The regional landscape plan of Sardinia, Italy

Almost a fourth of the total population is concentrated in the main five towns, while the rest of the population lives in small towns over quite an extensive area. Traditional economic activities consisted in extensive agriculture and sheep farming. In the last few decades, the coastal area, which was traditionally uninhabited, has become the focus of a substantial increase in tourism and consequent building activity. This context favoured two main landscape scenarios: (1) high urbanisation, both in the main towns and in some coastal areas, which sometimes has unfortunately disregarded the safeguarding of landscape, and (2) large areas of uninhabited land, mainly in the countryside, where uncontaminated plant and animal biodiversity predominates over human presence.