The Remote Rural Pathways in Estonia—Neo-Productivism or Conservation Designated

Abstract

The study identifies remote rural areas in Estonia and discusses their divergent neo-productivism and conservation designated pathways. Remote areas charac-terised by excessive population decline and low population density cover roughly half of Estonia's territory, while accounting for only 9% of the total population and producing less than 5% of the national GDP. Unfavourable trends in demography, social welfare, and entrepreneurship have accelerated after Estonia's EU accession, despite the introduction of common agricultural, cohesion and regional policies. There has been remarkable productivity growth in the primary sector but public policies have not been able to generate rural renewal. The allocation of business and governance have been concentrating within the urban region limits. At the same time, remote rural areas were exposed to the nature conservation measures. A divergence of rural areas is presented by two narratives: the neo-productivist path, centred on intensified production and place-based capacity building, and the nature conservation path char-acterised by declining economic intensity, restricted human activities with part-time residency and stringent conservation regimes.