Jesus Garzón Heydt

Throughout his life, Jesús Garzón devoted himself to promoting a holistic, practical, and change-provoking approach to environmental stewardship. His most emblematic contribution was the revival of the ancestral practice of transhumance (mobile pastoralism), which he championed as a powerful tool to restore the balance between nature and humanity. Jesús's legacy continues to inspire movements for ecological regeneration and cultural preservation across Spain and beyond.

Jesús Garzón dedicated his life to demonstrating that humanity’s ability to live in equilibrium with nature could be revitalized by learning from the past. At a time when the last century had seen accelerating deforestation, species extinction, and a shift toward intensive farming and livestock practices that deepened climate change and biodiversity loss, Jesús believed that a powerful part of the solution lay in reviving and updating traditional rural practices. For him, the ancestral wisdom embedded in these land-based activities offered not only ecological but also economic and social sustainability.

To prove this conviction, Jesús led a visionary effort to recover and dignify transhumance — the seasonal movement of herds in search of better pastures — throughout Spain. This ancient shepherding practice had been abandoned for nearly a century and was widely dismissed as outdated in the face of industrial agriculture. Yet, Jesús succeeded in generating the first-ever scientific evidence of transhumance’s immense ecological value, particularly its positive impact on rural biodiversity and soil regeneration. He also underscored its social relevance, portraying shepherding communities as “guardians of the territory” and showing how their practices contributed to employment, cultural continuity, and sustainable land stewardship in rural areas.

Jesús’s early and holistic perspective on pastoralism was both pioneering and prescient. His personal example and unwavering credibility enabled him to spark a national movement in Spain. Within just three years, he had catalyzed the legal recognition of transhumant routes through a groundbreaking national law, placing the issue on the political and media agenda. This legislative success served as a milestone and model for others around the world, illustrating how the three pillars of sustainable development — economic, social, and environmental — could be aligned through ‘retro-innovation’: the strategic reinvention of ancestral knowledge.

Through wide-reaching alliances with institutions such as the FAO, IUCN, and the European Union, Jesús helped secure a place for mobile pastoralism on the international stage. His advocacy empowered pastoralist communities globally, positioning them as indispensable actors in ecological conservation and rural development. His influence lives on in tangible recognitions, including Spain’s declaration of transhumance as National Heritage, UNESCO’s designation of transhumant routes in countries like Austria, Greece, and Italy as World Heritage Sites, and the international momentum building toward the World Year of Sustainable Pastoralism in 2026.

Jesús Garzón leaves behind a powerful legacy. He championed mobile pastoralism as a regenerative and culturally rich response to climate and biodiversity crises. His work shines a light on the vital role of Indigenous and traditional land custodianship and continues to inform global efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals through what the FAO defines as “climate-smart agriculture.” Transhumance, under Jesús’s vision, became not just a practice but a symbol of ecological hope and systemic change — a reminder that innovation can be found by walking paths once thought forgotten.

Jesús Garzón understood conservation not merely as the preservation of nature, but as the pursuit of balance among all its elements — including human beings. In an era marked by the growing disconnection between modern civilization and natural systems, he highlighted the profound difficulty of aligning contemporary practices with this holistic vision. Conservation, he argued, often faced opposition not only due to conflicting interests but also because of a widespread lack of understanding about what should be conserved, how, and why. For Jesús, the aim was not simply to preserve, but to guide the evolving relationship between humans and the natural world, combining modern advancements with ancestral wisdom.

A key issue he focused on was land use through pastoralism. Extensive grazing — particularly transhumance — is the most widespread land use on Earth, especially in arid, mountainous, or polar regions where agriculture is impractical or uncompetitive. By taking advantage of seasonal peaks in vegetation across different landscapes, mobile pastoralism became a sustainable form of land management deeply rooted in traditional knowledge.

Jesús was also keenly aware of how global environmental awareness, particularly around climate change, had put livestock production under scrutiny — too often without differentiating between intensive and extensive systems. The impacts associated with greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, deforestation, and biodiversity loss are largely the result of decades of industrialized, intensive livestock practices, incentivized by policies in the U.S. and the EU. This conflation has led to broad criticism of meat consumption, generating new dilemmas: for example, deforestation and displacement of local communities in Latin America to cultivate soy for plant-based products. Jesús warned that many environmental solutions risked creating new problems by ignoring complexity and context.

