What will happen to Europe in the forthcoming time? What kind of threats as well as opportunities for sociocultural, economic and ecological values can we expect? Can European communities maintain their livelihood?
In the past decades the rural areas of Europe have changed considerably. Agriculture intensified whilst in other areas it marginalized. Populations grew and urbanization had is effects on the surrounding rural landscapes. In the next decades these changes will continue. Global driving forces like demography, economic growth, climate change and international policies regarding agriculture and energy will have their impact on rural Europe. The EUruralis 1 and now the EUruralis 2.0 project already show that the impacts of these combined driving forces differ in strength and in spatial pattern. With pro active policies the EU and its member states can push rural Europe in the right direction. But what is the right direction and what is the effectiveness of policies.
With the discussion support tool EUruralis policy makers can obtain insight in the future of rural Europe in the context of four scenarios (till 2030). The scenarios cover the uncertainties around the degree of globalization versus regionalization and the role of the government, leading to different direct and indirect drivers of land-use change. EUruralis deals with sustainability and provides indicators in the people, planet and profit dimensions.
Eururalis 1.0 and 2.0 were initially developed with help of Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and it is now supported by several EU countries. Leading scientists from these countries will elaborate EUruralis further. The results have been presented on several meetings with policy makers, scientist and are used in education programs on several universities. It has proven to be a helpful tool in discussing the future of rural Europe amongst policy makers and stakeholders. It is also a way of integrating scientific sound methods in impact assessment studies. This proposal for EUruralis 3.0 describes the objectives and approach for the follow-up of the EUruralis project after several consultation rounds with policy makers and scientist. |
