Traditional part-time grazing: a more sustainable sheep milk and cheese production in the Basque Country

[EN] The concept of sustainability when referring to food production rests, in general, on 3 main aspects: 1) respect for the environment; 2) economic and social benefits for all involved in production; and 3) production of sufficient quantity of quality food at an accessible price. In this contribution we focus on the main aspects of the traditional sheep's milk and cheese production (under the Denomination of Origin Idiazabal Cheese) in the Basque Country that contribute primarily to its sustainability. It is based on the local latxa or carranzana breeds of sheep, adapted to the mountainous terrain. The sheepherder takes advantage of local resources to reduce management costs by combining indoor dry forage and concentrates with outdoor grazing throughout lactation, according to local pasture availability, and thus avoiding having to buy large amounts of feed. This system facilitates recycling of manure, fertilising pastures and forest at the same time. Use of local breeds helps maintain biodiversity of sheep breeds. Cheese is produced industrially (44.5% of the total cheese produced in 2008) from milk of many flocks, or artisanally (38.3%) by the sheepherders with the milk from their own flocks. Transforming their own milk into cheese is advantageous for the following reasons: 1) higher economic returns as compared to selling the milk to cheese factories because cheese price directly sold to consumers is more competitive than industrial cheese sold in supermarkets; 2) increases the value of women's work (over 80% of the cheese makers are women) in the community and their self-esteem; 3) it creates rural jobs and contributes to rural development; 4) we have demonstrated both with experimental and commercial flocks that part-time grazing allows the sheepherder to obtain high yields of milk, and cheese, of high nutritional and functional quality. Currently a less sustainable, intensive sheep's milk production with foreign, imported breeds kept indoors constantly is gaining favour among milk producers because of its perceived higher economic profitability.

Apuntes jurídicos sobre el paisaje lingüístico en Euskal Herria

This paper is a study of place-names and signs in the Basque Country from the point of view of language law. These are matters that relate to both the status and corpus of language and contribute to the formation of the language landscape,» After a brief historical introduction, the author focuses on the factors that bear on signs and the language 1andscape: the cornpetence factor and the language factor. The description of the latter leads the author to a discussion of the existing language system, in which the Spanish and Basque sharing official status does not necessarily entail the obligation to use both languages at the same time. Using this discussion as a frame of reference, the au- thor analyses place-names, traffic signals and signs. As for place-names, the existing rules are deemed rigid and lacking in ambition, in that they do not pursue the dissemination of official Basque forms. In traffic signaIs, Basque has to appear alongside Spanish, which is required by Spanish legislation, although this bilingualism excludes place-names that have an official Basque form only. With regard to signs, the author analyses public premises, companies licensed to provide public services and the private sector. For public premises there is no specific regulation, but the status of Basque as an autochthonous language, together with the identification and informatíon purposes of signs, could support the exclusive use of this language, According to the author , companies licensed to provide public services should observe the same language system as the goverment and therefore promote the use of Basque. Finally, in the private sector, the author upholds the legitimacy of measures to promote Basque language use such as tax allowances and exemptions in advertising and commercial signs.

Valuing a Natura 2000 network site to inform land use options using a discrete choice experiment: An illustration from the Basque Country

One of the main problems that public institutions face in the management of protected areas, such as the European Natura 2000 network, is determining how to design and implement sustainable management plans that account for the wide range of marketed and non-marketed benefits they provide to society. This paper presents an application of a stated preference valuation approach aimed at evaluating the social preferences of the population of the Basque Country, Spain, for the key attributes of a regional Natura 2000 network site. According to our results, individuals’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) is higher for attributes associated with non-use values (native tree species and biodiversity conservation) than for attributes associated with use values (agricultural development and commercial forestry). The paper concludes that management policies related to Natura 2000 network sites should account for both for the importance of non-use values and the heterogeneity of the population's preferences in order to minimize potential land use conflicts.