Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650

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Global Environmental Change

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gloenvcha

Traditional ecological knowledge and community resilience to environmental

extremes: A case study in Doñana, SW Spain
Erik Gómez-Baggethun a,b,*, Victoria Reyes-Garcı́a c, Per Olsson d, Carlos Montes b
a
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
b
Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
c
ICREA and Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
d
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Research in the last decade has emphasised the potential contribution of traditional ecological
Received 19 May 2011 knowledge to cope with challenges from global environmental change. This research examines the role
Received in revised form 23 February 2012 of traditional ecological knowledge and shared systems of beliefs in building long-term social–ecological
Accepted 25 February 2012
resilience to environmental extremes. Data were collected from 13 villages of the Doñana region,
Available online 30 March 2012
southwestern Spain, through interviews, focus groups, and systematic reviews of historical archives.
First, we assess adaptive practices to cope with environmental change. Then, we use historical records of
Keywords:
religious ceremonies (1577–1956) to reconstruct collective responses to environmental extremes. Our
Adaptation
Disturbance
results (1) show how environmental extremes could induce social and economic crises through declines
Doñana in ecosystem services and (2) identify practices to cope with recurrent disturbance and institutional
Resilience devices developed in response to environmental extremes. We conclude that traditional ecological
Spain knowledge and shared systems of beliefs can facilitate collective responses to crises and contribute to the
Traditional knowledge maintenance of long-term resilience of social–ecological systems.
ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction collective memory and promote social cohesion within communi-

The ways in which societies respond to environmental change
have been identified as one of the least understood aspects in
modern natural resource management (Gunderson and Holling,
2002). In an attempt to address this knowledge gap, resilience
theory has been used to analyse the interplay between disturbance
and adaptation in coupled social–ecological systems (Berkes and
Folke, 1998; Colding et al., 2003; Folke et al., 2003; Tompkins and
Adger, 2004; Adger et al., 2005, 2011; Gallopin, 2006). Dis-
turbances are defined here as any discrete event in time that
disrupts ecosystem structure and changes resources, substrate
availability, or the physical environment (White and Pickett,
1985). Adaptive capacity, in turn, relates to the preconditions that
enable actions and adjustments in response to change (Smit and
Wandel, 2006; Nelson et al., 2007). The social elements that
increase the adaptive capacity of social–ecological systems include
traditional ecological knowledge and institutions that store
* Corresponding author at: Institute of Environmental Science and Technology
(ICTA), Faculty of Sciences, Building C5b, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra – Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain. Tel.: +34 935868550;
fax: +34 935863331.
E-mail address: erik.gomez@uab.es (E. Gómez-Baggethun).
ties (Berkes et al., 2003).
In line with previous research, disturbances are considered here
as systemic dimensions of the environment, to which traditional
peoples have historically established adaptations by creating and
enforcing locally evolved practices and institutions to accommo-
date recurrent shocks (Torry, 1979; Ostrom, 1990; Oliver-Smith,
1996; Colding et al., 2003). Over time, resilient social–ecological
systems are able to adapt to change and reorganise after
disturbance, thereby maintaining ecological structure and function
and associated ecosystem services (Blondel, 2006). Nevertheless,
when resilience is lost, due to cumulative change or unexpected
shocks, social–ecological systems can reach critical thresholds,
resulting in ecosystem-service loss, social crises, and even collapse
(Haug et al., 2003; Diamond, 2004; Folke, 2006).
Thus, a central role of institutions is to provide social–ecological
systems with the capacity to respond to disturbance (Berkes and
Folke, 1998). In contemporary industrial societies, response
strategies are typically designed to control variability and change
through the use of technology (Holling and Meffe, 1996). In
contrast, small-scale societies lacking sophisticated technology
often rely on adaptive strategies, developed from a long-term
understanding of the dynamic relations between human cultures
and the environment (Colding et al., 2003; Tengö and Belfrage,
2004; Haque and Etkin, 2007). Such an understanding is often

0959-3780/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.02.005
 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650 641

coded in local institutions and knowledge systems, or traditional
ecological knowledge. Traditional ecological knowledge (hereafter
traditional knowledge) has been defined as a cumulative body of
knowledge, practices, and beliefs evolving by adaptive processes
and handed down through generations by cultural transmission,
about the relation of living beings (including humans) with one
another and with their environment (Berkes et al., 2000, p. 1252).
Resilience theory conceives traditional knowledge as evolving over
time on the basis of long-term observation and responses to crises
(Olsson and Folke, 2001) and thus as increasing the capacity to
cope with disturbance (Folke et al., 2003; Folke, 2004; Berkes and
Turner, 2006).
This research is designed to advance understanding on the role
of traditional knowledge in coping with environmental change by
synthesising research on traditional knowledge (Berkes et al.,
2000), resilience theory (Folke, 2006), and historical climatology
(Luterbacher et al., 2004). Viewing disturbance as an integral part
of social–ecological systems, we investigate the dynamics of
community resilience and adaptation. In doing so, we analyse
institutional adjustments and interactions of individuals and
organisations in the face of disturbance. Our research is conducted
in the Doñana region in southwestern Spain. The focus is on the
knowledge, practices, and institutions governing traditional
resource systems that are subject to recurrent disturbance. We
analyse responses to disturbance at two distinct levels and on the
basis of two different datasets. First, we draw on field data to
identify management practices by local users to minimise the
impacts of recurrent disturbances on the resource base. Second, we
draw on historical documents to identify institutional mechanisms
in response to extreme disturbances, especially severe drought.
2. Background
2.1. The Doñana social–ecological system
We conducted our research in Doñana, southwestern Spain
(Fig. 1), characterised here as a social–ecological system (Ostrom,
2009). Doñana consists of a system of marshes, dunes, and beaches
that extends along the coastal plain of the Gulf of Cadiz at the
Guadalquivir river mouth, in the western limit of the Mediterra-
nean Basin (378N, 68W). Doñana is the largest wetland in Spain and
is one of the most well studied European wetlands due to its highly
diverse and well preserved ecosystems (Fernández Delgado, 2006).
Areas of environmental protection in the region include a
biological reserve declared in 1964, a national park (1969), and
a natural park (1989). Parts of Doñana were also designated as a
Ramsar site in 1982 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
Doñana has 174,000 inhabitants, with more than 60% of the
population employed in agriculture and another 25% in the service
sector, mainly tourism. Doñana covers approximately 2120 km2
and contains two main environmental units: aeolian sheets and
fluvial marshland. The aeolian sheets, located at the western limit,

