of a décor or postcard and is shown "lying in the sun"⁶, sometimes with a "blade of grass in his mouth"⁷. Even as the profession is becoming younger and more feminine⁸, and a growing number of shepherds live in couples and some with their families (Bonnet and al., 2020), for many of the recreationists interviewed, a shepherd is an older man who is "rugged and solitary"⁹, a symbol of a certain authenticity associated with tradition (Eychenne, 2018). Shepherds are even at times presented as a tourist attraction similar to the mountain landscapes themselves (Sacareau, 2017), as observed ironically by Romain¹⁰, a farmer and shepherd: "Tomorrow we'll be at the zoo. We're going about our business and they do the typical tourist thing: take photos of us...". This kind of myth building (Eychenne 2018), carried out without any real understanding of the realities and challenges of present-day pastoralism, reinforces folkloric perceptions of the "other" and contributes to power imbalances by minimizing both conflicts and the identify of shepherds. In this way, farmers are perceived as the caretakers of "nature transformed into a landscape for city folk" (Bourdieu, 1977). Julien, a shepherd and farmer, explains: "Some people see us as a living museum when actually we're working. Yes, we're maintaining the landscape but first and foremost we're raising ewes to have lambs to then sell to people so that they can eat lamb meat. And many people just have no idea."

This observation aligns with a broader context of general misunderstanding of pastoral activity. Indeed, among all of the recreationists interviewed in the field, only half of them were familiar with the term pastoralism¹¹. At times, flocks of sheep are invisible to hikers: "I've been coming here every summer for the last 30 years and I've never seen a flock... there are sheep in the national park?" When hikers do recognize the word, they aren't necessarily familiar with pastoral activities: often they think that the sheep are used for wool production, for milk and cheese, when in fact most sheep in the Alps are used for meat production¹². This disconnect with pastoralism is part of a broader trend in which trades interacting with the living world are becoming increasingly invisible (Porcher, 2015), where agricultural modernization has created a growing disconnect between farming and food (Lamine and Chiffoleau, 2016) and where the voice of farmers has become mostly "inaudible" (Spivak and Vidal, 2009). Although the signs of domestic grazing activity are often discreet enough to be missed (Eychenne, 2018), this is not the case for protective sheepdogs¹³ that cause fear among recreationists. Recurring conflicts revolving around sheepdogs contribute towards making the shepherds invisible while also masking the consequences of the return of wolves on their work.

"How many sheep do you have? What about wolves?" Faced with repetitive or stereotyped dialogues with passing visitors, sometimes accompanied by getting their picture taken

9

10

11
as if they were a decorative part of the landscape, shepherds respond with weariness and at times irritation. Hikers intrigued by predation don't hesitate to interview shepherds at length, having no idea that wolf attacks can be a major source of physical and psychological stress for pastoral professionals (Nicolas and Doré, 2022). As Sam, a shepherd and farmer, points out: "In the Écrins, I was dreaming about [wolf attacks] at night. I wasn't sleeping and when I did, I dreamt that I was killing a wolf..." This kind of misunderstanding deepens the divide that has been established between pastoral and recreational activities. In this context, farmers and shepherds are forced to reaffirm and renegotiate their place in alpine pastures frequented by a multitude of protagonists.

## Emerging Boundaries: From Over-Adaptation to Avoidance Strategies

12 "We have to adapt all the time, it's always our job to adapt—we're always the ones that need to make an effort, to adapt to wolves, to sheepdogs, to tourists..." During interviews with pastoral actors, this feeling can be attributed to an obligation to over-adapt, and was expressed multiple times by interviewees.

