Critically endangered: traditional knowledge of pig keepers (svinjars) on their free-range pigs, floodplain forests and marshes, Serbia (Southeast Europe)

With Laszlo Demeter, University of Nottingham.

Part of the Cultural and Historical Geography Seminar Series.

Keeping free-range domestic pigs has been a core part of local livelihood and culture and a key driver of vegetation dynamics since centuries in Europe. The long history of this land-use practice resulted in an intimate relationship between traditional pig keepers (svinjars), their pigs and floodplain forest-marshland mosaics along the Sava river in Serbia. The svinjars (ca. 15 people) are the last community to hold this knowledge. We have been working to build an equitable knowledge partnership between svinjars, ecologists, nature conservationists and forest managers since 2014 and used historical sources, participatory fieldwork, interviews and vegetation surveys to understand svinjar–pig–forest relationships and their drivers.

Interactions of global, national and local drivers (eg interest of W-European timber market, wars, the establishment of a hunting ground, intensification of livestock production, as well as the lack of the young generation) has led to a drastic decline in the number of svinjars and free-range pigs in the last 150 years. In 2023, svinjars have been forced to remove their pigs from the forest due to the African swine fever. Many of the forest-accommodated sows have not survived in village shelters. It wasn't just 'pigs' lost there, but the knowledge of these pigs on how to live in the forest. If external drivers are not managed properly, this practice may disappear very soon with serious consequences on local culture and nature. Decision makers need to recognize the value of svinjars’ knowledge, support ongoing and future development and the adaptation of this traditional practice.