Original subtitles

(crickets chirping) (light music)

Landscapes of bewitching beauty.

Unique.

Species rich.

Exemplary.

Because something extraordinary is happening here.

These natural habitats remain in tact

only because humans intervene and shape them.

A new pact with nature.

(light music) (crickets chirping)

(upbeat polka music)

The Swiss Alps,

one of the most impressive landscapes in the world.

For many, this is pure nature.

And there is indeed a great diversity

of animals and plants in the Alps.

In summer, the alpine meadows are transformed

into a species rich sea of flowers.

(bright music)

But few people know that the mountain pastures

are a man-made paradise.

Without grazing, this would all be forest.

Farmers have been driving their livestock

up to the mountain pastures for centuries

and it's that that has created this mosaic

of meadows, forests and rock.

But this age-old tradition could disappear

and with it, the alpine pastures

because there are fewer and fewer herdsman

and mountain farmers.

The Swiss have recognized the danger.

Can they succeed in preserving the diversity

of the mountain landscape?

(bright music)

Grison is the biggest of Switzerland's cantons.

For centuries, this region of the heart of the Alps

was considered poor.

The people here had to use

the highland as well as the lowland areas

to meet the needs of their herds.

Nowadays, Grison is a favorite holiday destination

and a region in which the landscape

looks like it does in the publicity.

(dogs barking)

But there still is hard work.

In summer, animals and people live 2,000 meters up

far away from the nearest village.

Many Swiss people no longer want to do this work.

So many shepherds, men and women, come from abroad.

Like Lean Jabali.

Lean's been working in Switzerland for over 10 years.

She grew up in Jordan and Sweden.

This summer, she's up on the Corn de Stelles Alp,

not far from Kua,

in charge of nearly 900 sheep and eight dogs.

(mumbling)

Her working day begins just after dawn.

First, she checks that all is well with her animals.

Despite the large number, she knows each sheep individually

and notices immediately if something's wrong.

(Lean mumbling) (sheep baaing)

What Lean does used to be part

of every day life in Switzerland.

Nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to find shepherds.

The solitude up here puts a lot of people off.

I love being alone with the animals.

I love nature.

And I find it so interesting,

the movements of the animals, the sheep and the dogs.

I'm my own boss up here somehow.

I decide what I want to do during the day more or less.

I mean, some things I have to do, of course.

The freedom up here, the routine of this job,

gives me freedom.

(yells)

Hey.

(yells)

The sheep have their own routine.

Their job for the day is eating.

(sheep baaing) (bells tinkling)

For hundreds of years, the farmers have had their animals

taken up to the high pastures

and tended in the summer months.

It's called summering.

Lean is completely alone up here.

If a sheep needs medical attention, she knows what to do.

Turn the animal on its back and it keeps still.

The nearest vet is a long way away.

This time, it's just a small wound

which Lean can treat with ointment.

What's hard is when you have sick animals,

for example, or you have to kill an animal,

to put an animal to sleep,

because it's too sick, it's not going to survive.

But it's a part of the job and you have to take it

but it's hard to do that.

It is.

The Corn de Stelles Alp is big.

Up to 1,200 sheep can graze here.

This summer, it's around 900.

As in many alp pastures in the region,

the numbers are slowly declining.

In the past, all the sheep belonged to the farmers

in the nearby villages in the valley.

Now, though, a lot of alps are also taking in sheep

boarded out from other regions

because more and more sheep farmers

are going out of business.

(playful music)

That's not always because of economic necessity.

Life in Switzerland has changed.

In many villages these days,

tourism is far more important than agriculture.

Many young people are moving to the cities

and a lot of farmers have no one to take over.

Arno Casty has kept sheep for over 50 years.

He took over the farm from his parents and grandparents.

Now he's over 80

and still goes into the barn every day.

He can't imagine living without his animals.

In summer, there's not a lot to do down here in the valley.

Most of the sheep are grazing up on the alp with Lean.

Just a few lambs are left down here.

