General laws and territorial government in rural areasThe kingdom of Spain

Abstract

[EN] The values traditionally understood to be linked to the rural environment (biodiversity, landscape, environmental services, agriculture) are reduced, where appropriate, to a simple price. Biodiversity is not charged for, landscape is not paid for, and environmental services are not attributed or remunerated. But the price of land for the factory settlement of the time (photovoltaic or wind) is offered as a certain alternative, either for lease or sale10. The risk of the value vanishing because of the price seems to be considerable. Crops are abandoned, agricultural renewal (and the possible contribution of the new climate agriculture to soil carbon sequestration) is put at risk, and the possible future of rural communities is sacrificed, almost in the same way that, in the past, large hydraulic works have marked the evolution of certain territories. Will rural territories be able to use this “green-climate-digital” strategic path to put a price on the values they embody? In its day it was employment (geographical changes in the labour market) that was the decisive factor (European Commission, 2022)11 of depopulation. Today we must add another series of hidden inequality factors in the so-called “empty Spain” in Spain, “area interne” in Italy, “municipios do interior” in Portugal, or “lonely places” for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.