Reciprocal relations shape cultural landscapes: Women's environmental stewardship in Ait Bouguemez (High Atlas, Morocco)

Mountain social–ecological systems encompass steep ecological gradients and diverse cultural practices, yet the relative roles of these factors in shaping mountain landscapes remain underexplored. In particular, the knowledge and practices of women in coproducing biocultural landscapes are often invisible in the academic literature. In the Ait Bouguemez Valley (High Atlas, Morocco), we examined how Amazigh women perceive, define and manage ethno‐habitats , culturally and ecologically meaningful units in their agro‐sylvo‐pastoral landscape.

This research takes a thoroughly interdisciplinary and participatory approach integrating ecological and ethnographic methods and data, conducted in collaboration with local women. Data were collected through 4 months of participant observation, six focus group discussions with 80 Amazigh women in three villages along the valley, and 48 vegetation surveys across 12 ethno‐habitats in three villages of the Ait Bouguemez Valley.

We show that women classify ethno‐habitats based on relational values and collective practices of care, stewardship and resource use embedded in daily practices, expressed through seasonal grazing rules, fuelwood governance, medicinal plant use and periodic closures associated with local governance systems. Women identify 68 stewardship practices—ranging from regulating grazing and maintaining soil fertility to managing water flows and performing ritual practices linked to different ethno‐habitats—which co‐produce dynamic mosaics of biocultural diversity, actively shaping ecological patterns while reinforcing shared social norms. Ecological analyses reveal that the floristic composition of these ethno‐habitats varies not only along physical gradients such as altitude and soil conditions, but also with differentiated customary management regimes.

Our empirically grounded findings demonstrate that women's practices co‐produce dynamic mosaics of biocultural diversity. This case advances theoretical debates on the importance of cultural drivers of biodiversity and highlights the need for conservation and sustainable transition policies that adopt a biocultural approach and integrate the gendered dimension of stewardship.