(lamb baaing) (bells tinkling)

Arno's children have chosen different careers,

so he'll probably be the last sheep farmer in the family.

(Arno talking in foreign language)

The young people don't want to be tied down.

They've got sports and other activities.

Haymaking and everything, the work has to be done

and it doesn't bring in much these days, it's true.

It would be better to hand on the small business.

That would be good.

Otherwise, you just have to stop.

Everything comes to an end, after all.

(Arno speaking in foreign language)

Small operations like his especially

also have economic difficulties.

When farmers like Arno Casty give up,

that makes itself felt up in the mountains.

The harsh life of the past has left its mark in the Alps.

And down the centuries have brought immense wealth

to the mountains.

A wealth of habitats, plants and animals.

This diversity is threatened

if animals no longer graze here.

(light music)

Reto Elmer has been observing the changes for years.

He's an expert in plant cultivation at Planterhof,

a state-run farming consultancy.

In summer, he's often out and about in the mountains,

checking the condition of the meadows and pastureland.

(speaking in foreign language)

Here we can see clearly

the different stages of under usage.

First, the mat grass is grazed less

and spreads more and more,

followed by heather and juniper, which also spread.

And finally, we have a solid area of juniper

and that's completely lost to grazing of course.

Reto Elmer is seeing how bushes and forests

are increasingly replacing flower meadows.

Up to a thousand hectares are disappearing every year

in the Swiss Alps.

It's an insidious process.

Once the encroachment has started,

it sparks a viscous circle.

Cows and other animals avoid these areas

and the bushes and trees take over

more of the Alp pastureland.

(upbeat music)

For some time now,

a special assault force is being deployed,

Grison striped goats.

Every three days, they're moved to a new location.

And then they set about what other grazing animals spurn.

Green alders, for example.

The state is backing the project

because keeping goats is expensive and time-consuming.

Movable fences are needed and a goat herd

must always be there, which all costs money.

No plants can survive this sort of onslaught for long.

The goats even cope with branches as thick as an arm.

They're as effective as chainsaws

and they don't need petrol, just bushes and young trees.

(man speaking in foreign language)

The problem with sides and chainsaws

is that the shrubs carry on growing,

especially the alder.

Cut it down and it comes back twice as strong,

leave them more strength.

It just strengthens roots, we've tried it.

The most effective method is the goats.

Then the bushes slowly die off.

The goats will have plenty to do

in years to come.

They can slow down bush encroachment,

but they can't stop it completely.

(bright music) (bells tinkling)

The best way is to prevent encroachment in the first place,

but for that, the meadows need to be grazed by livestock,

which takes money and effort.

(sheep baaing)

To stop the sheep from falling

or spreading out all over the huge area,

Lean regularly has to set up fences,

a strenuous task in this steep terrain.

When one area has been grazed,

the shepherd and her animals move on.

In midsummer, they're constantly moving up.

The animals have so many rights in Switzerland

and that I really like.

I think that's why I ended up in Switzerland.

And they really look to the nature,

which I also find very important.

It's not only about the animals,

it's about the whole picture.

It's how everything goes together that's important.

(bell dings)

Catering for the shepherds

also involves cost and effort.

The nearest supermarket is a long way away.

At the start of summer, all their provisions are delivered

to the alp by helicopter.

Afterwards, the only fresh food

is what visitors bring with them.

With one exception: fresh goat's milk.

That's literally waiting on the doorstep every day.

Once she's looked after the animals,

Lean allows herself a break.

The hut is a home and her office.

There's paperwork to be done even up here.

Lean has to keep the field journal.

Everything is precisely recorded,

weather, animal illness or medicines she has to administer.

The shepherd's life reminds Lean

of her young years in Jordan.

A lot of her relatives worked as shepherds.

Another reason why she loves her time on the alp.

Many say that I'm stuck up here the whole summer.

But for me, it's the opposite.

When I'm down in the valley in winter, I'm stuck.

