We'll take a walk (which can be done on foot or in a vehicle accessible to people with reduced mobility) that will allow us to explore the landscape, paying special attention to the ethnographic elements that facilitate the reestablishment of the species and the benefits for the species, as well as for the complex natural and cultural ecosystem and its intricate balance. It ends with a visit to the Gamoneu Protected Designation of Origin Cheese Factory and a visit to a Natural Cave representative of cheese ripening.
The anthropized landscape of the Cantabrian coast, and particularly the Picos de Europa region, is the legacy of a traditional activity rooted in the distant past, preserving a tangible and intangible heritage of undeniable richness.
The rich ecosystem from which people and livestock derive their sustenance is intertwined with a cultural heritage that, after undergoing various crises and substantial changes, currently faces an uncertain future.
The complex mosaic landscape, composed of cultivated areas, hay meadows, natural mixed grasslands, scrubland, and native forest, is currently threatened by a simplification resulting from neglect. The causes are varied: an economy focused on the service sector, livestock farming increasingly specialized in beef cattle, an aging population, and so on. If we add to these factors a climate change whose effects are becoming more evident every day, with recurring periods of drought and frequent extreme events, the change in the traditional landscape is evident.
The biodiversity associated with this complex landscape, in terms of flora and fauna, is still present and easily observable: common buzzards, kites, swallows, foxes, among others, surround our villages and low-lying valley areas.
