The “Blue Vision” of Ionian Coastal Rural Area

Abstract

At the end of 2017, the Coastal Areas Consultation Group was established as part of the activities of the Italian National Rural Network where scholars, experts and active local development operators debated, compared ideas and paths and exchanged knowledge, skills and experience on ongoing initiatives in national rural coastal areas. This led researchers from the CREA Centre for Policy and Bio-economy Research (CREA PB) to start a study on the Ionic area to delve into the characteristics of integrated local development. The Ionic area is characterized by strong production sectors and weak economies, in which strategic choices have also been made in a multi-sector and integrated territorial approach, capable of re-understanding and considering, within it, the strength and weakness of the same production system in the area.

The area covers four regions (Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia, Sicilia) with 131 municipalities to 2018, with an area of 8,165 km² and a population of more than 2 million. In these regions, as part of rural and coastal development policies, there are 24 local action groups, 18 of them in LEADER, 6 in Fisheries and 1 which is the only real multi-fund approach in the Jonic area.

This work is structured in three sections: the first, contextualizes the socio-productive analysis of the Ionic area; the second, presents the results of the Ionic area for the planned actions, partly implemented, by the Leader and Fisheries LAGs. Finally, in the third section, the conclusions of the work carried out were drawn with possible directions to make more effective interventions.