Sustainable Mountain Development and the Key-Issue of Marginalisation and Farmland Abandonment Processes in Mountain Areas
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Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Università IUAV di Venezia Fondazione Scuola Studi Avanzati in Venezia Dottorato di ricerca d’eccellenza in Analisi e governance dello sviluppo sostenibile 18° ciclo (A.A. 2002/2003 – A.A. 2004/2005) SUSTAINABLE MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT AND THE KEY-ISSUE OF MARGINALISATION AND FARMLAND ABANDONMENT PROCESSES IN MOUNTAIN AREAS FOCUS ON THE ALPS Tesi di dottorato di LAURA FAGARAZZI, Matricola T00329 Relatore della tesi Correlatore della tesi prof. GIORGIO CONTI prof. GABRIELE ZANETTO i CONTENTS SECTION I – THE BACKGROUND...…………………………………………......1 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION........................................................................... 2 1.1 – Overview of the main topics..................................................................................................2 1.1.1 – The main threats faced by mountains at global level: over-exploitation versus under-use. Focus on marginalisation and land abandonment ................................................... 2 1.1.2 –Marginalisation is not a marginal issue.......................................................................... 5 1.1.3 – Forest expansion as the most evident land abandonment indicator .............................. 6 1.2 – The geographical extent: introduction to the Alps..............................................................8 1.3 – Goals, assumptions and methodology ................................................................................16 1.4 – The overall framework: contents of the thesis ..................................................................23 1.4.1 – The DPSIR assessment and reporting framework ...................................................... 23 1.4.2 – Contents....................................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 2 – SUSTAINABLE MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT .................... 28 2.1 – Mountains: a definition........................................................................................................28 2.2 – Sustainable Mountain Development and the process of raising global awareness on the “mountain issue”: documents, conferences and institutions.....................................................33 2.2.1 – The first steps: the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and the concept of Sustainable Mountain Development (SMD) ........................... 33 2.2.2 – Why do mountains matter? ......................................................................................... 35 2.2.3 – The inter-governmental and non-governmental consultations after the first World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) ...................................................................... 39 2.2.4 – The International Year of the Mountains (IYM) and the second World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)......................................................................................... 42 2.2.5 – The main institutions dealing with mountains and the state-of-the-art....................... 42 2.3 – Mountain legislation: main international, European, regional and national documents on mountain areas.........................................................................................................................44 2.3.1 – The international law on mountains............................................................................ 44 2.3.2 – The European Charter of Mountain Regions and the European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe) ............................................................................................. 46 2.3.3 – The EU legislation on mountains................................................................................ 49 2.3.4 – The Alpine Convention............................................................................................... 53 2.3.5 – Mountains in the Italian legislation............................................................................. 55 ii SECTION II - MARGINALISATION, LAND ABANDONMENT AND FOREST EXPANSION IN MOUNTAIN AREAS: D.P.S.I.R. ANALYSYS………..……….60 CHAPTER 3 – DRIVING FORCES...................................................................... 61 3.1 – Marginalisation: an overview..............................................................................................61 3.2 – Geographical marginalisation versus sectorial marginalisation......................................63 3.2.1 – Geographical marginalisation ..................................................................................... 65 3.2.2 – Agricultural marginalisation ....................................................................................... 70 CHAPTER 4 – PRESSURES.................................................................................. 79 4.1 – The possible outcomes of agricultural marginalisation: intensification versus extensification ................................................................................................................................79 4.2 – From extensification to abandonment................................................................................83 4.3 – Diversification as alternative possible outcome.................................................................86 4.4 – Indicators of marginalisation and the role of social capital in rural development ........87 CHAPTER 5 - STATE............................................................................................. 98 5.1 – Demographic trends.............................................................................................................99 5.2 – Mountain farming ..............................................................................................................106 5.2.1 – Decline of farming activities in mountain areas ....................................................... 106 5.2.2 – The Alpine agrarian structure regions according to the SUSTALP project.............. 114 5.3 – Forest expansion.................................................................................................................121 5.3.1 – European trend .......................................................................................................... 122 5.3.2 – Italian trend ............................................................................................................... 126 5.3.3 – Forest expansion in Italy: some pictures................................................................... 130 CHAPTER 6 – IMPACTS..................................................................................... 135 6.1 – Background: mountain farming, bio-cultural landscapes, bio and eco-diversity........135 6.2 – Environmental impacts......................................................................................................143 6.2.1 – Bio - and eco-diversity depletion .............................................................................. 144 6.2.2 – Soil erosion, hydrogeological instability and natural hazards .................................. 152 6.3 – Socio-cultural impacts .......................................................................................................157 6.4 – Economic impacts...............................................................................................................163 iii CHAPTER 7 – RESPONSES................................................................................ 171 7.1 – Overview of the main currently available policy tools ...................................................171 7.2 – Evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy: from a productive oriented tool to the support of High Nature Value farming systems.......................................................................173 7.3 – Responses influencing driving forces: CAP market measures (Pillar One) .................179 7.3.1 – The responsibility of CAP market measures in fostering intensification and abandonment by determining agricultural marginalisation................................................... 179 7.3.2 – SWOT analysis of CAP pillar one measures after the 2003 reform as regards land abandonment ......................................................................................................................... 182 7.4 – Responses influencing pressures: CAP rural development measures (Pillar Two).....186 7.4.1 – Agri-environment and less-favoured areas schemes................................................. 187 7.4.2 – The new EU legislation on rural development.......................................................... 190 7.4.3 – SWOT analysis of CAP pillar two measures as regards land abandonment............. 192 7.5 – Responses influencing state and impacts: nature protection measures ........................196 CHAPTER 8 – THE TWO DIFFERENT VISIONS: “LAISSEZ FAIRE” VERSUS PROACTIVE APPROACH................................................................. 198 8.1 – Laissez faire ........................................................................................................................199 8.2 – Proactive approach ............................................................................................................205 SECTION III - GOOD PRACTICES, STRATEGIES AND INTERVENTION TOOLS……..……………………………………………………………………...210 CHAPTER 9 – POLICY MEASURES AS A RESPONSE TO COUNTERACT FARMLAND ABANDONMENT: THE AUSTRIAN POLICY ON MOUNTAIN FARMING ...................................................................................... 211 9.1 – The Austrian