At the heart of extensive livestock systems are millions of herders around the world. These communities — who are the primary stewards of over one-third of the world’s land — preserve vibrant landscapes, generate rural employment, and often maintain unique ecosystems and cultures. Yet they face systemic neglect, lacking political and economic support. As a result, younger generations increasingly abandon mobile pastoralism, seeing no future in it.

The shift toward motorized transport for moving herds has also led to the degradation of millennia-old pasturelands and forests, causing irreversible biodiversity loss, soil erosion, reduced water retention, and increased forest fires — all accompanied by the disappearance of traditional livelihoods. In the face of climate urgency, new technologies are being implemented without acknowledging traditional ecological knowledge, further severing the link between people and their environments.

Jesús Garzón believed that building a new equilibrium required a creative and reciprocal relationship between humans, animals, plants, and landscapes. From his perspective, the environment — including the remnants of the past — only gains true meaning when it is harmoniously integrated into the living fabric of human life. His vision called for a model in which human beings and nature are united, not in repression or control, but in a functional and creative harmony.

Jesús Garzón’s strategic approach to conservation was grounded in pragmatism, vision, and coalition-building. Beginning in the 1970s, he emerged as one of the first environmental leaders in Spain to recognize both the urgent ecological risks posed by industrial agriculture and the transformative power of concrete, demonstrable examples to influence public policy and legal reform. His work consistently bridged grassroots activism with scientific evidence and high-level political influence.

Agricultural Policy Changes through Research and Alliances:

From early on, Jesús observed the severe degradation of soils and landscapes due to intensive farming practices. He became convinced that reviving and protecting transhumance — the seasonal migration of herds — was a powerful tool to regenerate biodiversity and restore ecological balance. To ground this belief in science, he collaborated with researchers to conduct the first studies demonstrating the environmental value of transhumant grazing. These studies showed tangible benefits in seed dispersion, soil fertilization, and pollinator support — three foundational pillars of biodiversity.

Jesús also understood the power of symbolic actions. In a now-iconic media event, he enlisted the young Prince Felipe (now King of Spain) to lead a flock of sheep down Madrid’s Gran Vía, stopping traffic and captivating national attention. This strategic act of awareness-building helped Jesús gather cross-party support for a draft law protecting livestock routes. His lobbying at the national and EU levels helped shape agrarian policies more favorable to extensive grazing.

In 1994, he founded Transhumance and Nature (TyN), a nonprofit that remains one of the few organizations working on pastoralism and ecological connectivity at a European level. He also established the Scientific Commission on Sustainable Pastoralism, bringing together leading academics and practitioners to consolidate and expand knowledge on transhumance. His influence catalyzed the revival of Spain’s ancient network of livestock routes — over 125,000 km and 420,000 hectares — and inspired the formation of local pastoralist associations across the country.

Jesús was also a co-founder of two pioneering platforms: The Platform for Extensive Grazing and Pastoralism and The Communal Systems Initiative. These initiatives aimed to democratize land governance and increase transparency and participation in decision-making around natural resource management.

Throughout his life, Jesús remained deeply committed to grassroots education and mobilization. He spoke at over 300 conferences and participated in hundreds of congresses and seminars across Europe, Africa, and Latin America, addressing sustainable resource use, protected area management, extensive livestock’s ecological contributions, and rural development.

International Influence:

Building on his national successes, Jesús expanded his work globally. In partnership with WATU–Indigenous Action, he co-created the International Forum on Training of Representatives of Nomadic Indigenous Organizations and Governments. This forum shared Spain’s legal framework for transhumance and offered guidance to pastoralist communities across continents.

