Award Winning Women Goat Herders in Chile Confront Climate Change — Global Issues
OVALLE, Chile, Mar 21 (IPS) – Chile’s goat tradition began in 1544. Now, despite a prolonged drought, the women herders are adapting it to climate change and producing award-winning cheese.Women goat herders in the municipality of Ovalle, in northern Chile, are confronting climate change by defending their heritage through improvements in the quality and variety of their products, which has led some to win international awards for their cheeses.
Encouraged by this international recognition, these herders have adapted to the climate crisis, which in their lands manifests as a severe and prolonged drought that makes water scarce for their goats and reduces the alfalfa in the pastures.
In 2024, the region received only 89.2 millimeters of rainfall, according to measurements at the La Serena Station, the capital of the Coquimbo region, where the municipality of Ovalle is located, about 412 kilometers north of Santiago.
The state of affairs was better than in 2023, but the Limarí River reservoir in Coquimbo was only filled to 15 percent of its capacity.
The drought is pushing herders toward raising goats in stables or corrals, or semi-stabled, with herds receiving part of their feed while confined, though they are let out daily to nearby lands, partially breaking the traditional itinerant grazing system that has been the way of life for goat herders in the area.
“Confined animals don’t yield the same results,” Yasna Molina, 46, from the village of Villaseca, told IPS. Her blue cheese, Anqas, won first prize at the 2024 Copa América during a competition held in Cayambe, in the northern Andes of Ecuador, between August 9 and 11 of that year.
Anqas means “blue” in Cacán, the language of the Diaguita, an indigenous people of northern Chile.
“We’ve had about 25 years of drought,” lamented Molina at her property, named Caprinos Villaseca, in the community of the same name within Ovalle.
From November, during spring, until July, when winter begins, she supplements the diet of her Criollo goats by purchasing dry hay, alfalfa, oats, corn, and concentrates to help them regain weight.
“My Criollo goat has udders close to its body, more rounded, because it climbs, moves through thorns and branches, and jumps fences. It knows how to graze in open pastures,” explained this woman, whose work earned her the National Award for Innovative Women in Agriculture in 2022.
A Saanen goat, she mentions as an example, produces six liters of milk daily, but 12 liters are needed to make one kilogram of cheese. Criollo goats produce three liters, but only five are needed for one kilogram of cheese, and they adapt better to the water crisis and other harsh elements of the Andean ecosystem that climate change is exacerbating.
In November 2024, Molina also participated in the World Cheese Awards in Viseu, Portugal, a competition with over 4,500 cheeses and a jury of 250 technical experts and tasters.
“I made many friends there, with whom I keep in touch and ask about everything,” she told IPS with satisfaction, although her products did not win awards.
Drought Causes Migration
In Coquimbo, there are 5,391 goat cheese producers, according to a survey by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Of these, 80% are small goat herders, and over 60% are women. In this same region, there are 396,000 goats, 65% of Chile’s total.
The climate crisis is forcing goat herders to migrate to distant grazing areas, up the slopes of the Andes Mountains, which run from north to south in this elongated South American country of 19.5 million inhabitants.
“The most profound climate change has been developing for years and is caused by the indiscriminate use of natural pastures and the overexploitation of firewood,” says Claudia Torres.
Manuel Portilla, 67, from Samo Alto in the Coquimbo municipality of Río Hurtado, was forced to migrate to the interior of San Fernando, 140 kilometers south of Santiago, to higher Andean foothills, in the O’Higgins region.
“We moved in 2023 because that year was extremely dry. We took 200 adult goats plus their offspring to Puente Negro, in the mountains, 70 kilometers from the municipality of San Fernando. Here we are still camping,” he told IPS by phone.
He herded his goats over 600 kilometers before settling in Puente Negro, where unexpectedly heavy rain and snow fell in 2024.
“I was left with a quarter of the herd. We had the goats under a shed, but they would get their legs tangled, and with so much water and snow, they would become paralyzed and die,” he recounted.
Serious Problems Due to Climate Change
Agronomist and master in Goat Science Claudia Torres, deputy director of the Center for Arid Zone Studies at the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Chile, is currently the administrator of the Las Cardas Agronomic Experimental Station, outside Coquimbo, a port city with the same name as the region.
In a telephone interview with IPS from that city, she said that the goat herders most affected by climate change are the small ones, who do not invest in feeding their herds because they have always taken them to graze in different areas of the pastures and Andean slopes.
Breeders with fully stabled herds are a minority and “equally affected because they lack water, as a goat in full production drinks 10 liters daily,” she said.
