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Actors, Institutions and Attitudes to Rural Development: World-Wide Fund for Nature and the Statutory Countryside

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Actors, Institutions and Attitudes to Rural Development: World-Wide Fund for Nature and the Statutory Countryside The Nature of Rural Development: Towards a Sustainable Integrated Rural Policy in Europe Maria Asamer-Handler & Robert Lukesch Actors, Institutions and Attitudes to Rural Development: World-Wide Fund for Nature and the Statutory Countryside The Austrian National Report Research Report to the Agencies of Great Britain Regionalberatung GmbH, Austrian Regional Consultants Ltd. ÖAR December 2000 Contents 1. Introduction: Austria's rural and agricultural character .......................................................... 3 2. The institutional framework .................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Institutions ......................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 The most important programmes ..................................................................................... 8 3. Overview of the most important institutions with regard to rural development in Austria ... 11 4. Analysis of the perceptions and perspectives of important institutions and key actors...... 12 4.1 Key themes and conflicts ................................................................................................ 13 4.2 The importance of development programmes ............................................................... 16 4.3 Key actors and relationships........................................................................................... 18 4.4 The influence of the EU programmatic orientations and institutional relationships ....... 20 4.5 Specific themes............................................................................................................... 20 5. Challenges for sustainable rural development..................................................................... 24 6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 288 6.1 Factors hampering and favouring sustainable rural development ................................. 28 6.2 Reflection upon the mutual relationships between agrarian and non-agrarian interest 29 References ............................................................................................................................. 322 Annex 1 List of interview partners...........................................Error! Bookmark not defined.3 Annex II Workshop participants ............................................................................................ 377 Robert Lukesch ÖAR Regionalberatung GmbH Hirzenriegl 55 A-8350 Fehring Austria Tel: (+43) 3155 5108 Fax: (+43) 3155 51084 E-mail: [email protected] Maria Asamer-Handler ÖAR Regionalberatung GmbH Alberstrasse 10 A-8010 Graz Austria Tel: (+43) 316 3188 4814 Fax: (+43) 316 3188 4888 E-mail: [email protected] 2 1. Introduction: Austria’s rural and agricultural character Rural areas in Austria Austria’s rural areas are of outstanding importance, not only because of their extension within the national territory, but also with respect to their function as settlement areas. According to the OECD classification for rural areas, 78% of the Austrian population live in regions which can be classified as “rural”, 41% live in “predominantly rural areas”, another 37% in “significantly rural areas”, and only 22% live in “predominantly urban areas”. If one takes a municipal population density of a maximum of 150 inhabitants per square kilometre as a definition for “rural”, corresponding to the OECD concept, these municipalities would cover 91% of Austria’s territory and represent 43% of the population. urban urbanizing lrural Intensive tourism Alps (Alp. Convention) over 1500 m ( Using the current Austrian definition, which considers all municipalities counting less than 10.000 inhabitants as rural, 56,3% of the population live in rural areas. The LEADER+ - programme excludes municipalities with more than 20.000 inhabitants. Hence 63,5% of the Austrians live in areas eligible for LEADER +. The demographic evolution is forecasted as relatively stable, except the strong agriculturally dominated peripheral areas in the south and in the east, and some inner alpine areas, which will lose population. Better traffic links and the increase of commuting lead to relatively stable situations in many peripheral areas, as people tend to stay at their residences as long as circumstances allow. Austria’s geography is largely shaped by the Alps, they cover 60% of Austria’s national territory. The alpine areas are ecologically very sensitive; nevertheless they fulfil all functions of a living and economic space. Nearly one half of the Austrian population lives there. This fact distinguishes the Austrian Alps clearly from other mountain regions in Europe, where the population is very low. There is a highly developed tourism sector, especially in the Alps. Austria is among those countries with the highest intensity in tourism in the world. With more than 1 million beds, Austria counted 24,9 million arrivals and more than 111 millions overnight stays in 1998. The 3 tourist expenditures (all expenditures foreign or domestic tourists made during a stay) amounted to 29 billions of Euro in 1998, which amounts to 15% of the gross national product. The labour market The international trends – the decrease of jobs in agriculture and forestry and the increase in the services sector – also prevail in Austria. Since 1989 the development of the labour market was marked by an extension of employment and a parallel increase of unemployment. Unemployment reached 7,2% in 1998, but has been decreasing again since 1999. The rate of employment in agriculture and forestry iseen in steady decline since1951, from 32% to 17,4% in 1971, and to 6,7% in 1998. The number of farms decreased from 432.000 in 1951 to 252.000 in 1997. In 1998 the agricultural sector had a share not bigger than 4,5% of employment and 1,4% of the gross domestic product. The mountain regions form the bulk of Austria’s less favoured areas. These LFA comprise more than 80% of Austria’s cadastral surface, and nearly 70% of the agricultural and forest land. The employment rate in agriculture and forestry of 9,2% is nearly 50% higher here than the Austrian average. There are, however, considerable differences between regions. In the alpine regions grassland (pastures and meadows) and forestry are predominant. In total, 80% of the Austrian territory (3,4 million ha), are exploited by 252.000 farms. This relatively high number of farms is caused by two peculiarities in the development of the agricultural structure in Austria. One is the general trend towards pluriactivity, expressed by an extraordinary rate of part time farmers (two thirds of all farms). The other one is the high share of very small farms. These farms are not likely to earn more than 6.500 Euro per annum. They exploit only 10% of the land; more than 50% of the actual number of farms belong to this group. However most of the land is used by medium-sised family farms. 44% of Austria’s farms cover between 10 and 100 ha. The farms in this category use two thirds of 4 the agricultural area in Austria. The average farm size lies just above 15 hectares, being the forth smallest in the EU. In the Austrian average, more than a half of the agricultural gross yield is earned by livestock breeding, another quarter is earned with crops, the last fifth comes from forestry. In the recent past Austrian agriculture developed, besides the production of raw materials, more and more into new specialised branches. By starting to process and market their own products the value added could be raised, so some parts of the income, having got under pressure due to price cuts, could be safeguarded. As we lack direct marketing sale accounts, most information depends on the estimations of experts. They suppose that ¾ of Austrian farm businesses occasionally practice direct marketing, and 10% of them regularly. In 1997 171 direct marketing initiatives were counted, 22% of them border-crossing. In the same year 400 farmers’ markets and 130 farm shops were counted, with the highest density in Styria, with 11.000 inhabitants per farmers market. It is very hard to estimate the turnover created by direct marketing activities. In Austria, especially in the alpine regions, organic agriculture soared in the 1990s. Since 1991 the number and area covered by organic farms increased by a factor of ten. Today 20.000 farms are organic, which represents close to ten percent or the farms and agricultural land. In the last two years, however, the number of organic farms stayed more or less the same. A similarly high increase is not probable in the near future. Although the introduction of direct payments for organic farming certainly accounts for the sharp increase during the first half of the 1990s, we can undoubtedly state that this relatively high level was largely supported by the efforts taken by domestic supermarket chains, which allowed the breakthrough to “mainstream” consumers by the middle of the 1990s. The creation of own trade marks by these supermarket chains proved to be more successful than earlier attempts to place producer labels in foodstores. A very important form of pluriactivity is holidays on farms. Nearly 20.000 farming families let 220.000 beds. Due to the structural change in agriculture, and the growing competition in tourism, the whole number of farms offering farm holidays is decreasing, but at the same time their quality has improved. From the 111,1 million
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