Specific features and development problems in low-density areas

Abstract

The purpose of this account is to perform an inventory of the main characteristics of "low human-density" areas, to identify their modification tendencies and to discover the actions capable of stabilising them, perhaps even to help their development. These land expanses cover an important surface area from the European territory. Their faintest settlement has been the fruit of history and today, in many instances, these areas are somewhat economically and socially behind. Some "chief characteristics" have been singled out, but reality is a lot more complex, and moreover extremely diverse: there exists territories in real decline, some others are stabilising and there are also some which are undergoing a full revival. After a proposal for numerical definition of low-density territories, a quick analysis at European level shows that a major part of western Europe belongs to the range of the low-density ones, and it is observed, for that matter, that middle-range mountains, despite exceptions, hold a chief situation in it. More than other areas, low-density areas see their future linked to a voluntaristic development policy. Employment is at the heart of the question. The hope to keep or to entice men implies the capability to offer them a job and a means of living, in combining farming activities, tourism, small industries ..., without neglecting the quality of the living environment, and in particular, the quality of landscapes often mentioned as an asset in favour of the countryside. Numerous examples show an inequality, according to places, historical "legacies" and instability of undertaken socio-economic orientations, having marked differences in efficiency observed for that matter according to countries and territories themselves.