Emerging profiles of the governance of agricultural and rural territories (part 2).

摘要

This article represents the second half of an enquiry into the changing situation in the governance of rural and agricultural areas in Italy, which traditional planning methods do not seem to be able to deal with adequately. Having addressed the territorial dimension of agricultural and rural development in the first half, this part focuses on environmental problems and proposes ways forward. The text starts by setting the problem of environmentally sustainable agriculture in its international context, reminding the reader of the main developments in international agreements in this field, with special emphasis on the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, as well as questions of the definition and calculation of the availability of natural resources by UN organs. Attention then shifts to the European level, focusing on the importance of Eurostat statistics in the last-named context, Article 3 of the Maastricht Treaty, which concerns environmental policy, the Fifth Programme for the environment that arose out of it and prospective reforms of it, Agenda 2000 and the associated CAP reforms, the European 2000+ Spatial Development Perspective, and the EU's response to Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration. Particular environmental themes and their importance for Italy are then addressed, such as biodiversity, habitat conservation, especially for birds, soil preservation, conservation of water resources, and the reduction of agricultural nitrate contamination. The conclusion calls for more flexible planning andadministration of the relations between agriculture and the environment than have been undertaken hitherto, if sustainability is to be achieved.