13 Accordingly, farmers and shepherds were the first to become aware of the return of wolves to France, a fact that has forced them to reinvent their pastoral practices. Shepherds have been forced to put different strategies in place to protect flocks from predation, notably bringing on sheepdogs that also create substantial additional work for shepherds: "Feeding, training, it all adds work! When you have a dog that is 6 months old, he already looks as big as a pony, he runs up to people, you have to train and teach him and if you don't succeed... well, it's too late (Christophe, professional shepherd)." In places where encounters with recreationists are frequent, sheepdogs are viewed by shepherds as a source of liability in their interactions with other mountain users (Dumez and al., 2017). One shepherdess attests to the difficulties of training these dogs: "There are six different ways to train sheepdogs and no matter what there is still a risk they might bite... it's a pain for the guy who gets bitten, but also for us to have to put down our dog..." Conflicts around accidents and incidents with sheepdogs can sometimes go to court. A shepherd who has experienced multiple fights between his sheepdogs and domestic dogs, and also had multiple law suits brought against him, explains: "We make a big effort to train our dogs to be sociable with humans but in the end it's really hard to train dogs that are gentle with pet dogs, fierce with wolves and friendly to humans... We can teach these dogs lots of things, but they're not robots either". Between the necessity of keeping their flocks safe, using strategies officially recognized by the French government in order to be reimbursed in the event of a wolf attack, and the necessity to adapt to multi-use recreation in pastures, shepherds and farmers find themselves trapped: "If there wasn't a mountain hut nearby, I'd have four or five sheepdogs. One pack against another, that would be fairer" (Sam, shepherd).

14 Shepherds also adapt by anticipating peaks in hiker visitation, in order to limit encounters with sheepdogs and also to avoid disturbing the flock. They use both temporal and spatial avoidance strategies and adjust their practices over the course of the season:

> We're forced to change our plans with the sheep, sometimes we won't provide them with medical attention because we know there are going to be lots of people, it's the
14th of July and we can't go where people are camping, it'll be too busy... You have hundreds of people each day in the middle of your ewes, actually in your workplace, your home... And even without talking about sheepdogs, it's already a lot... It has a huge impact... It can cause the ewes to turn around and if you have 100 people passing through, they're turning around a hundred times (Julien, farmer shepherd).

Jean, a salaried shepherd, explains:

The flock has no choice but to slalom through the middle [of tents]... the ewes take an extra hour to feed themselves: they have to go from one side and then come back... And this causes trampling and erosion in certain areas... so we cause damage to the pasture and then I get reprimanded afterwards.

Many shepherds attest that they never would have imagined that mediation and communication with recreationists would take up so much of their time, and some express a feeling of being isolated and forced into this role: "*This work, it's not the work of a shepherd. So, is it up to the town, the tourism office, the park or I don't know who else? What's for sure is that it's not my job. I'm ready to help out if I'm not the only one making an effort*" (Jean, salaried shepherd). Shepherds regularly point to the absence of state actors on this issue. Some feel discouraged by the constant stream of hikers:

> I've stopped [interacting with them]. Mediation is not my job. I'm here to take care of my sheep, the pasture, and my cabin... I'm good, I already have plenty of work, and I don't need to add mediation and interacting with thousands of people passing through. You have to be realistic, we're not here for that... we're not working at a visitor center or in PR, it's not our job (Sam, farmer shepherd).

In a dynamic landscape made up of a multitude of interacting human and non-human actors (Janowski and Ingold, 2016), rifts inevitably appear. Under pressure, shepherds adopt various strategies for limiting their direct interactions with hikers and taking alternate off-trail routes: "*There are more and more people, and they're everywhere... Before, over there, you never saw anybody... now there are people passing through all the time, so, of course, you have to adapt. You have the flock go lower down, but you stay high on the ridge, so you avoid people and interactions,*" says a shepherd. In addition, the intrusive behavior of certain recreationists in pastures and at times the lack of clear boundaries between pastoral and recreational spaces reinforces the need for tactics to protect shepherds' cabins, their only private space, from being "invaded"¹⁴. "*We barricade ourselves inside behind our 220 volt fences!*" explains a shepherdess describing the three gates one must pass through to the get to her cabin door. Putting up netting, private property signs, using non-grazed vegetation as a natural barrier, such strategies are frequently used to provide a bit more spatial delimitation, however, in the face of intense tourist pressure sometimes this is not enough and boundaries need to be further reinforced:

> Sometimes people try to come into our cabins... This summer even, there was a guy who came up to the cabin constantly looking left and right because he knew he didn't have the right to go there and that he was doing something stupid, but he still wanted to look into the window... And this is also something we have to adapt to, so we put the dogs around the cabin so that people can't come close. You have no choice... Personally, I don't mind meeting and talking with people, but there are just too many of them...

