Transhumance is a form of livestock management extensive, consisting in the displacement of seasonal livestock between areas of high or higher latitude, designed to summer pastures, and low lying areas or in lower latitude, in which the cattle spend the winter, following regular routes established. In the mediterranean region, transhumance is a practice that is highly adaptive, since it facilitates the coupling between the activities of grazing and the seasonal peaks of productivity of pastures, thus allowing an optimal exploitation of the existing resources, as well as the possibility of avoiding the most critical periods: summer drought in the lowlands and snow winter in the mountain areas.

The historical importance of livestock farming in Spain and other countries of the Mediterranean basin explains that they have developed an extensive network of VVPP. The desirability of protecting the movements of the herds led to the beginning runners reserved for the cattle in almost all of the iberian peninsula. The VVPP were, therefore, free from the action of the plough, constituting reservoirs or semi-natural habitats that have remained in force since the FIFTEENTH century. In Spain, it is estimated that the network reaches more than 125,000 km in length, which represents an area of 421,000 ha, roughly 1% of the area of the country