When I'm up here in summer, I'm free.

(upbeat Polka music)

But not many people feel like Lean these days.

It's harder and harder to find shepherds

able and willing to put in the hard work.

These two are also migrant workers

and come from Austria.

For many years, they've worked every summer in Switzerland.

(cow bells clammer)

The shepherds also need paying,

but farming in the mountains brings in very little money.

That's why in Switzerland, the state is heavily engaged.

It's investing a lot of money

to preserve biodiversity and ancient traditions.

By early July, Reto Elmer from Planterhof,

the state consultancy institute,

is up in the mountains every day.

He's mapping rare plants.

(camera shutter clicks)

Like rampion,

kidney vetch,

alpine thyme

and campanula.

These plants show that the meadow ecosystem is in tact here.

(Reto speaking in foreign language)

All these flowers, the colors and the scents,

that's something very beautiful.

(horn sounds)

When Reto Elmer certifies

the high species diversity here,

it means hard cash for the farmers.

He takes out a six meter diameter circle on the alp.

He needs to find at least six of 25 selected alpine flowers

known as indicator plants.

Every hectare that meets this requirement

qualifies for a sum of money as a subsidy.

The farmers are paid the equivalent

of about 130 euros per hectare,

provided that the species diversity is large enough.

Here, everything's fine.

(Reto speaks in foreign language)

The quality is very, very good.

On this test area,

we found at least 12 of these indicator plants.

It's a very fine location.

The quality is extremely good.

It seems contradictory that cows

eating plants and flowers preserve the biodiversity.

Grazing animals prevent certain species from taking over

and the growth of grasses is even stimulated by grazing.

Over time, grasses and grass eaters

have adapted to one another.

(Reto speaks in foreign language)

Grazing is essential for ensuring

the species richness is preserved.

If there's less grazing, dwarf shrubs gradually move in

and suppress this great diversity.

Without government subsidies,

it often wouldn't be worthwhile these days

taking livestock up into the mountains.

In addition to the biodiversity bonus, there are subsidies

known as summering contributions for each alp,

with which, for example, the shepherds can be paid.

(speaking in foreign language)

The state invests around 150 million euros a year

to promote grazing and biodiversity.

This outlay is already showing good results

for the mountain pastures and for the farmers.

But for a few years now,

the sheep farmers have been contending

with a new challenge: wolves.

Missing for nearly 400 years, they're back again.

Jan Boner is the livestock protection commissioner

for the Canton of Grison.

Today, he's on his way to Lean

because the Corn de Stelles Alp

is in the middle of the territory of a wolf pack.

Abusive prey also add to the species diversity

and at the same time are controversial among the locals.

(light music) (cowbells clammer)

The farmers and shepherds especially

are worried about their animals.

The number of wolves is growing every year

and increasingly often they snatch grazing livestock.

That's a big problem for the sheep farmers.

It's Jan Boner's job to help them.

(sheep baaing)

Six herd protection dogs live among the sheep

on the Corn de Stelles Alp, day and night

and look after them

in addition to the herding dogs

who live close together with the shepherds.

The protection dogs, in contrast,

aren't much interested in humans.

Their families are the sheep.

Jan Boner trains dogs and takes care

that they're from good stock,

like the dogs that Lean works with.

(mumbling)

Herd protection dogs have a demanding job.

They need to learn to distinguish between friend and foe,

which isn't so easy.

The alp may be remote,

but it's not only wolves who visit.

Sometimes hikers come by with dogs.

(Jan speaking in foreign language)

Baryvan is still young

and is in the middle of her training.

Jan Boner and Lean Jabali are working towards the test

that every herd protection dog has to take.

Over the next 10 days, a collar with a transmitter

will record all the dog's movements.

The outlay for the dog training is great,

as are their responsibilities.

(Jan speaking in foreign language)

Baryvan is a female and Italian

herd protection dog.

Her job is to drive the wolves away,

kill them, market them or whatever.

Tourists she has to leave alone.