One shepherd confides during an interview: "This tourist pressure... by the end of the season it makes you a jerk. It makes you bitter and unpleasant with people, and that's actually something that's very brutal when you stop to think about it".
# Among Coexistence, Conflict and Compromise: Can Mountain Huts Provide a Buffer?

19 In the “movement-places” that are pastures, mountain huts are important landmarks for recreationists (Hoiban, 2020). Huts can be the main goal of a day trip or a place to take a break on a longer itinerary. Sometimes accompanied by campsites nearby, huts are places of hospitality and accommodation that symbolize the last vestige of reassuring human presence before high mountain summits: “People aren’t in their element; if we send them 50 meters from the hut, they’re lost…” (Isabelle, hut caretaker). Christine, another hut caretaker, hypothesizes: “They pitch their tents right next to the hut because on their own they would be scared I think”. Although recreationists come to the mountains looking to confront the unknown, they remain attracted to the safety of huts. Emerging as increasingly attractive and busy destinations, huts are also potential spaces for mediation and education. Caretakers play an important role by informing hikers about grazing and also facilitating dialogue between recreational and pastoral actors. At the interface between these two worlds, huts can also provide a buffer in the event of potentially conflictual interactions between shepherds and hikers. “Caretakers are also key in making sure everything goes ok. When tourists say, ‘Hey, we just got barked at’ or whatever… she tells them, ‘It’s OK, the dogs are just doing their job. They’re not being aggressive or biting you’. She calms things down,” according to Julien, a farmer and shepherd. Nicolas, a hut caretaker, also shares this view:

> We try to give our clients feedback in a way that is as educational as possible. Because it's true that people often don't know how to behave... for example with sheepdogs. Sometimes we even have people calling us on their phones from the pasture because they don't know how to deal with the animals.

20 In addition, between behavior that can be aggressive towards shepherds and gendered stereotypes of day-to-day interactions, shepherds and hut caretakers find themselves in a space defined by masculine hegemony. Recreationists don't hesitate to question female caretakers when they arrive at the hut: “Where is the [male] caretaker?” Marine, a salaried shepherdess with ten years of experience, attests: “When I was taking care of the flock with my ex, people always addressed him instead of me and called me the ‘assistant’ even though I had more experience than he did!” Furthermore, shepherdesses recount being affronted by sexist violence accentuated by isolation at altitude: “I remember, I was pregnant, but you couldn’t tell, but I was still up there taking care of the sheep. I was on a backcountry road when a guy pulled up in his truck and started insulting me. I thought he was going to beat me up. He only calmed down when my boyfriend arrived” (Marlène, shepherdess and farmer).

21 Among “neighbors”, shepherds and hut caretakers cooperate and sometimes help each other out:

> For example, if we're short on staff, shepherds can come lend a hand and in turn we can help them get ready to leave pasture. There's a kind of... not exactly psychological support... but for example: there have been problems with wolves, and even if people don't realize this, the flock is their life and if something happens to one of their dogs or ewes, we're there to listen and to talk with them... In the end, I think it's just common sense and wanting things to go well. They're the only neighbors we have, and it would be too bad to be giving each other a hard time when in fact I think we all want things to go well (Nicolas, hut caretaker).
22

Between staying close by and keeping their distance, sometimes adjustments are necessary in order to mitigate potential sources of conflict between shepherds and hut caretakers (Gourcy and Rakoto-Raharimanana, 2008; Haumont, 2015). According to Seb, a hut caretaker, "We've been grazing around this hut for 25 years and it's very comfortable for us. The farmers are ok, and we're all more relaxed..." Numerous parallels emerge from the testimonies of hut caretakers and shepherds, who have a tendency to share the same perception of socio-economic and climate changes occurring in mountain landscapes. One caretaker denounces the consumerist behavior of people visiting the pasture: "People, they take pictures of anything and everything! They take pictures of me when I'm cleaning a window—they might as well take pictures of a rock...," confides Isabelle, a hut caretaker. Caretakers are often sensitive to changes in visitor frequentation: "Sometimes when I have a break, I go onto the deck of the sheep pen, and you see the crowd coming from afar, it's quite impressive..." (Joe, caretaker).

