Today we want to publish on the CONSOLE project blog, one of the most useful papers that can help both farmers and other related actors (stakeholders) to understand how to manage rural areas in a sustainable way.

It is a scientific publication of three colleagues from our project (Stefano Targetti, Mari Raggi and Davide Viaggi) who begin the text, adding the importance of correctly managing ecosystem services to contribute efficiently to society and regional development.

For example, and as the research points out, they improve employment opportunities, increase the population (remember that rural areas of Europe are depopulated), create cultural benefits, develop tourist and recreational activities, attract investments, offer added value to products, etc.

However, it is a challenge to understand both the economic and social processes that relate the landscape and the economic development of geographic territories.

And with that objective they have developed this study. These researchers have investigated the different perceptions of the benefits associated with the rural landscape in different groups of residents of a coastal region of northern Italy (Lowlands of the PO River Delta).

Obviously, we encourage you to read the scientific article to know the results of the research. However, we can tell you that the majority perception of the people surveyed value positively (from an economic point of view) the elements of the landscape and the local development actions carried out in them.

In addition, this magnificent research also shows you which types of landscapes (and landscape elements) are highly valued.

And downloading the article is as simple as clicking this button.