Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (vertical transhumance) it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with the people necessary to tend them. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic or political change.

Traditional or fixed transhumance occurs or has occurred throughout the inhabited world, including Austria, Bulgaria, Caucasus, Chad, France,Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Macedonia, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Scandinavia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Georgia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Lesotho. It is also practised among more nomadic Sami people of Scandinavia. It is often of high importance to pastoralist societies, the dairy products of transhumance flocks and herds (milk, butter, yogurt and cheese) often forming much of the diet of such populations. In many languages there are words for the higher summer pastures and frequently these are found as placenanes: e.g. Hafod in Wales.