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In 1974, Valdezcaray ski resort was built. It is located in the Sierra de la Demanda, which is crossed by the rivers Oja and Najerilla (Iberian System, in La Rioja, Spain). It is a small ski resort (22.6 Km of ski area) sponsored by the Town Hall of Ezcaray (Oja Valley), in order to boost tourism and break the regressive process that had been dragging on for decades in the Demanda area. This paper examines: i) the influence of Valdezcaray in the evolution of the population as well as in the demographic structure, and ii) the impact of the touristic sector development in primary activities (development of farms, agricultural livestock census and farmland) of the region. The results obtained indicate that the ski resort affects only a small area: the Oja Valley, especially the village of Ezcaray, but not the Najerilla Valley. In the first one, demographic trends and primary sector evolution have been positive and both of them have helped to improve the population structure. However, in the Najerilla Valley, population, livestock and farmland are still going down further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades the wine landscape of La Rioja has experienced a radical change, connected with wine market dynamics and internal changes in the wine sector (increase in the areas of vineyards managed by big wine companies) as well as the provisions emanating from public policies, especially all those which arose from the Common Market Organization [CMO] in 1999 and 2008, within the Common Agricultural Policy (Regulations 1493/1999 and 479/2008). Recent changes in the vineyard landscape in La Rioja as a consequence of restructuring programmes derived from wine sector CMOs in 1999 and 2008, are analysed in this paper. The results show grubbing-up of vines, the expansion of new plots on irrigated lands, and the increasing presence of vines grown on trellises; changes that bring a natural decline in landscape aesthetics. Such changes, however, are insufficiently reflected in the statistics, as they do not take into consideration the heterogeneous nature of the territory. Cartography focusing on soil uses and land cover, able to incorporate landscape aesthetics in the structure of fragments as well as their size and shape, is required. The availability of precise, objective studies on the wine landscape has recently emerged as an interesting topic, as wine tourism has become a new socioeconomic niche for wine territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]