Though relevant for diverse environments and communities globally, pastoralism has been questioned by broader society in its role in biodiversity conservation. In Chile, pastoralism has often been studied from a cultural perspective, understanding it as a cultural heritage rather than a productive activity. In its food-producing dimension, and regarding its environmental impact, some mainstream narratives do not differentiate between types of livestock management, resulting in public policy that fails to address critical components of transhumant pastoralism, like mobility and agency, and instead aims for total stationary schemes, taking pastoralists away from the rangelands they have been using and taking care of for centuries, which could lead to adverse social and ecological outcomes. As prevalent as these narratives are, revealing them also offers the possibility of questioning them, unravel the skein of reciprocal contributions between pastoralism and nature and build up a body of evidence that tries to shift current trends of public and political action.
A biocultural approach highlights the interconnections between pastoral practices and the landscape, shaping each other through time and making them interdependent. Recent research shows that pastoralist communities' long-time accumulated knowledge is being increasingly considered to understand complex phenomena, such as the biodiversity crisis.
The understanding of these reciprocal contributions, addressed from a biocultural point of view, may allow us to expand our knowledge of pastoralist activity and help transhumant groups to position themselves as key partners/advocates in conservation efforts that value their activity as food-producing, social-cohesive, and biodiversity-conserving, and as a way of life beyond mere cultural heritage from which broader society can benefit from.