23

In spite of these areas of overlap and similarity, the equilibrium remains fragile and conflicts can emerge between the stewards of huts and those of livestock: "Not all of the shepherds are compatible with working in a busy area. Not all caretakers are ready to have a grazed pasture next to their hut" (Pierre, hut caretaker). Ranging from negotiation to compromise, coexistence always contains a dimension of conflict. According to one shepherd, "We don't have the same interests... for huts, it's in their interest to welcome a maximum number of people in the mountains, and as for me, I want my ewes to be undisturbed".

24

Conflictual relations between pastures' human inhabitants occur in the context of power dynamics (Bourdieu, 1977) that can be accentuated during confrontational situations. According to shepherds, maintaining positive relations with those in charge of huts is essential: if these relations were to go awry, "It wouldn't be liveable, we'd get kicked out for sure", "It would be all-out war" (Romain, shepherd), "On the one hand you have the surrounding townships that earn revenue from tourism all year long, and on the other you have us: we practice transhumance and are here for three months out of the year... We don't have the same weight", explains Julien, a shepherd, especially considering that pasture and huts often belong to the town. "No matter what, I stay quiet, because I know I don't have a choice", says a shepherd in the wake of a conflict with nearby hut caretakers. Confronted by tourism pressures, some farmers and shepherds are tempted to give up on "mountains with nice pastures". "We were lucky to get access to these mountains, and it's great for the livestock, but the days of getting up there and feeling at home, for sure, those days are over" (Romain, shepherd and farmer). Aurélie, a shepherdess, adds: "It's sad to admit, but this year I don't even feel motivated to go up there. To be honest if I go, I'll just be doing it for the money..." Shepherds thus adopt avoidance and adaptation strategies in territorial dynamics that are strongly influenced by the social and economic forces of tourism. We can already begin to question the resulting dynamics: should shepherds remain discrete (Scott, 2009) in order to hold on to their place in mountain pastures, or resort to open confrontation with an unending flow of tourists and with what is in the end a more dominant economic activity?

Conclusion

25

Mountains and their pastures are places of passage and intersection, so-called "movement-places", where a multitude of actors coexist and negotiate for space and
time in order to affirm their identities, especially professional. Practices and representations of space are shared with others, neighbors that they may meet either temporarily or for a prolonged basis. Relationships formed in pastures do not occur without tension. They require negotiations and compromise in a context of power dynamics, which can also be found in the valley, and are the result of different visions, perceptions and possible futures for mountain landscapes. Accordingly, some conflict may be an inevitable side effect of cohabitation. Emerging conflicts are simultaneously made invisible and exacerbated by the dominant outdoor recreation perception associating these places with freedom and wildness. Increasing tourist visitation thus contributes to spatial appropriation by recreationists, whom often have little to no understanding of pastoralism. Shepherds, who tend to be either made invisible or cast into stereotypes, find themselves trapped between the necessity to adapt to the multi-use of pastures and a number of constraints faced by pastoralism and animal husbandry more generally. With shepherds facing isolation and mounting pressure from both tourism and climate change, rifts between actors are expanding as is the need for dialogue, education and mediation.

26

Although we focused on three alpine study sites, considering the diversity of mountain territories and possible lived interactions, our work is an invitation to explore other configurations and contexts throughout the Alps. We feel that further research is needed in order to continue to investigate these spaces, pastures and huts, as places of intersection and meeting among multiple actors that are in the process of dynamically and iteratively negotiating their place(s) in time and space.

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NOTES

1. This research was cofunded in the context of a joint call for proposals sponsored by the Labex ITTEM and the CNRS Zone Atelier Alpes (2023).

