Line of action:

Terrestrial ecosystems

Status:

Finalizado

Execution date:

2019

Total budget:

€26,700.00

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

€18,684.17

In a scenario of rural depopulation , it is important that biodiversity is viewed positively by the inhabitants of rural areas and contributes to the socio-economic revitalisation of the territories of greatest natural value, and especially those included in the Natura 2000 Network.

To this end, the entity maintains that it is necessary to promote knowledge and understanding of the importance of biodiversity, developing well-founded communication and information programs and with messages adapted to the perception of the wild in a rural environment that is depopulated.

The main objective is to promote the integration of biodiversity into sustainable rural development processes.

It has these specific goals:

• To evaluate the degree of knowledge and appreciation of biodiversity in rural areas.
• Propose and define an information programme to promote knowledge of the importance of biodiversity as a value of sustainable rural development.

• Design of the questionnaire and the sampling to be carried out, including the selection and training of the people who carry out the survey and preparation of the database.
• Carrying out a survey of perception of biodiversity in different territories in four areas included in the Natura 2000 Network: steppes and wetlands of Castilla‐La Mancha, pastures of western Iberia, bear areas of the Cantabrian Mountains and bear areas of the Pyrenees.
• Analysis of results and development of a communication and information proposal to promote knowledge and understanding of the importance of biodiversity in the sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas included in the Natura 2000 Network.
• Presentation of the document to the nine autonomous communities where the fieldwork is carried out: Aragon, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia and Navarra, as well as to the ministries involved.
• Dissemination and communication of the project.

• A quantitative study has been carried out on 1,200 people from more than 300,000 inhabitants of rural areas in 13 provinces of nine Spanish autonomous communities.
• The study highlights that three quarters of the inhabitants of rural areas surveyed know the term biodiversity and consider that living in a recognised or protected natural environment means greater well-being and economic benefit.
• It also provides information on areas where biodiversity is recognized not so much as an opportunity but as an obstacle to development.
• It is hoped that the work carried out will contribute to refining awareness campaigns, as well as to detect those points of conflict that arise between socio-economic development and the conservation of natural heritage.