Fig. 1. The Doñana natural area and its location in the Mediterranean Basin. The figure shows the main ecosystems of Doñana (coastal system, estuary, marshes, and aeolian
sheets), and its two main protected areas: the Doñana National Park and the Doñana Natural Park.
642 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650
are composed of sandy soils covered by woods, scrublands, and
cultivated lands. The marshland, in the eastern part, is less
populated, and its inhabitants are concentrated mostly in Isla
Mayor village. Until the national park was declared, marismeños
also lived in scattered huts in the higher parts of the marshlands.
Doñana has a sub-humid Mediterranean climate with Atlantic
influence, characterised by a marked intra- and inter-annual
variability of rainfall, which leads to erratic patterns in the
occurrence of floods and droughts (Garcı́a Barrón et al., 2011). The
average yearly rainfall is 580 mm, 80% of which is distributed
between September and April. The summers are very dry and hot,
and the water balance is generally deficient because rainfall
exceeds evapotranspiration only during 3–4 months of the year
(Custodio et al., 2010).
2.2. Historical background
Our research extends from 1577 to 1956, from the period when
the first continuous documentary records are available to the crises
of the traditional resource systems in Doñana in the mid-20th
century. Two main stages can be distinguished in this period. The
first stage extends from the late 16th to the early 18th century.
During this time, the resource regimes were characterised by the
dominance of large estates in combination with various privately
owned smallholdings and common properties (Ojeda Rivera,
1987). The economy was based on agriculture. Trade-oriented
large estates of vineyards and olive groves coexisted with
smallholdings of land used to produce wine, olive groves, cereals,
fruits, and legumes for subsistence. Wastelands (baldı´os) of woods
and marshlands were managed by local councils or other
community authorities that were charged with enforcing custom-
ary law regarding their management. The land uses included
forestry, hunting, beekeeping, and shepherding (Ojeda Rivera,
1987).
The second stage extends from the early 18th to the mid-20th
century and is a transitional period during which the traditional
subsistence-oriented economy coexists with an emerging market-
oriented economy. This stage is marked by the decline of lordship.
Crop productivity is enhanced through new agricultural techni-
ques. Institutional reforms result in the strengthening of both the
monarchy and the emerging middle class. Private and council
property expands at the expense of common properties, which are
subject to a process of enclosure triggered by the 1855 disentitle-
ment law (Ley Madoz) (González Arteaga, 1993; Naredo, 2004).
This situation was maintained until the 1960s, when integration in
the global economy, mechanisation, and restrictions to natural
resources due to conservation policies led to the decline of
traditional resource use and the associated knowledge (Villa Dı́az
et al., 2000).
2.3. Traditional knowledge, practices, and beliefs
Climatic variability and the unpredictable occurrence of water
extremes, especially droughts, have pressed Doñana resource users
to develop adaptive practices to respond to variability and change
(Ojeda Rivera and Moral Ituarte, 2004). Because modern technolo-
gy was largely absent until the 1960s, traditional knowledge is
believed to have historically played a central role in response to
environmental crisis (Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010). Through trial
and error, local users progressively developed a range of practices
and institutions to cope with change (Ojeda Rivera, 1990; Villa
Dı́az et al., 2000). Documented examples include the traditional
knowledge of stockbreeders to cope with flooding (Gómez-
Baggethun et al., 2010), of farmers to secure access to water
during droughts (Giansante et al., 2003), and of hunters to secure
food supplies during droughts (Acosta Naranjo, 2004).
Local beliefs played a major role in institutionalised responses
to environmental change. Central to the local belief system is the
religious icon known as ‘Our Lady of the Dew’ (Virgen del Rocı´o,
hereafter the Virgin), declared the patron saint of Almonte village
in 1653 and given canonical coronation in 1919 (Falgarona et al.,
2007). The Virgin has been venerated by the locals since 1280 for
her believed power to protect from environmental calamities
(Flores Cala, 2005) (Fig. 2), and since the 16th century, the locals
have organised religious ceremonies – locally known as Venidas or
Traslados – to pray for her assistance in response to environmen-
tal extremes (Flores Cala, 2005). Such ceremonies have their
origins in ancient pagan rituals to protect crops (Gozalo de
Andres, 2003) but have their direct predecessor in religious
ceremonies known as ‘rogations’, which were instituted by the
Roman Catholic Church in 469 (Barriendos, 1999; Domı́nguez
Castro et al., 2008).
Rogation ceremonies were organised to seek help from saints to
end drought periods (pro-pluvia ceremonies) or long wet/stormy
spells (pro-serenitate ceremonies), which were culturally repre-
sented as divine punishments (Christian, 1982). Rogation ceremo-
nies were held mostly between the 16th and the 19th century, but
in specific places of Spain, rogations have been held even within
the last decade (Gozalo de Andres, 2003). According to Barriendos
(1999), the process of organising rogations followed five basic
steps: (i) environmental disturbance causing (or likely to cause)
impacts on the resource base occurred, (ii) the affected guilds of
users (e.g., farmers and stockbreeders) communicated their
concerns to the town council, (iii) the council evaluated the query
and, if they considered it justified, commissioned the organisation
of a religious ceremony to the Church. Finally, (iv) the Church
proceeded with preparations of the ritual, and (v) the ritual was
carried out following the protocol established by the local
authorities.
Some historians hypothesise about the origin of the Traslado
religious ritual in Doñana in the 16th century (Cruz de Fuentes,
1908), but the first verifiable Traslado dates to 1607 (Flores Cala,
2005). For centuries, Traslados in Doñana were held only in
response to environmental extremes. In 1949, however, the
inhabitants of Almonte requested that in addition to ceremonies
organised in response to specific environmental events, ceremo-
nies would be held every seven years. This regulation came into
force in 1956 and persists today.
Traditional resource systems and associated knowledge in
Doñana are currently residual. While shrinking pockets of
traditional knowledge persist, the influence of this knowledge
Fig. 2. Historical administrative documents (Actas Capitulares) of the archive of the
Almonte Council. The photograph captures the pages that record the celebration of
a religious ceremony held in 1807 in response to a severe drought.