So she needs to get on well with people.

We also test the relationship with the sheep.

The dog has to show a sense of responsibility for them.

That's the basic training.

Beyond the herd, we also examine

the dog's own stability and self-confidence.

It's exposed to optical and acoustic signals

to see if it freaks out

and how long it takes to calm down again.

(upbeat music) (dogs barking)

The deterrent effect works.

When there are protection dogs with the sheep,

wolves look for other prey.

Deer, for example.

But protection can never be 100%.

In wolf territory, sheep farmers have to expect

that they'll lose animals from time to time.

I lost 10 sheep

because of the wolf.

Yeah, he's back.

It's a fact.

And I think I just have to do what I can

to protect the sheep.

(dogs barking)

(sheep baaing)

That includes herding the sheep

together at night,

for which she is dependent on her two herding dogs.

(Lean yells)

She trained her dog Sia herself.

Her I trust, yes, 100%

because she sees also danger.

So she does not just bring the sheep or push the sheep.

When she sees that there's a cliff,

she waits and she takes it easy.

So her, I can really trust

'cause she thinks for herself as well.

(bright music)

Lean has to round up nearly 900 sheep

into the nighttime fold.

It takes one to two hours every night.

Human and animals are a well-coordinated team.

For the herding dogs, it's the high point of the day.

Border collies and other herding races

are especially bred for this work.

People have been setting them to work

in the fields for centuries.

Herding and tending is in their blood.

(sheep baaing) (dogs barking)

In the past when there weren't yet any wolves in Grison,

the sheep were allowed to wander free

in the meadows at night.

A lot of sheep farmers even left their sheep

in the mountains without shepherds.

The Corn de Stelles Alp, where Lean works,

also managed without shepherds for some years.

Unthinkable today.

The losses will be too big.

The herd protection dogs stay overnight with the sheep,

guarding by shepherds, her protection dogs and by penning.

Nothing more can be done to keep the sheep safe from wolves.

I also have animals that die from steinschlag,

that fall down, that are sick

and it's also nature.

And those cases are much more

than the ones who get killed from the wolf.

Wolves are not the biggest problem,

but they have made alpine grazing more demanding.

Farmers have been grazing their livestock in the Swiss Alps

for many hundreds of years

and for most of that time,

there were wolves here as well.

It's just that humans have forgotten

how to deal with the predators.

There's not all that much to eat

in the grazing areas of the alps, so in some regions,

the sheep have to be moved on in midsummer,

as with this herd, about 50 kilometers away from Lean.

At the beginning of July,

the first area is grazed out

and the shepherds drive around 500 sheep

to another alp near the Austrian border.

They have a long trek ahead of them.

It'll take them a good eight hours.

It takes a lot of effort and a vet has to be present.

The shepherds and all the sheep farmers also take part.

(sheep baaing) (bells tinkling)

(man yelling)

They make a stop over at the Gruescher Alp farm

for a health check,

a chance for the farmers to take another close look

at their animals.

Jan Boner is responsible for organizing the move.

He keeps some sheep himself as a sideline.

All the animals are put through a disinfection bath.

This protects against foot rot,

a dangerous and infectious inflammation of the hooves.

A good opportunity to count the sheep.

(Jan speaking in foreign language)

All there, down to the last one,

thanks not just to the good weather,

but also to the shepherds.

We're really pleased.

(sheep baaing)

(men talking in foreign language)

Some new arrivals need registering

and are treated for worms.

Finally, they set off again.

They'll be on route for another five hours at least.

It's uphilL towards the Zuelschlu Peak.

The new grazing area is nearly 2,400 meters up.

It's a stressful move for both humans and animals,

but then they'll have nearly three months

of peace and quiet.

(slow polka music)

Most of the sheep in Grison

are kept for lambs, meat and wool,

but that no longer brings in much of a return.

So up on the Borden Alp in Langwies,

they're looking for alternatives.

David Zippert also keeps sheep, but for milk.

