Rural Development

For almost three decades, especially during the 90s, there is a change in the approach to rural development: the transition from a sectoral approach, focusing on technical aspects of production and economic, to a systematic and comprehensive approach to the rural based on the concept of territory. Thus, it gives way to a speech that reassesses rural culture and identity, the environment, the various productive activities, tourism and infrastructure to improve the quality of life of the population and visitors.
The analysis of the evolution of European rural policy agree on the publication of the document ‘The Future of Rural Society in 1988’ as one of the landmarks that transformed European rural policy, making it abandon its sectoral approaches and favor a territorial orientation. The different approaches to rural development experienced until the 80s were mainly based on a conception aid sector, applying approaches “down” and simple aid to the “beneficiaries” instead of encouraging local actors to “promoters projects “to acquire the necessary skills to work as” agents-authors “of the future of their territories.

Hence the need to reconsider the foundations and objectives of these policies and to move from a logic of only productive growth, to a logic of sustainable rural development, taking into account the environmental dimension, economic, social and cultural development of rural areas.