Photograph: Marta Granizo. Artwork: Bárbara Castro.
 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650
on ecosystem management is limited. The primary holders of the
remaining traditional knowledge are elders, and there is evidence
of limited transfer to young generations. Gómez-Baggethun et al.
(2010) recently found an abrupt break in the intergenerational
transmission of traditional knowledge between the 1960s and the
1970s. The main factors identified to cause this break include the
mechanisation of resource systems following the region’s integra-
tion into the global market economy and the partial exclusion of
local users from ecosystem management following the declaration
of the natural protected areas.
3. Materials and methods
Our assessment of coping practices draws on two datasets that
were used to document responses to recurrent and extreme
disturbances, respectively. The first dataset draws on interviews
and focus groups with local informants with experience in
traditional resource use. The second dataset was developed from
a systematic review of the historical archives that document
religious ceremonies held in response to environmental change.
3.1. Identification of practices to cope with recurrent disturbance
The traditional practices to cope with recurrent disturbances
were sampled in two fieldwork campaigns conducted in 13 villages
of Doñana between September 2007 and March 2008 by means of
in-depth interviews and focus groups with local informants (see
Morgan, 1997; Bernard, 2005). Because of the focus on traditional
knowledge, we targeted informants with direct experience in
traditional resource systems. In Doñana, these systems typically
consisted of patchy mosaics of dry-land agriculture with animal
draft, a few chemical inputs, a few pieces of machinery, and small
parcels (Estevez and Rosell, 1989).
We interviewed staff of local councils, management agencies,
historical archives, and resource–user associations (n = 8) to gather
background information. The interviewees were asked to list (i)
sources of written information (i.e., historical archives), (ii)
meeting places of resource users, and (iii) key informants or
locals with direct management experience in traditional resource
systems. We conducted open-ended face-to-face interviews with
six of the reported key informants to gather background
information on traditional practices in agriculture, shepherding,
hunting, and forestry. We used a snowball sampling technique
(Bernard, 2005) to identify further key informants.
Overall, we conducted 33 face-to-face semi-structured inter-
views with locals with direct experience in traditional resource
management (Poate and Daplyn, 1993; Bernard, 2005). Because of
the reluctance of many interviewees to be tape-recorded (several
informants related this to latent conflicts with the national park),
interview guides were used to structure the interviews, and field
notebooks were used to record the answers. The interviews lasted
between 1 and 2 h and were stopped if the information became
redundant or we noticed informant fatigue. The interviews were
structured in three parts. Part one was designed to gather data on
the informant’s birthplace, present and past occupations, and
resource-use experience. Part two was used to determine
traditional practices to cope with disturbance and change. The
questions were centred on the traditional management practices
related to the livelihood strategies with which the informant had
the most experience (e.g., agriculturalists were not interviewed
about shepherding practices). For example, to gather information
on coping practices in agricultural systems, we asked farmers
about the main crop failures that the interviewee could remember,
their causes, means to hint or predict them, and strategies used to
buffer their impacts. Part three was used to compile information on
institutions and collective responses to disturbances. For example,
643
the informants were asked about any external help received in
times of crisis and about the adoption of preventive measures after
extreme events.
To identify further knowledge, practices, and institutional
devices involved in responses to environmental change and to
clarify inconsistencies detected in the information gathered
through the interviews, we conducted three focus groups
(February–March 2008). The first focus group was held with six
members of the hunting association of Pilas village, the second
with four traditional farmers of Almonte village, and the third with
four stockbreeders of Isla Mayor village (Fig. 1).
Because data were gathered only from key informants, and each
individual interview did not cover practices related to all of the
livelihood activities in the area, our data do not allow us to explore
the extent to which the traditional knowledge that was compiled
was spread throughout the society. Thus, the strategies presented
should be taken as examples of the type of traditional knowledge
that the society held, while being aware that parts of that
knowledge might not have been equally available to all of the
members of the society.
To analyse the interview data, we built on previous frameworks
and classified the reported coping practices into seven categories:
forecasting, mobility, storage, rationing, selection, pooling, and
diversification. Agrawal’s (2008) framework on types of adaptation
to climate change, from which we adopted four categories
(mobility, storage, diversification, and pooling), is the main basis
for this typology. However, some of the practices that were
identified in the study area were not fully captured by Agrawal’s
classification, so we adopted variants of other three categories
(forecasting, rationing, and selection) from other works (e.g.,
Halstead and O’Shea, 1989; Folke et al., 2003; Ford et al., 2006;
Thornton and Manasfi, 2010). Many of the identified practices were
intertwined and served several of the adaptation strategies
simultaneously. Thus, the practices should be seen as interrelated
elements of an integrated agrosilvopastoral management system
(Estevez and Rosell, 1989; Villa Dı́az et al., 2000).
3.2. Identification of responses to environmental extremes
Because the analysis of disturbances with longer intervals of
return, e.g., from decades to centuries, requires long data series
(Barriendos, 2005), oral reports based on direct experience were
insufficient to capture the society’s responses to climate extremes.
For most areas in southwestern Spain, instrumentally measured
climatic data series typically cover less than 100 years (Sousa and
Garcı́a Murillo, 2003). To expand our analysis beyond this scope,
we adopted methods from historical climatology (Barriendos,
2005) that were used in other areas of Spain to reconstruct climatic
extremes from historical records of religious ceremonies (e.g.,
Rodrigo et al., 1994; Garcı́a Herrera et al., 2003; Domı́nguez Castro
et al., 2008).
Data were sampled from a systematic review of the ancient
documents that were available at the historical archive of Almonte
