An ecological perspective for analysing rural depopulation and abandonment
Lloret Maya, Francisco (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Escudero, Adrián (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos)
Lloret, Joan (Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Departamento de Geodinámica. Estratigrafía y Paleontología)
Valladares, Fernando (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Madrid, Espanya))
Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals

Date:	2024
Abstract:	Population loss in rural areas is rapidly increasing in high-income countries, raising concerns and debate, given its socio-economic consequences. Despite the evident environmental dimension of the phenomenon, ecological knowledge has been neglected in the analysis of actions aiming to reverse rural depopulation. Particularly, cultural landscapes reflect memories of ecological processes that have configured current patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Based on ecological principles, we present a conceptual procedure to assess the behaviour of social-ecological systems subjected to depopulation, projecting their expected trajectories through time within a framework defined jointly by demographic and environmental-ecological dimensions (in our case, biodiversity, carbon storage, pollution control, water resources and soil conservation). We applied this procedure to various alternative interventions designed to confront depopulation in Spain: (1) non-intervention, (2) maintenance of the historical landscape configuration, (3) active conservation, (4) extensive, sustainable land use and (5) intensified land use. We conclude that extensive, sustainable land use better optimizes criteria of demographic consolidation, environmental impact, resilience and implementation of actions confronting depopulation. We highlight the need to incorporate ecological knowledge into the assessment and application of actions confronting rural depopulation.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00849 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2020-115264RB-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2021-126927NB-I00
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article de revisió ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	People and Nature, (February 2024) , ISSN 2575-8314

DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10606

17 p, 1.1 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles