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In Europe today, there is increasing interest in the management of protected spaces, not only in an attempt to ensure their conservation but also because of their enormous potential for promoting rural development. These protected spaces are generally designed from the top down, although, in an increasing number of cases, they are being promoted by rural communities themselves. The situation across Europe with regard to protected areas is extraordinarily complex due, among other reasons, to the variety of categories and types of protected areas at the regional level. The objective of this study was to compare two parks: the Sierra Nevada National and Natural Park in Andalusia, Spain, and the Alta Murgia National Park in Apulia, Italy, in order to identify any similarities and/or differences between them. To this end, we performed a dynamic analysis of the evolution of the crops, uses, and livestock species using a specific indicator that can detect local dynamics by comparing areas inside the parks with those in the immediate surrounding areas. The results pointed, in part, to a resurgence of these places. In both cases, a trend was observed towards more extensive farming of certain crops and livestock species that are more profitable and/or more highly regarded as quality products. In other cases, there was a risk of traditional crops and agricultural landscapes being abandoned and lost. Various threats were identified in relation to capital-intensive forms of agriculture, especially involving greenhouse cultivation on the Mediterranean coast in the provinces of Granada and Almeria., Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, Research Project "Successes and failures in the practice of neo-endogenous rural development in the European Union (1991-2013), RURALWIN" CSO2017-89657-P

Rural tourism has commonly been identified as one of the main areas of application of the principles of sustainable tourism, but the literature has typically focused solely on the ecological dimension, particularly when referring to agritourism. This study presents a new approach to assessing the &ldquo, eco-effectiveness&rdquo, of the evolutionary dynamics of agritourism, as applied in a study of NUTS-2 regions in two European countries (Spain and Italy) that have implemented similar rural development strategies. To this end, a synthetic sustainability index was developed using the Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA) technique. The last period of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) 2007&ndash, 2013 was chosen for the study in order to analyze the outcomes of a programming cycle focusing on the diversification of agriculture through tourism. The results show that the sustainability of agritourism growth is not homogeneous and has specific features in different regions of the same country. In some cases, there were more similarities with regions from other countries. This tool could help evaluate the impact of agritourism and facilitate comparisons between different regions, in this way supporting the process of transition from a linear to a circular economy.

Neo-endogenous approaches to local development in rural areas are today a question of important debate. In the implementation of rural development, it is very unlikely to find genuinely and exclusively endogenous policies. It is therefore advisable to set aside the overly simplistic distinction between exogenous and endogenous, and explore the outcomes of a hybrid version of these approaches, such as neo-endogenous development. This approach involves the active participation of local stakeholders, a process which, according to the literature, can be achieved via “social innovation”. Using in-depth interviews with stakeholders, the dynamics, actors and processes involved in social innovation are explored in two significant cases in Italy (Castel del Giudice) and Spain (Huescar). These are remote, marginal municipalities with serious economic and social problems that have embarked on interesting paths towards development by harnessing both local territorial capital and external support.

In the Leader approach, innovation plays a key role in European territories, especially in marginal and peripheral ones, being essentially assumed, from a programmatic point of view, as social innovation. This paper aims to understand the interpretation and the declination of innovation in the practice of Leader initiative at local scale and analyze contextual factors related to its implementation in two southern provinces of Spain and Italy (Granada and Lecce). The study aims to analyze the projects reported as innovative by the leaders of the Local Action Groups, starting from the literature and using a key Community document entitled “Extended report on preserving the innovative character of LEADER”. Lastly, the study reveals common significant problems linked to local awareness of the role of social innovation, as well as the absence or limitations of key institutions.

Digital technologies, the use of which has progressively increased over the last few years, could represent key tools in learning and active citizenship in development processes. In this sense, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have gradually become an integral part of various disciplines and sectors. Even if the relevance and diffusion of GIS in the educational and pedagogical fields are increasing, their potential is still under-explored in the development of empowerment for participatory planning. Regarding the combination of geographical education and information technologies applied to the territories, the contribution they offer to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is a question which remains little-investigated, and which represents both an innovative field of experimentation and significant opportunities, especially for marginal, inner areas. However, recent reforms, in particular in Italy, are considerably reducing the role of geography in the curricula, which is paradoxical for such complex contexts and the understanding of major global issues. The risk is that of producing a gap between the functional use of the tools and the capacity for their critical application. This paper aims to reflect on the integration of Geography and GIS through teaching experimentation, as applied to a real case study in the Apulia region (Monti Dauni Area) under the national strategy for inner areas, in order to understand how to use GIS as an active tool in education for sustainability, the awareness of the value of local resources, and active citizenship.

In Europe, innovation is widely considered a key factor in a region’s economic growth and competitiveness, although its social and cultural dimensions are often overlooked. In this sense, the LEADER approach represents an emblematic change. The interpretation of innovation is significant with regard to the strategies and governance models implemented, especially on a local scale. As such, the role of innovation and knowledge in the development of territories is important in regions of the Convergence Objective, and particularly in rural areas. In Puglia, the rural development strategy allocates a higher amount of financial resources on axes 3 and 4 of the rural pillar of the common agricultural policy; therefore, it gives great importance to governance. Incorporating a literature review, this article aims to understand the interpretation of innovation and its declination at the local level through the analysis of main regional programming documents for the period spanning 2007-2013. It focuses on initiatives and projects led by local action groups (LAGs) of the LEADER program. En Europe, l’innovation est largement considérée comme l’un des facteurs-clés de la croissance économique et de la compétitivité régionale, bien que ses dimensions sociales et culturelles soient souvent négligées. En ce sens, l’approche LEADER représente un changement emblématique. L’interprétation de l’innovation est significative des stratégies et des modèles de gouvernance mis en œuvre, spécialement à l’échelle locale. À ce titre, le rôle de l’innovation et de la connaissance dans le développement des territoires est important dans les régions de l’Objectif de Convergence et en particulier dans les régions rurales. Dans les Pouilles, la stratégie de développement rural concentre une plus grande proportion des ressources financières sur l'axe 3 et 4 du pilier rural de la politique agricole commune et accorde de ce fait une grande importance à la gouvernance. À partir d’une revue de la littérature, l’article vise à comprendre l’interprétation de l’innovation et sa déclinaison à l’échelle locale à travers une analyse des principaux documents d’aménagement régional établis pour la période de programmation 2007-2013. Il se concentre sur les initiatives et les projets portés par les groupes d’actions locales (GAL) du programme LEADER.

Significati e misure di "capitale territoriale"

In recent years, inter-communal cooperation has been steadily growing across all European countries. This is especially true for Italy, where in connection with the recent reforms dictated by the objectives of public spending containment, a gradual increase in the number of municipal unions has been noted. This paper, which is based on the literature and the best practices of Italian municipal unions, aims to identify the factors that underlie their success and to detect the conditions that facilitate the transition from the simplest forms of cooperation to more complex ones. In particular, in the south of Italy (in Puglia, specifically), it seems that these conditions exist. The region has particular and common features with the best practices of Italian municipal unions, but also critical issues to solve. Therefore, this paper will initially present the context of cooperation in Italy, and then will focus on the situation in Puglia. The Apulian union’s features, objectives, roles and ongoing task assign...

Since the 1990s, innovation has been recognised as having a key role in the development and competitiveness of European rural territories. In particular, in the LEADER approach, innovation is seen in social and cultural terms rather than as a technological issue, but it has been interpreted by national and, above all, local policies almost exclusively in the latter sense. Especially at local level, often a ‘productivist’ approach emerges that in many cases reveals deeply-rooted conservativeness in the planning and implementation of programmes. Puglia, a NUTS 2 region in southern Italy, acknowledges the key role of innovation in rural development and invested a bigger share of funding in Axes III and IV of Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy in the 2007-2013 programming cycle than did the other Italian regions. This study examines the regional case in two interconnected stages to identify fi rstly the interpretation of innovation from the programmatic and operative points of view, and secondly, the needs and critical issues in terms of innovation in governance on the local scale through interviews with stakeholders from a representative LAG named ‘Terra dei Messapi’. It reveals not only a marked disparity in the way innovation was interpreted, but also the limitations and critical issues in planning and in regional and local governance, which prove unable to embrace innovation affecting social and institutional processes and, more generally, processes related to the context.

Local development, inter-municipal cooperation, proximity. The case of Apulia.- The phenomena of organized proximity observed in Puglia show two important aspects: the objectives and strategies do not involve significant discontinuities; the partnerships tend to be relatively stable over time, but they present important (and potentially conflicting) overlappings in space. The forms of organized proximity detected have probably led to a depletion of development projects, but they also increased the availability of local actors to cooperate.

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