Strategies to increase the attractiveness of mountain areas

27/06/2012

PADIMA (Policies Against Depopulation In Mountain Areas) final conference gathered some 100 participants, mainly policy makers working at different levels: local, regional, national and European. The partnership is satisfied by a strong participation and involvement of MEPs from different countries and political backgrounds.

Click here to see the complete list of participants.

The aim of this conference was to raise awareness on the risks related to depopulation and demographic change faced by most European mountain regions at present and to offer policy recommendations and examples of successful strategies to counter this trend and improve mountain areas attractiveness. The policy recommendations are available here and in a detailed version in the final report of the project.

Photo: Torunn Kornstad

Context:

Demographic changes are a very complex issue that needs to be looked at a proper scale and with great care: the situation varies across European mountains and demographic trends are not totally homogenous. This is the result, on the one hand, of specific characteristics and history of the different areas and, on the other hand, of strategies implemented by local and regional authorities in the past years to attract new inhabitants and businesses.

PADIMA partners consider demographic change as both a challenge and an opportunity for mountain areas. We have realised that many problems come from:

Insufficient strategic thinking on this issue from many national, regional or local authorities facing this change,
Insufficient work on the territorial image, and/or
Lack of infrastructures and public services to offer to current or potential new mountain inhabitants.

Therefore, PADIMA results have been debated with other regions’ representatives on June 27^th in the European Parliament, providing some solutions to these 3 depopulation problems.

For more information about the content of this event, please refer to the agenda.