village, known as Actas Capitulares. The Actas Capitulares are
documents of Castilian feudal councils that registered the activity
of town councils and any events that altered the daily life of towns
and villages (Barriendos, 2005). The Actas Capitulares of Almonte
provided systematic records of religious ceremonies organised in
Doñana since 1577. The review of the Actas Capitulares and of
previous research on religious ceremonies in Doñana (e.g., Cruz de
Fuentes, 1908; Infante Galán, 1971; López Taillefert, 1998; Flores
Cala, 2005) allowed us to extract data on the most severe
environmental disturbances and related social–ecological crises
between 1577 and 1956, analysed following historical climatology
protocols (e.g., Barriendos, 1999). Thus, we covered 379 years of
local environmental history, from the first historically documented
644 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650
Traslado to the time at which ceremonies were regularised and
thereby lost their direct coupling to actual disturbances.
4. Results
4.1. Adaptations to recurrent disturbance
A sample of the representative coping practices assessed in the
study area is provided in Table 1. The coping practices are classified
into seven categories:
Forecasting: Local herders, concerned with marsh flooding
during heavy rainfall, reported multiple practices to predict
Table 1
Adaptive practices to cope with disturbance among the users of traditional resource systems in Doñana, as reported by local informants and in documentary sources, based on
classifications from Agrawal (2008) and others.
Strategy Description
Forecasting  Observation of meteorological indicators to
forecast changes in weather
 Monitoring of biological indicators to
forecast game availability
Mobility  Periodical movement to minimise
exposure to risks and environmental
hazards
 Transhumant shepherding practices
 Slash-and-burn or shifting agriculture
 Changes in the means of transportation
Storage  Physical infrastructures for storage
 Customary devices for storing traditional
ecological knowledge and collective memory
Rationing  Regular adjustments of harvesting pressure to
suit ecological productivity
 Limiting consumption in times of scarcity
 Supply of food and grain
 Seasonal restrictions on harvesting
Selection  Selection of species and varieties adapted to
local environmental conditions, especially
drought
 Vernacular architecture
 Settlement planning to minimise risk
Pooling  Pooling of resources, infrastructures and
labour among resource users
 Sharing or linking of assets of wealth, labour,
and knowledge across social groups
 Flow of material and symbolic goods and
services among people
 Long-term reciprocity
Diversification  Diversifying and developing redundancy of
resources to spread risks across space and time
 Diversification of income, sources and skills to
spread disturbance-related risks
 Management for landscape heterogeneity
 Polyculture
 Evoking small-scale disturbance to avoid
large-scale disturbance and collapse
changes in the weather. Traditional forecasts included observa-
tions of wind strength and direction, cloud and moon shapes,
and bird migrations. For example, informants reported that a
dominance of winds from the southwest indicated rain
(because the winds brought humidity from the Atlantic sea).
Shepherds reported that they used the direction of the horns of
the moon at specific times of the autumn and winter to forecast
rain, a common belief in traditional Mediterranean societies.
For long-term predictions, the locals used a traditional form of
weather forecasting known as cabañuelas. Allegedly, users
observed the 31 days in January to predict the weather for the
rest of the year. Most of the informants, however, reported that
this practice was falling into disuse, and some reported that
Examples
 Dominance of winds from the southwest as a primary indicator to forecast
rainfall. Shape of the clouds, moon cycles, bird migrations, behaviour of
insects, and location of nests believed to be informative of weather changes
 Traditional prognostication known as cabañuelas claims to predict the
weather of the year from observations during the 31 days in January
 Frequency of the sightings of animals, excrements, footprints, paths, and
partly consumed nuts and fruits were used as indicators to forecast game
abundance
 Reallocation of family homes when flooding risks increased
 Moving of livestock to the higher parts of the marshland or to the sandy
aeolian sheets during heavy rainfall
 Absence of fences and common property systems facilitated the seasonal
movement of sheep and livestock in accordance with resource availability
 Rotation of croplands (15–20-year cycles) with long fallow periods to replace
nutrients lost through agricultural use
 When the marsh was flooded, use of small canoes locally referred to as cajones
 Grain was stored in silos administered by the local authorities and provided to
applicants in times of scarcity
 Local proverbs, often related to optimal dates for seeding, harvesting and other
agricultural practices, allowed storing and transmitting knowledge
 Tales and storytelling as a means of storing collective memory
 Hunter associations regularly adjusted the number of licenses and beats per
season according to the game availability
 Size of irrigated fields periodically adjusted depending on the rainfall
 Control of the circulation or consumption of limited or critical resources among
the members of a group
 Low-interest in-kind loans to peasants in times of scarcity
 Hunting and fishing areas restricted during the reproductive seasons of key species
 Agriculture based on drought-resistant olive trees, grapes, and cereals
 Selection of the cattle variety vaca mostrenca for its ability to move and survive
in the marshland when flooded
 Use of climate-adapted building materials. Huts were constructed of materials
from marsh vegetation that is resistant to humidity and insects
 Huts and home gardens were located at the most elevated parts of the marsh
(vetas) to minimise exposure to flooding
 Common property systems. Cooperatives of resource users to buffer oscillations
in market prices through storage
 Sharing of wealth, labour, and knowledge within households, among households
and within communities
 Barter of labour time among households during periods when demands for
labour are high
 Gift-giving on a basis of long-term reciprocity according to resource availability
 Ecosystem management for multi-functionality of landscapes
 Seasonal spreading of production to ensure harvest of food throughout the year
 Institutionalised limits to the division of labour. Locals shifted among different
activities according to resource abundance and price oscillation
 Shifting slash-and-burn in 15–20-year cycles promoted heterogeneity of niches
and a patchwork of ecological successional stages
 Mixed cultivation in home gardens to promote heterogeneity that included plants
with different heights and habits of growth
 Use of controlled fire and the collection of firewood prevented an excessive
accumulation of fuel in the woods
 Wood clearings, crop rotation, and pulse grazing limited ecological connectedness,
slowing disturbance propagation
 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650
recent changes in climate conditions make these traditional
forecasts unreliable. Finally, hunters reported the use of the
frequency of sighting game excrements, traces, and footprints
to forecast the abundance of game in a given season. The
hunters also reported using those forecasts to adjust the
hunting pressure: when less game was expected, hunters
diminished pressure by reducing the number of permits and the
frequency of beats.
Mobility: Mobility, in combination with knowledge of the
spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation, was reported
as a mechanism to respond to variations in rainfall and resource
abundance. For example, to minimise exposure to floods during
heavy rainfall, stockbreeders moved cows either to higher parts
of the marsh (locally known as vetas or paciles) or out of the
marsh. The lack of fences and communal use of pastures
allowed for seasonal movements of cows, sheep, and horses
following the abundance of pasture or risk of flooding
(Granados, 1989). Slash-and-burn shifting cultivation (roza)
was an adaptation to the nutrient-poor sandy soils (Corominas,
1995). A bush land area was cleared and set on fire to release
minerals to the soil. Then, the area was divided into plots,
reforested with pine, seeded with grain, and harvested in the
next season. The roza followed a 15–20-year rotation cycle
(Villa Dı́az et al., 2000).
Storage: Informants reported practices that were used to store
both material resources and knowledge. An example for the
storage of material resources is the grain warehouses known as
pósitos, an institution of mediaeval Spain used by local
authorities to alleviate food scarcity during subsistence crises
(Anes, 1969). A widespread mechanism for the storage and
transmission of ecological knowledge was the use of proverbs
related to the optimal dates for seeding or harvesting crop
species. Songs, tales and storytelling were also reported to be
means of storing collective memory (Acosta Naranjo, 2004).
Rationing: Councils played an active role in accumulating
resources that were progressively released in times of scarcity.
In the case of a surplus in crop yield, the councils collected grain
among the farmers and hoarded it in pósitos. After crop failure,
and following formal procedures of request, the council
distributed grain at low interest rates among farmers in need.
Rationing practices were also put into place by resource users,
who reported regular adjustments in harvesting pressure to
correspond to ecological productivity. For example, under
severe drought, hunters limited the number of hunting permits,
and farmers reduced the area of irrigated fields (Giansante et al.,
2003).
Selection: Farmers selected crops and animals as an adaptation
to climatic and biological conditions. For instance, Doñana’s
agroecological systems were traditionally based on xeric crops,
such as olive groves and vineyards adapted to drought
(González Arteaga, 1993). Livestock in the marsh is still mainly
composed of native breeds, such as the Retuertas horse (yegua
marismeña) and the Doñana feral cattle (vaca mostrenca), which
are adapted to survive in the marsh (Murphy, 1987; González
Fáraco, 1991). Farmers consistently reported that only autoch-
thonous horse breeds survived the extreme hydrological
conditions of the marsh. Selection processes also determined
the resources used in vernacular architecture for housing, based
on locally available and climate-adapted materials. For exam-
ple, the traditional huts in the marsh (chozas) were made of
Juniperus spp. and Juncus spp., which are resistant to humidity
and many local insects.
Pooling: The joint ownership of assets and resources facilitated
pooling in times of scarcity. Infrastructure, labour, and natural
resources were often shared across households on a basis of
reciprocity. The barter of working time (locally known as peoná)
645
was used to adjust to the demands of labour intensity at
particular times of the year (e.g., the harvest season). Until
disentitlement acts were issued in Spain in the mid-19th
century, common property systems were widespread in
Doñana (Ojeda Rivera, 1987), and locals held the right to use
common pastures, woods, and game. Council-owned lands
known as propios were also accessible after a formal access
request was made to local authorities.
Diversification: Diversification to increase security and spread
risks operated at several spatial and temporal scales. The locals
were skilled in the use of multiple resources and could typically
work in agriculture, livestock rising, and wood cutting, shifting
from one activity to another according to resource availability
and price oscillations. Harvests were spread across seasons to
secure access to income sources throughout the year. At the
household level, food security was promoted through poly-
culture in home gardens. Among low-income households,
members specialised in different jobs, thereby spreading risks
from potential resource crises. At the community level, the
diversification of food sources (agriculture, livestock, hunting,
fishing, and gathering), water sources (underground, streams,
springs, and rain), and building materials (cork, reed, stone,
wood), enhanced livelihood security, provided a range of
options, and minimised risks (Acosta Naranjo, 2004). The land
was managed to promote multifunctional patchy mosaics
capable of delivering diversified flows of ecosystem services
(Villa Dı́az et al., 2000).
4.2. Response to environmental extremes
In the face of extreme hazards, such as earthquakes, pests or
prolonged drought, conventional practices were perceived to be
powerless, and the arrangement of ceremonies to the Virgin was
perceived to be the sole remaining coping mechanism (Fig. 3).
Although we found no detailed descriptions in the written
sources regarding the process of organising a Traslado, information
provided by local informants suggest a number of differences from
the standardised institutional process in other parts of Spain, i.e., as
documented in Barriendos (1999). In Doñana, Traslados were
organised by lay people with little interference from local
authorities. The organisation process followed custom and non-
formal institutions, relying on oral communication. First, one or a
few people who were concerned with an environmental anomaly
suggested the possibility of organising a Traslado in conversations
at the village square or other popular meeting places. The
Fig. 3. Glazed ceramic composition on a wall in the Almonte village. The passage
refers to three religious ceremonies held in 1738 in response ‘[. . .] to the severe
drought that devastated crops and livestock causing even many casualties among
the locals’.
Photograph: Erik Gómez-Baggethun.
646 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650

Table 2
Reconstruction of the main episodes of crises in Doñana (1577–1956), as recorded in the Actas Capitulares and liturgical records of the municipality of Almonte.

Century Year Event Reported impacts Actas Capitulares and liturgical records

16th C. (from 1577) – – – –

17th C. 1607 Drought Crops A.C. (07/05/1605)
1636 Drought Crops A.C. (22/03/1636)
1638 Drought Crops A.C. (11/04/1638)
1653 Drought Crops/Famines A.C. (25/04/1653)
1694 Drought Crops A.C. (11/04/1694)

18th C. 1700 Drought Crops A.C. (26/04/1700)

1703 Drought Crops A.C. (15/04/1703)
1706 War Human casualties A.C. (29/06/1706)
1711 Drought Crops A.C. (18/04/1711)
1720 Drought Crops and rising food prices A.C. (06/03/1720)
1730 Drought and pests Crops, diseases A.C. (14/04/1730)
1734 Drought Crops, rising food prices, diseases A.C. (06/03/1734)
1737 Drought Crops, pastures, food prices A.C. (21/03/1737)
1738a Drought Crops and pasture failure, cattle, A.C. (21/02/1738, 29/04/1738, 23/05/1738
rising food prices, human casualties, and 28/06/1738)
diseases
1750 Drought Crops, unemployment, pastures, A.C. (08/05/1750 and 15/05/1750)
rising food prices, famines
1753 Drought Crops A.C. (06/01/1753)
1755 Earthquake Infrastructure damages and ten A.C. (19/03/1738 and 10/03/1755)
human casualties
1760 Pest outbreak Human casualties A.C. (17/08/1780)

19th C. 1807 Drought Crops A.C. (05/03/1807)

1851b Drought Crops Cruz de Fuentes (1908), cited by
Flores Cala (2005)
1859 Drought Crops A.C. (27/03/1859)
b
20th C. (until 1956) 1902 Drought and economic crises Crops, social conflicts Muñoz Bort and Flores Cala (2001),
Flores Cala (2005)
1903 Drought and economic crises Crops, social conflicts A.C. (09/05/1903)
1905 Drought and economic crises Crops, social conflicts A.C. (25/02/1905 and 03/06/1905)
1907 Drought and economic crises Crops, social conflicts A.C. (30/03/1907)
1930b Drought Crops Flores Cala (2005)

A.C., Acta Capitular.

a
Three processions were held during this year.
b
Cases in which the original A.C. record was not available.

