Building Bio-Districts or Eco-Regions: Participative Processes Supported by Focal Groups

Over the years, rural areas have faced a number of problems and difficulties, such as an increase in the average age of the population, desertification, loss of employment and the abandonment of rural and agricultural activities, which have led to the emergence of new initiatives aimed at revitalizi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAgriculture (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 6; p. 511
Main Authors Dias, Raquel S., Costa, Daniela V. T. A., Correia, Helena E., Costa, Cristina A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2021
Subjects
Agricultural practices
Agriculture
agro-ecological practices
Agroecology
Biodiversity
Cilento
Climate change
Consumption
Cooperation
Desertification
Employment
Family farms
Farmers
Farms
focal groups
Food
Natural resources
Nutrition
Organic farming
Regions
Rural areas
Rural development
Schools
Sustainable development
sustainable territory
Territory
Tourism
Italy
Portugal
Europe
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Summary:Over the years, rural areas have faced a number of problems and difficulties, such as an increase in the average age of the population, desertification, loss of employment and the abandonment of rural and agricultural activities, which have led to the emergence of new initiatives aimed at revitalizing these territories from a social, economic and environmental perspective, such as the successful Bio-districts or Eco-regions (e.g., Bio-district of Cilento). Understanding and establishing a proper framework for each territory based on agroecology and participatory methodologies is still a challenge. In this sense, based on the analysis of two European examples—Cilento, Italy and São Pedro do Sul, Portugal—we described each of the building processes and defined a set of drivers that might constitute guiding principles to serve as a basis for the creation of Bio-districts or Eco-regions. The drivers’ matrix identified was discussed in three focus groups carried out in Portugal in 2020. Such drivers included a technical and environmental component (the quality of the environment and landscape, the food system and the implementation of organic farming and agroecological practices), a social and economic component (valorization of the farmers, products and territories and a set of different stakeholders—farmers, consumers, schools, tourism entities and restaurants, local authorities) and a political component (the governance model). Most participants agreed that the recognition of a Bio-district or Eco-region should be informal, bottom-up, with farmers as the main pillar, with a fair and representative participation, namely family farmers.
ISSN:2077-0472
2077-0472
DOI:10.3390/agriculture11060511