This paper explores the importance of livestock, particularly cattle, to smallholder communities in the páramos of Boyacá, Colombia- a high altitude mountain ecosystem that is facing delimtiation due to environmental pressures for conservation. It draws from 53 semi-structured interviews and field observation with small cattle farmers. The paper argues that agropastoralism not only keeps small farmers connected to both land and agriculture, against a global trend that prioritises industrial scale agriculture, but also feeds into processes of re-peasantisation (Van der Ploeg 2008). Re-peasantisation refers to the struggles and achievements of smallholder farmers to construct alternatives to market dominated, conventional agriculture. In exploring re-peasantisation through agropastoral mountain farming, this paper makes important theoretical contributions to the concept of autonomy within re-peasantisation literature, which Jansen et al (2021) identify as an area lacking in analytical clarity. It does this by exploring how mobility patterns, related to the movement of cattle, not only support strong networks of social connection across large and poorly connected areas but also create dynamic land/natural resource access. These findings also have significant implications for conservation projects, such as those in the páramos of Boyacá, which obstruct land access to protect endemic wildlife, at the expense of rural livelihoods. Instead, this paper suggests agropastoral communities should be supported and their practices integrated within conservation projects. Instead of looking to impose top-down change, environmental institutes should harness agropastoral creativity and knowledge, to potentiate agro-biodiversity on smallholder farms for a more cohesive and socio-ecologically just approach to farming and conservation in the páramos.