suggestion spread orally among the locals, who discussed the
appropriateness of the proposed Traslado in small groups. If the
proposal received wide popular support, then the Confraternity of
the Virgin commanded the preparations to the local council and
informed the parish Church of Almonte of the Traslado. Finally,
local people carried the image of the Virgin from El Rocı́o to
Almonte. The image of the Virgin was transported 15 km, from the
chapel of El Rocı́o hamlet, where the image normally rests, to the
village of Almonte (the path is marked in Fig. 1).
We identified 42 religious ceremonies held between 1577 and
1956 from the Actas Capitulares. Infante Galán (1971) mentions 12
additional Traslados that were variously motivated by droughts,
wars, and pests, but we were unable to find original documents or
direct transcriptions regarding these events, so we excluded them
from the analysis. Of the 42 verifiable processions, 39 were
registered in the original documents – 38 in the Actas Capitulares
and one in a liturgical record. Another three are missing in these
documents for different reasons, such as the destruction of files
during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), but they are registered
in other written sources with direct transcriptions of the original
documents (see Flores Cala, 2005) and were therefore included in
the analysis.
Of the 42 verifiable Traslados, 35 (83.3%) were related to
environmental or human-induced disturbances. Another six (all of
which were conducted in the 20th century) were held for other
reasons, such as inaugurations after restorations of the chapel or
the arrival of electricity to Almonte. One event in 1890 was held for
unknown reasons. An overview of the Traslados in response to
crises is provided in Table 2, together with related disturbances,
the year of occurrence, reported damages, and the source of
information.
Of the 35 verified religious ceremonies that were held in
response to crises, only four resulted from disturbances of a social
origin, namely wars. The other 31 related to biophysical
disturbances, including 26 droughts, four pest outbreaks, and
the great earthquake of 1755 earthquake known as the Lisbon
earthquake, that triggered a tsunami and flooded the entire region,
causing devastating damages and ten human casualties in Doñana
(Romero Dorado, 2012) (Table 3).
5. Discussion
The results from the two datasets capture practices that were
used to cope with disturbances at two different scales: recurrent
disturbances with frequencies spanning from years to decades and
extreme disturbances with frequencies spanning from decades to
centuries. Memory of responses to recurrent disturbances, such as
floods, fires, and moderate drought, could be found among
individuals, whereas memory of responses to extreme distur-
bances, such as earthquakes and prolonged drought, required
coding in rituals and institutions to be kept in the collective
memory of the community.
We interpret our results in relation to two core ideas: (1) most
of the coping practices were related to management of drought, the
most disruptive disturbance in the study area, and (2) the shared
system of local beliefs played a critical role in maintaining long-
term social–ecological resilience by facilitating collective
responses and preventing social unrest.
 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650
Table 3
Overview of the temporal distribution of the disturbances that triggered religious ceremonies in Doñana, reconstructed from the Actas Capitulares and liturgical records of the
Municipality of Almonte (1577–1956).
Crises Century
Origin Type 16th C. (1577–) 17th C.
Human Wars 0 0
Natural Droughts 0 5
Pests 0 1
Earthquakes 0 0
No. of disturbances 0 6
5.1. Vulnerability to drought
Most of the coping practices documented in this research,
including weather forecasts, food storage, adjustments to harvest-
ing pressure, selection of drought-adapted species, and diversifi-
cation of resources, were directly or indirectly related to drought
management. Furthermore, droughts account for 74.3% of the
religious ceremonies that were held in relation to disturbances
(Table 3).
The information on the social and economic damages compiled
from the Actas Capitulares suggest that droughts were by far the
most disruptive disturbance to the basic provision of ecosystem
services, such as crops, pastures, and game. As expected in a region
where agriculture has historically been the basis for subsistence,
the Actas Capitulares mention crop failure as the primary impact
caused by droughts. The Actas Capitulares report that droughts led
to crop failures, unemployment, food shortages, and even human
casualties, thereby paving the way for social unrest. In addition to
food crops, the historical documents mention two other ecosystem
services that were severely affected by drought: pastures to feed
sheep and livestock, presumably via a reduced performance of the
primary productivity under water stress, and game, presumably
via a reduced abundance of wild food. Both of these provisioning
services were important complements for the income and
nutrition of the locals of Doñana during the subsistence period
(e.g., Villa Dı́az et al., 2000). Thus, judging from the impacts
reported in the historical documents, our results allow us to
hypothesise that extreme water stress pushed the system close to
its social–ecological resilience thresholds via declines in the
critical ecosystem services for livelihood security.
Interestingly, prolonged wet and stormy periods, known to be a
major stimulus of religious ceremonies in other parts of Spain
(Domı́nguez Castro et al., 2008), do not account for any social crises
involving religious ceremonies in the study area (except for the
flooding caused by the earthquake-driven tsunami of 1755). This
result is surprising in a coastal area located at a river mouth, where
flooding has been a major historical threat to the marsh dwellers
(González Arteaga, 1993). We offer two explanations for this bias
of religious ceremonies towards water deficits versus water
excesses. The first explanation relates to the interplay of edaphic
factors with the institution of the religious ceremonies. As
mentioned, the villages in the study area are settled in two types
of environmental units: a marshland with impermeable clayey
materials and aeolian sheets with sandy soils that are unable to
retain water. Although the cult of the Virgin is distributed
throughout the whole Doñana region (Flores Cala, 2005), the
religious ceremonies were arranged in Almonte, at the aeolian
sheets. This geographic distribution may have resulted in a larger
representation of impacts from droughts than from floods because
the villagers with the power to request ceremonies were more
affected by droughts.
An alternative explanation relates to the interplay between
specific disturbances and social responses. In the absence of
647
Total %
18th C. 19th C. 20th C. (–1956)
1 1 2 4 11.4
13 3 5 26 74.3
1 2 0 4 11.4
1 0 0 1 2.9
16 6 7 35
modern technology, the local practices to cope with flooding may
have been more effective than those used to address drought. Our
informants among local users perceived they had effective means
to cope with flooding, e.g., through forecasting and mobility (see
Table 3), while they felt that little could be performed to cope with
drought, thereby leaving spirituality and beliefs as the sole
available resorts.
Our data suggest two major types of response to drought at the
study site that are potentially valid for a wide range of traditional
Mediterranean societies. First, as long as the magnitude of the
disturbances remained within certain limits, traditional practices
to cope with environmental change (e.g., pooling, sharing, and
storage) apparently sufficed to secure the people’s livelihood. In
cases of prolonged drought, however, these practices were unable
to maintain ecosystem service flows within tolerable bounds,
which led locals to organise religious ceremonies (Barriendos,
1999). Thus, both types of responses can be seen as interrelated
elements of a complex system of knowledge (e.g., forecasts),
practices (storage and sharing mechanisms), and beliefs (religious
ceremonies) that allowed the community to build resilience in the
context of disturbances of varying intensity and operating at
different frequencies or time scales.
5.2. Beliefs and community resilience
A second important result of our work relates to the role of the
local system of shared beliefs in maintaining social–ecological
resilience by creating social cohesion during crises. Given the
autarchic nature of the economy in the studied period, the failure