His family has been farming

the local alpine pastures for 400 years.

He wants to keep up the old traditions

and is there for looking for new ways

to market his products.

David Zippert would like to be at least partly independent

of government subsidies,

so he's come up with new ideas.

Every summer, he takes his family up into the mountains.

(David speaks in foreign language)

What I like best is the beauty of nature.

Every day in the mountains with the animals

and the plant life, that gives me a lot of strength.

And of course, it's great to work together as a family,

with my wife and often the children join in.

That's by no means standard.

Impossible in many occupations.

(upbeat music)

Every evening, he milks his sheep.

That's rare in Grison.

Sheep's cheese is not traditional here.

David Zippert wants to secure new sources of income

in case the state cuts back its support at some point.

Next, please.

The sheep are milked for around five months,

then they're services by the ram.

Until then, they produce about a liter of milk a day.

The milk is processed immediately.

David travels down to the valley at least twice a week

to his own dairy where he produces organic sheep's cheese.

Production takes about half a day.

All handmade, and therefore labor-intensive.

The finished cheese is put in the maturing chamber

and after four or five days, can then be wrapped.

The Zipperts supply village shops and restaurants

in the region.

The sheep's cheese business is doing well,

but they couldn't support themselves from it alone.

(David speaks in foreign language)

For our business,

the direct payments from the state

are an important part of the turnover.

Farming all the land is a lot of work,

especially when you produce hay,

partly on steep slopes.

That would not be viable through product sales alone.

David is also pursuing unusual paths

as far as grazing is concerned.

He also has ponies, horses and donkeys up on the alp,

alternating with the sheep.

That's also supported by the state.

It's very good for the biodiversity

and condition of the meadows

because the animals graze on different plants.

(David speaks in foreign language)

The dry grass here forms tussets

that the sheep don't like eating.

But donkeys and horses are happy to eat it

and in addition, if you keep these animals in the meadows,

it ensures that a balanced mixture

of weeds, grasses and flowers is maintained.

(light polka music)

Maintaining the alpine landscape

can be achieved both through

old traditions and new approaches.

Nevertheless, the way the alps are worked

has changed very little in centuries.

It's nature that sets the pace up here.

Summer is coming to its close.

It's already quite cold in the mountains.

Soon, the first snow will come.

At the end of September, Lean is getting ready

to drive the sheep down the mountain.

(dogs barking) (Lean yelling)

She spent a good four months with the animals

up in the mountains. (Lean yelling)

Now she has to take the 900 sheep entrusted to her

safely down into the valley.

The descent is the culmination of the year.

(upbeat polka music)

The rock tunnel is a bottleneck along the way,

but as soon as the first sheep are through,

the rest of the herd follow.

There's another 10 kilometers to go

and around a thousand meters in altitude

down to the village.

The sheep have to be kept moving

not too fast and not too slow.

The right pace is important for the herd to keep together.

Krisjon Elny is responsible

for everything running smoothly.

(men yelling)

A brief stop for the herd to come together again.

When the paths get wider,

individual sheep keep breaking away and if things go wrong,

hundreds of others can quickly follow.

So it's vital that no group heads off in the wrong direction

and, for example, disappears into the forest.

Lean is responsible for ensuring

that no sheep gets lost.

Without her dogs, she wouldn't stand a chance.

(Lean yelling)

The herding dogs will cover the whole distance

several times over today.

Everyone's relieved

that the weather's playing along this year.

Often, they're overtaken by rain or snow by this time.

That's not only unpleasant,

but makes the descent even more dangerous

than it already is.

Not much further now down to the valley.

They've taken about two and a half hours so far

and descended a good thousand meters in altitude.

Kyle Elny's sheep barn.

This is where most of the sheep live.

(sheep baaing) (bells clammer)

One of the herd protection dogs

has clearly suffered from the hardships of the descent.

He's already 10 years old and ready for retirement.

Next year, he'll stay down below in the valley.

(dog panting)

Some of the animals still have a way to go.

