Fighting for a future: an actor-oriented planning approach to landscape preservation in Galicia

Abstract

Economic optimisation of the gross margin per hectare in agriculture reduces diversity, coherence and identity of cultural landscapes. Hence, landscape preservation calls for changes in the social–ecological organisation of places, which implies complex transitional processes towards new management regimes. These are supported by CAP reforms (Horizon, 2014–2020) that increasingly turn from individual production subsidies to farmers to the collective management of natural resources and the related ecosystem services. This article explores the opportunities for landscape preservation in Galicia, Spain. The central question is: ‘How to develop a successful planning approach in the context of a geographically peripheral area facing severe ecological, social and economic vulnerabilities?’ In the case study area, contrasting viewpoints on landscape preservation among rural dwellers, entrepreneurs and representatives of institutions point to power issues on control over the natural environment, but also provide input for the development of an actor-oriented approach to landscape preservation. This article provides a ‘tool’ for catching up with the EU objectives of sustainable, inclusive and smart growth and contributes to our understanding of how place-based development in EU programs can be combined with landscape management in Galicia.

Keywords:

• CAP reforms
• endogenous development
• grassroots initiatives
• participatory planning approaches

Acknowledgements

This article results from research carried out in the DERREG (http://www.derreg.eu/) and SUPURBFOOD (http://supurbfood.eu/) projects, financed by the European Union, and aims to contribute to the share of experience and good practice in the areas of innovation, the knowledge economy, the environment and risk prevention.

We are grateful to all who commented on earlier versions of this article. We especially thank the inspiration we received from working with Joost Jongerden (Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University), Stephan Barthel (Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Department of History, Stockholm University) and Flamina Ventura and Pierluigi Milone (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia). Further, we thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their valuable comments and contributions to improve our work.