Policies Against Depopulation in Mountain Areas
Depopulation in rural areas is not a recent phenomenon but it is also a growing problem -in 2025 about 90 European regions are expected to fall under demographic decline. The problem is more outstanding in mountainous areas where living conditions are extreme and geography and remoteness propitiates isolation. The PADIMA project main aim is to contribute to the improvement of the Regional Policies against depopulation in mountain areas (PADIMAs) through the exchange of good practices for maintaining and increasing population in mountain areas. A partnership covering a diversity of areas facing depopulation will facilitate the exchange of innovation as some of the policies implemented in the far Northern region of Buskerud in Norway are fully innovative in the Southern Spanish region of Teruel and vice versa.
Members of PADIMA partnership face depopulation in mountains with different degrees of development. Some participating regions are at the peak of demographic decline and have already implemented successful practices for prevention and reaction whereas other partners are at the first stages of depopulation and urgently need to benefit from the experience and policies previously implemented in similar European areas. A partnership seminar held in December 2008 in Spain set forth the potentialities in sharing and exchanging policy initiatives that the partners could contribute with and benefit from. A first appraisal of the partner’s good practices was made, showing that these practices could all be classified into three main action lines all coherent with the project sub-theme: Employment, Human Capital and Education.
The project approaches depopulation in mountain areas from three key pillar Policies distributed into three thematic WP led by the partners depending on their experience and know-how: Education and training, Economical diversification and Territorial Marketing. Each of these WPs has 4 main outputs:
- a collection of case studies and good practices
- an inter-regional thematic seminar on the Policy tackled aiming at discussing the information collected and its relevance to each partner's policy
- a study visit
- a good practice guide with recommendations for integration of these practices in regional policies
A 4th WP on integrated approach is meant to compile the 3 themes into recommendations for integrated policy against depopulation and enhance integration at regional level.
The expected result is an improvment of the Regional Policies against depopulation in maintaining and increasing population in European mountain areas.