The contribution of livestock breeds to biocultural landscapes – an overlooked topic

Biocultural landscapes are the results of the conversion, by people, of pristine post-glacial environments. Livestock were the agents for these changes. The present-day diversity of livestock breeds is the result of the interaction of social, agronomic and environmental factors (Hall, 2004) and breeds have adaptive features, reflected in their geographical distributions (Hoffmann, 2013). Thus, livestock are interfaces between human activities and the biotic environment, providing physical links between ecosystem services and cultural heritage (Ovaska and Soini, 2016).
These ecosystem-culture links are often expressed as local food products, but livestock are also fundamental to the sustainable conservation and practical management of some of the most highly valued rural landscapes. Particularly in grazed woodlands and rangelands, as well as in pastures under common tenure, livestock breeds play key roles (Bernués et al., 2005; Eriksson, 2010). Because of their multifunctional nature, these landscapes can be difficult for policy makers to categorize (Jakobsson and Lindborg, 2015) and are often at particular risk of loss in spite of their cultural significance and visual appeal.
The understanding, interpretation, conservation, resilience and sustainable development of rural landscapes will be advanced by an appreciation of the diversities of locally adapted livestock breeds (Hessle et al., 2014). Livestock breeds provide a model for investigating the practicability of accommodating cultural values within the concept of ecosystem services (Cooper et al., 2016; Hirons et al., 2016; Winthrop, 2014). However, discourse on cultural landscapes seldom, if ever, takes account of livestock biodiversity.
The present paper will correct this omission by demonstrating how an understanding of livestock can deepen understanding of cultural landscapes and by proposing a theoretical framework for the appreciation of livestock breeds as biocultural phenomena.