A sophisticated sleuth system

divides them into smaller groups

so that each farmer can take his sheep home.

(metal gates clammer)

Arno Casty who's over 80

has also come along to take delivery of his sheep,

maybe for the last time.

He's probably going to give up keeping sheep soon.

(mumbling) (child jabbering)

His granddaughter and daughter have come with him.

They want to experience Arno's world one more time.

Lean is happy that she's brought the sheep

safety down to the valley.

The season is coming to an end for her.

One more signature and the responsibility for the animals

is back with their owners.

(men calling out)

They all have a special relationship to their animals.

The older ones who have known a completely different world

and the younger ones who are making their own way in life.

State subsidies are helping to maintain alpine farming,

but the farmers want to give their work added value.

With wool, for instance.

In autumn and spring,

professional shearers go from village to village.

The right grip and the sheep holds still

so there are hardly any injuries.

The shearers need two to five minutes per sheep,

resulting in up to four kilograms of wool.

It's hard to believe 10 years ago

this wool was practically worthless,

but the sheep have to be sheared in any case.

Many farmers simply threw the wool away or burned it.

A natural product for the waste bin

because there were just no buyers for it.

What looks soft and fluffy

is actually unpleasant to the skin.

The fleece of alpine sheep is relatively short and scratchy.

Very different, say, from merino wool.

The Swiss stand no chance

against the competition from New Zealand,

but thanks to a clever sales idea,

the situation is improving.

The farmers still don't make a lot of money from their wool,

but there are now takers.

They're not just marketing the product itself,

but also advertising everything connected with it:

the countryside, tradition and a lifestyle.

And slowly, the price of wool is rising.

Instead of throwing the wool away or burning it,

the farmers now take it to collection points.

The biggest customer is the Swiss Wool Company.

It collects almost half of Switzerland's wool.

They accept everything the farmers bring them

and pay cash in hand.

The idea behind Swiss wool is working out.

A lot of customers, especially in Switzerland,

are willing to pay a bit more for the guaranteed origin.

The original Swiss wool is processed not in Switzerland,

but in Germany, in Dinkelsbühl near Stuttgart.

After washing it, it weighs half of what it did before.

They produce around 200 tons of Swiss wool here every year.

(Friedrich speaking in foreign language)

It's typically for mattresses.

We call it B quality.

A is for clothing.

It's being processed now.

We load it on the truck tonight

and tomorrow it'll be in Switzerland at the mattress makers.

The Swiss wool label was established

around 10 years ago.

More and more products have been introduced

for quilts, felt, luden cloths and jacket padding.

Even for fleece and insulating material.

The label, grown in Switzerland, is a selling point.

The alpine farmers benefit from Swiss wool

as does the environment.

There are no long transport routes

and in lots of cases,

wool and fleece is even replacing manmade fiber products.

(light music)

In Grison, winter has set in.

A few months ago, sheep, cows and goats

were still grazing here.

The alps are hardly recognizable.

Up to three meters of snow

are not uncommon at this altitude.

(bell rings)

The sheep spend the cold winter months in the barn

and live off the hay that the farmers made

in summer in the valley.

In winter, too, the herd protection dogs

are always with the sheep.

That's no problem is a big barn like this,

but for farmers with only a few sheep,

it can be difficult to accommodate the dogs.

For all the farmers, the running costs for food and vets

are paid for once again by the state.

(sheep baaing)

Sheep farmer Kyle Enly

and her protection consultant Jan Boner

are checking the animals.

Their work never stops.

Soon it will be the lambing season.

(upbeat polka music)

Everyone's waiting for the snow to melt.

The landscape that the Swiss are so proud of

cannot be taken for granted.

It will only be preserved if cows, sheep and goats

continue to graze here.

If there are people like Lean,

willing to live with the animals

on the alp for months on end,

if the Swiss continue to finance landscape conservation,

then Switzerland will remain a model

for other mountain regions.

(sheep baaing) (bells tinkling)