South of Vlora in Albania, mountain ranges separate the road that runs along the coast and the inland Tepelen region. Although only a few kilometers separate Tepelen from the sea, there is not yet an infrastructure to connect these two areas. Therefore, Tepelen is far away from the hurly-burly made by tourism on the seacost. From there, a sinuous road, partially paved and mostly used by goats, goes along the edge of a canyon and plunges into the mountains, to the village of Nivica.
Thirty kilometers from Tepelen, the village of Nivica hosts a pastoral activity, whose ancestral practices have been unchanged for 4,000 years. A few dozen families raise Dukat goats (an indigenous breed) and sheep here, perched at an altitude of 900 meters, to make cheese. The breeders' days are punctuated by the milking of animals, carried out two to three times a day. At dawn, after a night in the sheepfold, the sheeps and goats are milked manually. A few herds of more than a hundred heads then set out the sheepfold to roam in the hilly areas covered with grass and brush around the village.
Each family of breeders keeps an eye on their flocks throughout the day. Around 2 p.m., the herds of small ruminants are under way back to the sheepfold, framed by shepherds and dogs for a second milking. Relieved of a few centilitres of milk, the herds wander once again around the village, for a second meal of a few hours. It is at nightfall that the cycle ends: back to the sheepfold for the third milking and for a well-deserved rest, safe from the fangs of the wolf that lives the mountains.
Seferi lives with his wife and four children around twenty years old on Nivica. Seferi is sixty years old and obviously doesn't have all of his teeth (probably because he smokes too many of those tobacco cigarettes that he rolls all day long). He raises 300 sheeps and a dozen goats. Each member of the family participates in the breeding of animals.
Seferi and Bastien in full exchange
in the field of goats
Lelo, he raises 180 sheeps and about 20 goats with his two sons. At 65, his skin is tanned. His brown cheeks and his neck are covered with wrinkles, comparable to the eroded landscape that surrounds him. It reveals to us the many years he has spent herding his sheeps and goats under the sun of Nivica.
Seferi and Lelo raise their ewes for milk, which they collect from March to August, after weaning the lambs. Goats, on the other hand, nurse their kids, which will be sold for meat at three or four months. Both sell their sheep's milk at the small cheese dairy in the village. A few donkeys still carry the cans of fresh milk to the factory.
On the heights of Nivica, a large stone house with big arches on the front is under construction. This large house, which contrasts with the rudimentary facilities of the herding families, belongs to Auron Tare. Auron is a tall, imposing man who speaks perfect English. Originally from Nivica, he now lives half the year in the United States, where he set off his family. Auron is a member of the scientific and technical council of UNESCO and director of the National Coastline Agency in Albania. He dedicates his time and energy to shaping a future for the village he belongs to, shaping the connection between this isolated region and the rest of the world. Its objective: to make the village of Nivica attractive. After having first carried out the construction of a motorable path to access Nivica from Tepelen, he is now leading a road infrastructure project to link Nivica to the Albanian coast, in order to bring coastal tourism to the village. It’s a whole economy that is building today in Nivica region. The calm of the mountains is regularly dissipated by the hum of work trucks which cross, in a cloud of dust, the village of Nivica. Developing road infrastructure and tourism in the region can help revitalize agricultural activity, which is now unattractive to new generations, who do not consider a shepherd life. Lelo, for example, knows that his sons won't take over the farming activity. He is already considering selling his sheeps and goats when he stops working. The hope of a better future for the shepherd families of Nivica is therefore rearing its head. As everywhere in the Balkans, the benefit of a tourist activity is great but also at risk of losing the authenticity of sheep and goat farms. It is therefore a right balance to be found, to bring dynamism to the region without disfiguring it.
The sheep and the goat are two species that are found in great majority in the Albanian landscape. Their ability to venture onto the country's steep soils, sometimes lunar, sometimes covered with dense and varied vegetation, makes their use ideal for valorizing natural resources. But Albania is a country where one of the major fears for agricultural activity is soil erosion and depletion. The geographical location of the country and the composition of its soils contribute to this phenomenon (sea winds, intense rains, fine-structured soils). The case of Nivica, unfortunately, illustrates the overexploitation of natural resources by livestock. Here, large herds of several hundred animals roam in confined spaces, because the constraints of milking do not allow the grazing area to be extended. The lands of Nivica are therefore suffering from overgrazing, which is one of the main causes of accelerated soil erosion in the mountains in the south of the country. We are not sure why Nivica breeders have such large herds, or why the majority of them milk three times a day (in Europe, milking ewes is usually done twice a day). Is it historical? Is this a constraint linked to the milk supply for the cheese factory? Is it an economic need? Or some of these three reasons? Maintaining soil in Albania is as important a stake as the enhancement of pastoral activity in mountainous areas and the sustainability of livestock farming will depend on the importance that the country attaches to the protection of these areas. Here too, the village of Nivica will have to find the right balance between the conservation of traditional breeding and the exploitation of the resources of the region.
Did you know ?
- The Nivica quarrier
The Nivica region is populated by Egyptian vultures, which feed on dead cattle. The village herders have set up feeding areas at the top of the mountains, where they bring, like an offering, the carcasses of their sheeps and goats.
- Sign language
During this episode of our trip, our two allies were Google translate and our approximate Albanian accent! It was impossible for us to count on English, French, Italian, German, because these languages are not spoken in this area. It is also impossible to count on the written Albanian, since most of the inhabitants of Nivica cannot read or write. A few words from Albanian, a few hints of hands, arms, feet, and we finally left with a good apprehension of Lelo and Seferi's lives. Of course, our most technical questions were answered during our discussions in English with Auron.