of resource systems typically resulted in generalised scarcity and
even famine (Flores Cala, 2005). In this context and prior to the
generalised mechanisation of resource systems, the local system of
shared beliefs, and in particular the institution of ceremonies,
seems to have been the last available resort in response to
environmental extremes.
In addition to providing an expectation of relief, religious
processions had associated effects that may also have contributed
to building resilience. For example, according to Flores Cala (2005),
during processions, local authorities provided food to the porters of
the image, who were recruited from among the lowest social
strata, thus contributing to alleviating the food shortage to these
people and their families in critical times. Furthermore, this author
suggests that the public expenditure for the ceremonial proces-
sions could stimulate the local economy in times of crises, through
the investments in repairing the tracks along which the Virgin was
carried and in the decoration and repair of official buildings (Flores
Cala, 2005).
Our findings regarding the role of beliefs in response to change
are consistent with previous research in Spain and elsewhere,
indicating that spirituality can promote community resilience to
cope with disaster (Christian, 1982; Lawson and Cecelia, 2007). We
can identify two complementary pathways through which religious
ceremonies nurtured resilience to environmental extremes. First,
648 E. Gómez-Baggethun et al. / Global Environmental Change 22 (2012) 640–650
the ceremonies might have increased the social–ecological resil-
ience by enhancing social cohesion. Anthropological research on
traditional societies shows that social relations and reciprocity
systems within communities are likely to deteriorate during crises
and famine, increasing the likelihood of robbery, murder, and revolts
(Sahlins, 1972; Ember and Ember, 1992). In this sense, religious
ceremonies might have helped to enhance community cohesion
when food scarcity paved the way for social unrest. The perception of
droughts as punishment for some community behaviour and the
shared faith in the power of the Virgin to condone the behaviour and
restore environmental conditions might have played a critical role in
maintaining social order when environmental disturbance might
have otherwise generated social disruption.
An illustrative example of the importance of orderly social
response to environmental extremes is provided by the contrast
between the societal response to disasters in places like New
Orleans after the Atlantic hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Japan after
the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Whereas reports of
carjacking, murders, plundering, and rapes flooded the news
during the former, images of patient queues in front of the food
stores were the norm during the second. This finding supports the
idea that socially and culturally constructed behaviours can
aggravate or, as in our example, help to alleviate the effects of
environmental disasters (Oliver-Smith, 1996; Hoffman and Oliver-
Smith, 2002; Paton and Johnston, 2006). From the governance
perspective, the institution of religious ceremonies to the Virgin
might have acted as a social galvaniser, i.e., as a governance
practice to create expectations until relief (rain) arrived, thereby
minimising the likelihood of revolts.
Resilience scholars have provided important insights into how
community resilience depends on collective action based on
networks of relationships, reciprocity, and trust (Adger, 2003;
Ostrom and Ahn, 2003; Pretty, 2003; Adger et al., 2005; Pelling
and High, 2005). However, our research suggests that under-
standing the deeper cultural dimension, as expressed in the belief
system shared by a given community, can be of crucial
importance to understand how long-term social–ecological
resilience is created. Our findings corroborate previous research
suggesting that religion and shared systems of beliefs can play a
critical role in mobilising communities to cope with extremes by
enhancing social cohesion and facilitating regulation (Crawford
et al., 2006; Masten and Obradovic, 2008). This issue requires
further attention in research on resilience in social–ecological
systems.
6. Conclusions
Understanding the mechanisms that create social–ecological
resilience to natural disaster has become a fundamental question
in the face of the increased frequency and uncertainty of hazards
arising as a result of global environmental changes (McLean and
Tsyban, 2001; Hanson and Roberts, 2005). The Doñana case study
provides support for the call to understand cultural contexts in
social–ecological resilience analyses (Folke, 2006). Traditional
knowledge systems and associated institutions represent a
reservoir of long-term memory of the social–ecological adapta-
tions to change (Crumley, 2000; Barthel et al., 2010). Such memory
is often difficult to unravel because it is usually embedded in local
cultures and coded in rituals and institutions (Berkes, 1999). By
focusing on how local knowledge, practices, and institutions to
address disturbances are embedded in the belief system, our study
helps to reveal the social–ecological memory of Doñana. We show
how traditional knowledge and shared systems of beliefs can play a
critical role in enhancing the social–ecological resilience to hazards
and maintaining the capacity of ecosystems to provide essential
services over time.
Currently, in Doñana, as in many parts of the world, the
remaining pockets of traditional knowledge have lost their
influence in land-use management, and spiritual beliefs have
been decoupled from environmental dynamics. The way in which
this change might have affected the social–ecological resilience in
Doñana is uncertain but may be explored from the community
response to the last environmental catastrophe that occurred in
Doñana. In 1998, the mine spill of the Aznalcollar tailings dam
released 4.5 million m3 of water polluted with heavy metals into
the Doñana National Park. A survey conducted in the area
following the catastrophe revealed that the mine spill did not
apparently motivate substantial collective action; farmers focused
on obtaining individual monetary compensations rather than on
organising a response at the community level (Sauri et al., 2003).
Historical factors contributing to the loss of traditional
knowledge in Doñana include the centralisation of decision-
making regarding resource management (Ojeda Rivera and Moral
Ituarte, 2004), enclosures (Ojeda Rivera, 1987), and enforcement of
conservation policies that restrict access to resources that were
formerly depended upon for livelihood (Gómez-Baggethun et al.,
2010). These changes reflect the situation that is now often
confronted by rural people in many developing countries (Borrini-
Feyerabend et al., 2007).
Allowing traditional knowledge to vanish may reduce adapta-
tion options for the future. As noted by McIntosh et al. (2000, p. 3),
‘‘by ignoring the great laboratory of millennia of responses to
environmental change, we condemn ourselves to reinventing a
very complex wheel in the face of one of humanity’s greatest
challenges’’. Any attempt to create new management and
governance approaches to meet the challenge of increased
uncertainty due to global environmental change should draw
not only on traditional knowledge but also on the social–ecological
memories embedded in local cultures. This memory, including
traditional knowledge and institutions, is an important comple-
ment to science and technology for creating governance and
management systems that are attuned to local contexts and for
building long-term social–ecological resilience.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Marta Granizo for her assistance in
the review of the historical documents, to Luis Rico, Sara
Mingorrı́a, and Laura Calvet for their assistance with the
fieldwork, to the Almonte Council for facilitating access to their
historical archive, to Águeda Villa for the digital transcriptions of
the Actas Capitulares, to Bárbara Castro for artwork, to Ignacio
Palomo for cartographic work, to Rufino Acosta, Irene Iniesta, and
Esteve Corbera for their comments on a preliminary version, to all
of the local informants, and to two anonymous referees for their
comments on a previous version of this manuscript. This research
was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Environmental, Rural and
Marine Affairs.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.02.005.
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