Public goods provided by different land management practices in European regions have increasingly attained attention in agricultural policy debates. By focusing on the social-ecological systems (SES) framework, the systemic interrelations (e.g. drivers, resources, actors, governance regimes and policy impact) in land management across several case studies in various topographical and climatic conditions across ten European Union Member States are provided. The analysis of agricultural and forestry systems reveals a wide range of factors that drive the provision of ‘ecologically and socially beneficial outcomes’ (ESBOs). The respective influencing aspects cannot be reduced to market forces and policy support, but have to address simultaneously the pivotal role of social, cultural and institutional drivers as well. In particular, the tight interplay between public policies and private initiatives, and market mechanisms and societal appreciation of public goods delivery have shown to be the indispensable clue for understanding the relationship shaping the level of provision of public goods. Comparative analyses support the strong reliance on context, history, types of regions and differentiation of management systems which might be used for recommendations in the current debate on the future Common Agricultural Policy.

Despite achieving independence 25 years ago, Georgia is still a country in transition which is striving to overcome wideranging economic development problems, particularly evident through out-migration from rural areas to urban centres and foreign countries, as well as through restricted employment integration. The ‘European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development in Georgia’ focuses on local development in rural regions as a main national goal and offers a series of pilot actions to apply LEADER-like activities in various rural parts of the country. In this paper the application of such a pilot scheme in Borjomi Municipality, the observed case study in the Lesser Caucasus, is analysed. Reviews show a highly committed implementation process, comprising the establishment of the Local Action Group, the elaboration of the Local Development Strategy, an on-going mobilisation process of local actors and the transfer of experiences and good practices from European Union Member States. The assessment of the potential of the LEADER approach in the rural and mountainous area of Borjomi Municipality reveals a high degree of acceptance and interest of rural stakeholders and residents to taking up such an approach and engaging in innovative initiatives within the frame of sustainable rural development. Given the short...

Since the 1990s the LEADER approach has very powerfully addressed the spirit of mobilising actors in the countryside through focusing on endogenous potential and activating local stakeholders across all sectors. Given the long-term experience and wealth of diverse development initiatives across the European Union (EU), the diversity of implementation is huge. Considering the limited fi nancial support as a Community Initiative (until 2006), a signifi cant extension and ‘upgrading’ of LEADER was intended by integrating it into the EU Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) since 2007. The shift from the character of a ‘pilot’ instrument at the start of LEADER to its ‘mainstreaming’ into the RDPs involved radical administrative changes and high expectations of increased impacts. The interest in LEADER practice and effectiveness led to many studies that in general apply a limited perspective of self-evaluation and refl ection on LEADER activities. Its main impact is seen in providing learning processes in rural regions and the effects on changes in local governance through extended involvement of local stakeholders and institutions. This paper provides a synthesis of European experiences and analyses of core changes, in particular by referring to the example of implementation in the Austrian context. The main lessons are based...

An enhanced research strategy supported by the ERA-NET RURAGRI In a context of significant changes and increasing complexity of economic and social systems, new challenges arise for rural research. It is commonplace that many research issues cannot any more be understood by regional or national studies alone but have to be framed in their international setting. A recent ERA-NET, the RURAGRI network, addressed the gap in European research organisation for providing a common research agenda on rural development research. It highlighted that this research field can be covered sufficiently only if the interrelationships between agricultural, ecological and spatial development are addressed appropriately and taken up as core research questions. The Strategic Research Agenda elaborated through the partners of this network, representing research organisations in 20 European countries, indicates the wide scope of issues for respective international research. Some of those aspects, and particularly the aim of increasing our understanding of these interrelationships, are taken up in a first set of selected international studies resulting from the ERA-NET’s call. The intensive discussion on research collaboration and the high status of rural development policy on the political agenda within the European Union also underpins the need for future international collaboration on research...

The starting point of the EDORA project was the recognition that, rather than becoming more uniform in character, rural Europe is, in many ways, becoming increasingly diverse, implying new challenges and opportunities. The project’s overarching aim was to examine the process of differentiation, in order to better understand how EU policy can enable rural areas to build upon their specific potentials to achieve ‘smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’. The first phase of the project consisted of a literature review in order to establish a conceptual framework for subsequent empirical analysis. This identified a very wide range of aspects of contemporary rural change. In order to manage this complexity, and so that it could be communicated simply and clearly, three ‘meta-narratives’ of rural change were devised. In the second phase the evidence base for rural change was explored, both in terms of large scale patterns, based upon regional data, and local processes. The macro-scale patterns were addressed by three typologies. These were complemented at a micro-level by in-depth studies of 12 exemplar regions, reflecting a wide range of types and contexts. The third phase explored policy implications. The project’s findings point towards neo-endogenous approaches, in which a ‘bottom up’ process of...