EAA and EAC Working Group on farming, forestry and rural land management

About the community

Established: 2004
Last renewed: 2022
Contact:
Karl Cordemans (karl.cordemans@vlm.be)

The farmed landscapes of Europe have developed through many centuries of interaction between people and nature and they continue to evolve. As well as supporting important natural assets and resources, these living landscapes also provide a vital repository of the European cultural inheritance in the form of historic features, archaeology, traditional buildings, distinctive settlements, and local customs, traditions and produce. Together they provide the diversity, beauty and sense of place that defines the European countryside.

This common European landscape inheritance is important for its own sake but also has the potential to benefit rural communities; to generate jobs and wealth; to attract inward investment; to foster a sense of European, national and local identity; and to promote social cohesion. 

Our farmed cultural landscapes should therefore be recognised as an important public good, a powerful force to promote successful rural development and an invaluable asset supporting regeneration, growth and economic recovery.

A joint statement on the future direction of the Common Agricultural Policy has been issued (July 2010) by a coalition of leading non-governmental organisations concerned with the European landscape, cultural heritage, rural tourism and rural communities. by Europae Archaeologiae Consilium, Europa Nostra, the European Association of Archaeologists, the European Council for the Village and Small Town, the European Federation of Farm and Village Tourism, the International Association Rurality-Environment-Development (R.E.D.) and the Rural Investment Support for Europe (RISE) Foundation.

Together we believe it be imperative that a continuing rural development policy and budget are available to ensure a sustainable balance between food production and the effective stewardship of the cultural and natural landscape and that CAP policy should continue to evolve to ensure the delivery of adequate environmental, social and cultural benefits for public investment.

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EAA and EAC Working Group on farming, forestry and rural land management
(content available to current EAA members).