Table of Contents

  • Cover and Table of Contents

  • Profile of Rural Spain

    This chapter provides a detailed profile of Spain’s rural areas analyses its main trends and discusses its challenges and opportunities. Section 1.1 sets the context by discussing what is “rural” Spain; Section 1.2 addresses the main trends in four different subsections: population and migration, social well-being and equity, economic structure and performance and lastly environment and sustainability. Finally, Section 1.3 concludes by highlighting the main policy challenges for a nascent multi-sectoral framework of rural policy in Spain. 

  • Rural Policy in Spain

    This chapter evaluates rural policy in Spain with focus on its institutional setting and governance framework. Section 2.1 provides a summary of the evolution of the approach to rural policy in Spain from the post civil war period to our days. Section 2.2 analyses the institutions, policies and budgets oriented to the development of rural areas, first discussing EU rural development programmes (Section 2.2.1) and then focusing on the LEADER programme (and its Spanish counterpart, PRODER), which is the core instrument of rural development policy in a narrow sense. Section 2.2.2 addresses the broad rural policy instruments derived from the new Law on Sustainable Development of Rural Areas at the time that this law starts to be applied, and draws conclusions on its implications for the future.

  • Towards a New Stage in Spain's Rural Policy

    This chapter focuses on four of the main policy challenges that rural areas face in Spain (based on the diagnostic of Chapter 1) and evaluates the extent to which these policy issues have been addressed by Spanish authorities at the national and regional level in the past, and in the present framework of the Law on Sustainable Development of Rural Areas. Section 3.1 deals with the demographic and social challenges, Section 3.2 focuses on the challenge of diversifying the rural economy and fostering the competitiveness of rural areas, Section 3.3 addresses the relationship between rural areas and urban areas, with particular attention to areas. Finally, Section 3.4 adresses the environmental role of rural areas, and the importance of building a sustainable rural economy.

  • Assessment and Recommendations

    Spanish, French

    Please note that this publication contains a French and Spanish version of the assessment and recommendations of the review at the end of the book.

    Veuillez noter que cette publication contient une version française de l’évaluation et des recommandations de la revue à la fin du livre.

    Sírvase notar que esta publicación contiene una versión en castellano de la evaluación y recomendaciones del estudio al final del libro.

     

    According to the OECD definition of rural areas at the municipal level, 92% of the Spanish territory is rural and it hosts 27% of the population. These figures are close to the “official” classification of rural areas, as defined by the recently published Law on Sustainable Development of Rural Areas (LDSMR), according to which, rural areas extend to 92.7% of the territory, although the figure for population reaches 42% (17 million people). At the regional level (TL3/NUTS3), Spain has 7 predominantly urban (PU) regions (provinces), 27 intermediate (IN) regions and 18 predominantly rural (PR). The prevalence of intermediate regions is noteworthy. The particular pattern of population settlement in Spain is characterised by a few large cities and a large number of medium and small cities, concentrated mostly in the coastal provinces. This gives Spain a low rank in comparison with other OECD countries in terms of the territory, population, and GDP of PR regions (45% of the territory, 13% of the population and 10% of the GDP).