The Government develops the National Network of Livestock Routes with a royal decree that identifies its traces, strengthens protection against encroachments, and seeks to guarantee the continuity of transhumance across autonomous communities.
The routes along which the flocks move will have a common framework to reinforce their protection. The Council of Ministers has approved the royal decree that develops the National Network of Livestock Routes, comprising approximately 11,393 kilometers of major pastoral tracks and other livestock itineraries. The regulation identifies their paths and seeks to preserve their continuity across autonomous communities.
The primary objective is to guarantee livestock movement and promote transhumance, as well as to improve the protection of these public lands against intrusions and occupations. To this end, information about the routes will be updated and their coordination with the Cadastre and the Property Registry will be facilitated.
The regulation includes digital cartography, a documentary archive, and an action program to organize conservation priorities. It also creates a coordination committee among administrations, while the autonomous communities maintain their management competences. The protection of these paths contributes to connecting ecosystems, preserving biodiversity and maintaining the heritage of rural landscapes.
The National Network of Livestock Routes
Today the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has approved the royal decree that develops the National Network of Livestock Routes, which will strengthen the protection of these public-domain corridors and preserve their continuity across the various autonomous communities.
The regulation develops the provisions of the Ley 3/1995, de 23 de marzo, de Vías Pecuarias, and specifies the routes and segments that form part of the National Network, whose approximate length is 11,393 kilometers. The text covers the major cañadas reales and other traditional itineraries of extensive livestock farming, as well as the segments that compose them and the cross-border passages included in the network.
The royal decree’s primary objective is to guarantee livestock movement and promote the practice of transhumance, while recognizing the role of livestock routes in ecological connectivity, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of the historical and cultural heritage associated with rural landscapes.
Greater protection and legal certainty
Identifying the livestock routes integrated into the National Network will enable better delimitation and understanding of these public-domain lands, as well as strengthen their protection against possible intrusions and occupations. The regulation also establishes mechanisms to update information about their routes and facilitate coordination with the Cadastre and the Property Registry.
Additionally, there is provision for publishing updated information about the livestock routes, their segments, digital cartography, administrative status, and actions related to their classification, boundary delimitation or modification. This information will be integrated into the Spanish Inventory of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity and the Nature Data Bank.
The text also creates the Documentary Fund of Livestock Routes, which will gather historical documentation, maps, background records and administrative resolutions to improve knowledge of these itineraries and facilitate access to information by administrations and interested parties.
Coordination among administrations
The royal decree establishes a common framework for institutional cooperation to guarantee coherence and continuity of itineraries that cross several autonomous communities. To this end, it contemplates the development of a National Network Action Program, which will set objectives, priorities and the necessary measures to improve their conservation and management.
The General Administration of the State will perform the roles of definition, coordination and information for the National Network, while the autonomous communities will maintain their competencies of administration and management of the livestock routes within their respective territories, as well as classification, boundary delimitation and aggregation.
The regulation also creates the Committee of Livestock Routes as a coordinating body for actions in this area, with the aim of strengthening collaboration among the involved administrations.
A natural and cultural heritage tied to rural life
Livestock routes constitute a historic infrastructure linked to extensive livestock farming and the seasonal movements of the herds. Their conservation also supports the maintenance of native livestock breeds and the associated pastures, biodiversity, and the connectivity of ecosystems.
In addition to their primary function for livestock movement, these itineraries can host compatible and complementary uses, such as ecotourism and other activities contemplated in regional regulations, as long as their main purpose is guaranteed.
Their preservation can also contribute to the prevention of forest fires by maintaining landscape discontinuities and to the socio-economic development of rural territories.
The regulation approved is framed within environmental and forest planning instruments that recognize livestock routes as relevant elements of green infrastructure and ecological connectivity, as well as in the protection of transhumance, recognized as a representative manifestation of Spain’s intangible cultural heritage and inscribed in 2023 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The scale of this heritage far exceeds the itineraries included in the National Network: according to MITECO, the total of Spain’s livestock routes sums to more than 125,000 kilometers and covers about 425,000 hectares. Cañadas, cordeles, veredas and coladas form a framework in which the major routes also depend on their smaller connections. Therefore, preserving the continuity of the national routes is decisive to maintain a functional livestock and ecological infrastructure that spans a large part of the territory.
