In October 2016 the Portuguese Association for Animal Traction APTRAN together with the European working horse network FECTU organized a symposium on THE XXI CENTURY MOUNTAINS:SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MOUNTAINOUS AREAS BASED ON ANIMAL TRACTION in Bragança (Portugal) during the Ist INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. The following abstracts of the symposium underline the relevance of working animals worldwide and the important role they continue to play today. After an overview of the renaissance of working horses in Europe in the last decades different aspects of the possible use and further development of animal traction are presented, based on experiences in Portugal, Switzerland and Italy and dealing with societal, economical, environmental and agrotechnical issues.

Starting from this year FECTU – as an alliance on European level dealing with natural horse power – wants to contribute to the EU endeavours to boost sustainability in mobility and transport.

Aim of the research was to find and evaluate the indices of horse traction sustainability in agriculture. The research was done by means of compilation of results of previously published researches and conducted interviews which were subjected to logical analysis and synthesis, and conclusions were brought upon a logical induction and deduction. The research has revealed that, despite the complete shift to machinery traction in Croatia about 30 years ago, the use of horse traction is still characterized by many important sustainability indices. ... Key words: Sustainability, Horse traction, Energy, Agriculture