Building Bio-Districts or Eco-Regions: Participative Processes Supported by Focal Groups

Abstract

Over the years, rural areas have faced a number of problems and difficulties, such as an increase in the average age of the population, desertification, loss of employment and the abandonment of rural and agricultural activities, which have led to the emergence of new initiatives aimed at revitalizing these territories from a social, economic and environmental perspective, such as the successful Bio-districts or Eco-regions (e.g., Bio-district of Cilento). Understanding and establishing a proper framework for each territory based on agroecology and participatory methodologies is still a challenge. In this sense, based on the analysis of two European examples—Cilento, Italy and São Pedro do Sul, Portugal—we described each of the building processes and defined a set of drivers that might constitute guiding principles to serve as a basis for the creation of Bio-districts or Eco-regions. The drivers’ matrix identified was discussed in three focus groups carried out in Portugal in 2020. Such drivers included a technical and environmental component (the quality of the environment and landscape, the food system and the implementation of organic farming and agroecological practices), a social and economic component (valorization of the farmers, products and territories and a set of different stakeholders—farmers, consumers, schools, tourism entities and restaurants, local authorities) and a political component (the governance model). Most participants agreed that the recognition of a Bio-district or Eco-region should be informal, bottom-up, with farmers as the main pillar, with a fair and representative participation, namely family farmers.

New frontiers in the teaching of the agricultural enterprise: elements for a debate

“…(Navarro et. al., 2016;Basile e Cavallo, 2020;Molina et al, 2021;Giarè e Vagnozzi, 2021;Dias et al, 2021; Rovai e Andrioli, 2016); b) conoscenze e competenze per supportare il riposizionamento delle micro e delle piccole imprese agroalimentari sul mercato, considerato il successo dei farmers' market o dei GAS (Brunori et al, 2011;Viganò et al, 2012), così come di tutte le altre tipologie di filiera corta riconducibili alle crescenti opportunità commerciali offerte dalle ICT (Ievoli et al, 2019); c) conoscenze e competenze per riprogettare l'organizzazione e la gestione di un'impresa agricola impegnata in attività turistiche (Lupi et al, 2017); d) conoscenze e competenze per stimolare e accompagnare i processi di stakeholder engagement e/o di capacity building (Cavicchi et al, 2013;Tomasi et al, 2021;Bindi, 2022).…”

Bio-districts and the territory: evidence from a regression approach

“…However, to date there are still few studies on the subject. The topics dealt with focus mainly on narration or the comparison of case studies (Belliggiano et al, 2019;Favilli et al, 2020;Pugliese et al, 2015;Stotten et al, 2017) on the definition and identification of tools to classify bio-districts and eco-regions (Franco and Pacino, 2015;Pugliese et al, 2016;Zanasi et al, 2020), on the construction of social networks that characterize the bio-districts (Dias et al, 2021), on the implementation of the bio-district tool using the agroecological (Dara Guccione and Sturla, 2021;Gargano et al, 2021;Guareschi et al, 2020) and the circular economy approach (Poponi et al, 2021).…”

Identifying Future Study Designs for Mental Health and Social Wellbeing Associated with Diets of a Cohort Living in Eco-Regions: Findings from the INSUM Expert Workshop

“…The concept of One Health addresses a human's interconnections with all that surrounds us, especially in regard to the environment as well as human and animal health [42]. This fact could be relevant to consider for the assessment of MHSW and diets in Eco-Regions where the environment and nature (organic agriculture) are the subjects of the community [127].…”