Between 2003 and 2007, Jesús traveled extensively to document indigenous herding communities across Africa and Asia. His efforts culminated in a historic conference in Segovia, Spain, where over 200 representatives from 34 countries gathered for 12 days of dialogue and strategy. It marked the first global convening of mobile pastoralist leaders and resulted in a shared manifesto. Follow-up gatherings in India (2010) and Kenya (2013) laid the groundwork for a decentralized global network with nine regional alliances across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

His leadership inspired the replication of mobile grazing initiatives in countries like Lebanon and Turkey — often supported by the MAVA Foundation and local partners such as Yolda. His work lives on through global platforms like WAMIP (World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous People) and WISP (World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism), all of which share the goal of shifting political mindsets ahead of the upcoming International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (2026).

Impact: Regulation and Legislation:

Jesús left an enduring impact on public policy. He was the principal architect behind Spain’s 1995 National Law for Transhumant Routes, which guaranteed public access to livestock corridors and established them as priority zones for investment in rural development, sustainable tourism, and ecological restoration.

At the European level, he ensured that TyN became a key actor in shaping the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), advocating alongside WWF and the European Forum for Nature Conservation and Pastoralism (EFNCP). His influence contributed to the designation of protected woodlands under the CAP; the end of discriminatory funding mechanisms that excluded pastoralists; the 2014 recognition of High Nature Value Farming; and the inclusion of pastoralism under the “Eco-schemes” of the revised CAP, which recognize mobile herding as a strategy for wildfire prevention and land resilience.

Jesús also championed the rights of small-scale producers, who often found themselves marginalized by EU agricultural frameworks. He was instrumental in designing simplified commercial regulations, enabling transhumant products to reach markets more competitively and helping revive pastoralism as a viable economic path.

One of his final major contributions was leading the development of a national White Paper on transhumance, built through a broad participatory process involving over 100 contributors — a testament to his commitment to collective impact and systems change.

Jesús Garzón was passionate about nature from a very young age. Born on March 11, 1946, in Sopeña de Cabuérniga (Cantabria), he grew up in the countryside surrounded by shepherds and wildlife. His mother hailed from the lush, wet north of Spain, while his father came from the arid landscapes of the south. This dual heritage deeply shaped his later vision of transhumance as a living bridge between diverse ecosystems.

At just ten years old, Jesús plastered posters across his hometown warning locals about bird nests, urging them to take care when pruning trees. By sixteen, he was deeply involved in scientific work to conserve threatened species such as the Cantabrian grouse, the Iberian imperial eagle—which he famously helped rescue from extinction—and the brown bear. He secured a grant from the IUCN to formalize his studies, becoming a key environmental informant and forging early alliances through widespread media reach.

In the late 1970s, inspired by Blueprint for Survival, Jesús made a decisive shift toward environmental activism. He successfully halted Spain’s expansive eucalyptus forestry policy, a move critical in preventing devastating drylandification. He played a leading role in the creation of Monfragüe National Park, later declared a Biosphere Reserve, and promoted the establishment of Oyambre National Park.

Between 1984 and 1987, Jesús served as Managing Director for the Environment of the Extremadura region, overseeing nature conservation, land planning, and sustainable development. He opposed a NATO airbase proposal that threatened protected areas by presenting scientific evidence. After Chernobyl, he further pioneered radioactivity monitoring of plant life in his territory ahead of any formal regulation. At the same time, he represented Spain in EU accession talks, contributing to the Habitats Directive and Natura 2000 network. He also founded Euronatur in 1987 to protect migratory routes and habitats across Western Europe.

Throughout his life, Jesús authored over 50 scientific publications and participated in around 40 research projects related to fauna and conservation. He earned numerous accolades, including the IUCN’s Peter Scott Award (1985), two Europa Nostra Awards (1984 and 1989), the FONDENA Award (2009), and the BBVA Biodiversity Conservation Award (2013).

Jesús passed away at the age of 77 in his native Cantabria on December 23, 2023, following a long illness. His loss was deeply felt across the environmental community in Spain and beyond -As one tribute beautifully put it: “He leaves an indelible mark and a monumental legacy without which one cannot understand the history of nature conservation in Spain.”

His lifelong journey—from shepherding flocks across drovers’ roads with over a thousand sheep and goats, to spearheading national legislation and founding major environmental NGOs—stands as a testament to a mission lived fully and graciously, and whose flame of stewardship continues to inspire.