An Afternoon on the Pasture with the shepherd László Sáfián

László Sáfián was born into a multi-generational herder family in Hungary. In this film he explains what he means under close herded grazing on a patchy high nature value semi-natural pasture. He speaks about the pasture, his livestock and dog, and the relationship between all these; why he uses iron and copper bells, how he portions the pasture, how the family works together, and finally, how he learnt and transmits this knowledge. We are experimenting with ways to show traditional ecological knowledge of herders in its original setting and with its original pace using slow films and deep herder-scientist dialogues, discussing the fine-tuned decisions the herder made on this afternoon and providing some socio-ecological context as well. One of our aims with this film is to motivate others to make similar slow films in other socio-ecological settings to help the global-scale knowledge exchange of herders and pastoralists among themselves and with ecologists, rangeland, livestock and behavioural scientists, conservationists, teachers, decision makers and the wider public.