Task 7

Assessment of the Project’s Results and Guidelines to Rural Development Policies and Strategies

Starting Date: September 2014

Duration: 5 months

Description:

The seventh task aims to analyse the opportunities that the study of the different social representations and consumptions of the rural could represent, both in terms of the reconfiguration and restructuring of Portuguese rural territories and in terms of their future development paths. At this stage, based on results of previous tasks, the project also aims at producing a set of guidelines to inform current and future rural development policies, strategies and measures to be implemented within the national territory.

In the context of this task and in order to achieve the previous aims, a Workshop will be organized amongst all the team members and diverse local development, tourism and non-governmental agents and associations.

Particularly the forum of discussion within the website, being an open space to all the actors and agents interested and involved in rural areas’ issues, will provide valuable (although informal) information to the discussion to be held during the Workshop.

Integrating all the contributions derived from the previous six tasks, the Workshop and the forum of discussion in the website, the main result of this task will be the production of a formal document to be presented to the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning, at the project’s Final International Conference containing major contributions to enhance the design and implementation of more effective rural development policies and strategies.