2. This survey was carried out in the context of two entities of the Sentinels of the Alps program: Sentinel Alpine Huts and Sentinel Pastures – funded by the Labex ITTEM (*Innovations and territorial transitions in mountains*) and the Zone Atelier Alpes affiliated with the CNRS
3. Alpine huts experience intense demand for food and drink during the day and in the evening. In addition to the hut caretakers, between 5 and 7 assistant caretakers were employed. The three huts have the capacity to welcome 40 to 70 guests per night

4. Most frequent responses of recreationists to the question, "What did you come here looking for?"

5. Most frequent responses of recreationists to the question, "What did you come here looking for?"

6. Interview excerpt

7. Interview excerpt

8. Statistics on French alpine shepherds are difficult to obtain. This explains in part the persistence of a certain lack of recognition, or in any case the difficulty of identifying a seasonal population that experiences a high percentage of turnover. Source: Bate, 2017. Online: https://blogterrain.hypotheses.org/15891.

9. Two terms that came up in multiple interviews carried out with recreationists when asked about their perceptions of the shepherd profession

10. All of the first names appearing in this article are fictional in order to respect the anonymity of interviewees

11. The following question was asked during interviews: "If I say 'pastoralism', does that word mean anything to you?"

12. See Maigret, C. 2024. "Ovins 2024, production lait et viande". Published by the Animal Husbandry Institute of the CNE. Online: https://idele.fr/en/?eID=cmis_download&oID=workspace%3A%2F%2FSpacesStore%2Fe34ee5cf-36b6-4bd2-9aa7-7564cfce623c&cHash=f3966cd3d83d4453977c

13. There are three different protection strategies currently recognized by the French government: constant supervision of the flock by the shepherd, installing fences for nighttime pasture and finally the use of sheepdogs. In order to be reimbursed following a wolf attack, shepherds must have used at least one of these measures, depending on the context and the location of the flock. Refer to the legal decree of December 30, 2022, on the subject of financial aid for protecting grazing operations and livestock against predation from wolves and bears (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/eli/arrete/2022/12/30/AGRT2235578A/jo/texte). In response to increases wolf numbers throughout the Alps (see https://maploup.fr/atlas.php), shepherds are using more and more sheepdogs to defend livestock. In France, in addition to the Pyrenese Mountain Dog (patou) and the Kangal, other utilized breeds for sheepdogs include Maremmano-Abruzzese, Spanish Mastiff or the Portugese Sheepdog, the Cao de Gado Transmontano.

14. Interview excerpt

ABSTRACTS

Mountains and their alpine pastures are places of passage and intersection: spaces where a multitude of actors coexist. Coveted by outdoor enthusiasts on a quest for nature and disconnection from daily life, these landscapes are undergoing profound changes and diversification of their uses. In mountain huts and alpine pastures, caretakers and shepherds have a front row seat to these changes. With no other choice but to adapt and come to terms with these new diverse uses, they are playing a key role – willingly or because they have no other option – in a new and contentious form of cohabitation of the mountains. The multiplication of uses and practices, recreational and pastoral, in these mountain environments can overlap and
sometimes be in conflict with one another. In mountain pastures, or so-called “movement
spaces”, claims to space can be precarious and are constantly called into question by new
arrivals, requiring historical actors to defend and renegotiate their claims as well as their very
identities, practices and perceptions. Our fieldwork¹, carried out in three different alpine sites in
the context of the Sentinel Alpine Huts and Pastures programs, underscores the conflictual
dimension of new patterns of cohabitation. Ranging from power struggles to compromise,
increasingly dominant recreational practices and perceptions are replacing more traditional
pastoral land-use, which tends to be both poorly understood and at times invisible for outdoor
recreationists. With shepherds facing isolation and mounting pressure from both tourism and
climate change, rifts between actors are expanding as is the need for dialogue, education and
mediation.

INDEX

**Keywords:** mountain, pastoralism, mountain huts, tourism, coexistence

AUTHORS

MYRIAM RIBERT

LESSEM and PACTE-UGA

ÉMILIE CROUZAT

LESSEM

PHILIPPE BOURDEAU

PACTE-UGA, Labex ITTEM

VICTOR ANDRADE

PACTE-UGA

HERMANN DODIER

LESSEM