Lessons learned from nearly 60 years of coevolution between farms and rural communities in the Aubrac region

Abstract

This article examines the individual and collective factors that contribute to the sustainability of mountain cattle farming. The Aubrac region is a relevant case study because it pioneered a development model in the 1960s that promoted the utilisation of environmental constraints as resources. The region also benefited from a multidisciplinary action research project that supported this development dynamic. Using data collected during four successive phases from 1964 to 2022, we reconstructed the trajectories of 33 farms and four collectives. Using a systemic institutionalist analytical framework, which highlights the role of public and professional rules in structuring and managing collective resources, we studied the co-evolution of productive systems and collective dynamics. Our findings demonstrate that these dynamics have facilitated the democratisation of access to productive resources, including genetics, knowledge and markets, while also providing greater security for individual trajectories. This synergistic co-evolution continues in the dairy sector around the Jeune Montagne cooperative, while a slowdown and refocusing on competitive individual approaches can be observed in the suckler sector. These results argue for the reactivation of an activity followed by cross-sectoral territorial coordination.