A third group is the “criancero,” as the nomad and extensive breeding herder is locally called, who “escapes direct damage because their exploitation is a way of life and not an economic issue,” she stated.
But regardless of their type of breeding, the limited availability of water is a serious problem for all.
“The most profound climate change has been developing for years and is caused by the indiscriminate use of natural pastures and the overexploitation of firewood,” explained Torres.
Regarding the future of Chilean goat herders due to climate changes, she said, “my greatest fear is that decisions are not made in time. I don’t see a regional policy for watershed management. There is no concept of it. Everything is determined by the money you have.”
She cited the example of the Pan de Azúcar area, also in the Coquimbo region, where avocado and citrus plantations are increasing daily, in a country where the economic weight of agro-exports, controlled by large agro-industries that dominate the existing water resources, is growing.
“It seems like water is endless, and you don’t care about others… They keep drilling deeper wells and have bigger pumps because they have the money to do it. It’s concerning that there is no vision and equal treatment,” that takes into account traditional goat herders, she lamented.
An Award and its Impact
“I am super proud of my heritage. Our region has a distinct cheese flavor, different because of what our goats eat, the protein in their milk, the oils, the salts, and the temperature they reach,” asserted Molina.
On the 11 hectares of family property, she has 75 Criollo goats in a semi-stabled system.
Between July and November, they graze in distant hills, including those of the Canelilla agricultural community, to which her father belongs.
“I am reviving the Criollo goat, which I improve with other breeds because I need a grazing goat,” she explained during the day IPS spent with the goat herder and her animals.
The Criollo goat has adapted well to the arid Mediterranean drylands typical of Coquimbo.
The international award given to Molina has energized other goat herders, who see a newfound appreciation for their work and the products of their goat herds.
Thus, they face the drought and water scarcity with enthusiasm and various strategies.
Elsa Araya, 45, lives in Parral de Quile, within the municipality of Punitaqui, in the coastal drylands of Coquimbo.
She draws water from a well, but “with the drought, the water levels have dropped a lot. Investments are needed that we cannot afford.”
Thanks to support from the state-run Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP), focused on the development of small agricultural producers, she managed to install drip irrigation on a plot where she grows alfalfa. “We save a lot of water and improve its distribution,” she told IPS by phone.
Araya lamented that due to a lack of electricity, she cannot have mechanical milking machines. “With electricity, we would greatly reduce the production system costs,” she said, explaining that this is her next goal.
Juana Pérez Milla, 65, lives in Carrizal, in the municipality of Río Hurtado. “We keep asking God for rain because that’s what we depend on. With pumps, I send water to the tank I have, and from there to the stable,” she said.
Now she has 75 goats, all semi-stabled, and has expanded her cheese offerings, driven by growing demand.
“I make white cheese with oregano, green chili, basil, and merkén (a spicy and smoked seasoning from the indigenous Mapuche people). You start imagining different cheese varieties. I also make pasteurized cheese and others with walnuts, raisins, and jams, learned in Mexico where I was invited,” she revealed to IPS.
On half a hectare inherited from her mother, Pérez Milla gets up to 45 liters of milk and produces eight kilograms of cheese daily.
New Flavors and Designation of Origin
Chile’s goat tradition began in 1544. Worldwide, there is evidence that humans were making cheese from goat milk 4,000 years ago.
Today, this cheese is being reborn in international markets because it contains less fat compared to some cow or sheep cheeses, making it a healthier option according to nutritionists.
It also has low sodium levels and provides more calcium and protein.
In the global market, this milk reached USD 12 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 18 billion by 2030.
Acceptance is growing because producers introduce different flavors to their cheeses.
According to Molina, Chilean goat herders have much to learn, but their greatest asset is the “terroir,” as they locally call the combination of soil, climate, and variety in herd care. In the case of Ovalle’s goat herders, it also includes owning land, even though their activity involves nomadic grazing part of the year.
“Our terroir is what has the most value. In Europe, they value it and have many cheeses with designation of origin. That’s what we have to learn,” she said.
She believes her blue cheese, Anqas, could achieve designation of origin because it uses a fungus produced with its strains.
Meanwhile, goat science specialist Torres is preparing an application to the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INAPI) to grant designation of origin to all white, semi-fat, and fresh goat cheese produced in Ovalle.
Such an action would add more value to the product and protect the Criollo goat and its breeders, who strive to mitigate and adapt to climate change despite the disruptions it causes to their traditional activity.
The process, which could take two years, has not been easy, especially because the breeders are not in partnership. Despite being numerous, they live very dispersed and periodically move across extensive areas.
© Inter Press Service (2025) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
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