The Rural Development Programme (RDP) as a strategic tool for linking legal and agroecological perspectives

Abstract

Starting from a reconstruction of the multidimensional concept of “rural development”, this chapter intends to highlight the agroecological importance of an interesting (and still little investigated by the legal doctrine) administrative instrument of scheduling and planning, represented by the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs), also in the light of the new Regulation (EU) 1305/2013. The analysis is articulated in two parts. In the first part, the investigation focuses on the priorities established at EU level as regards rural development policies and the consequent transposition of these priorities into the RDPs, with particular reference to the Programme adopted, in Italy, by Regione Puglia. The second part examines the measures for safeguarding and developing the rural territories contained in the RDP 2007–2013 of Regione Puglia; these measures need to be compared to the protective actions envisaged by the Regional Landscape Plan (“Piano Paesaggistico Territoriale Regionale” or PPTR) recently adopted by Regione Puglia, in order to show the close interrelation between landscape and rural development in view of a new agroecologically oriented administrative planning process.