Forum of the Alicante State Business Union against rural development and depopulation, held in Algueña (Central Vinalopó), bringing together experts on rural depopulation and regional development, a Citizen’s Rights Convention Guaranteeing access to public services on an equal basis with urban environments.
Experts such as Francisco Manuel Carrasco Valcárcel, First Vice-President of the Algueña City Council, attended the forum; David Torres, Director General of Rural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture; Celestino Falcó Cantó, President of the Bodegas Cooperativa de Algueña; Antonio Martínez Puche, Master’s Professor of Local Development and Regional Innovation at the University of Alicante; David Bernardo López, Master’s Professor of Agricultural Ecology, Rural Development and Agricultural Tourism at UMH Elche; María Minano, President of the Alicante Wine Route; and Juan José Bolufer, Head of the Public Sector Area of the Alicante Economic Observatory.
Juan José Sellés, president of UEPAL, said:Financial incentive measures to encourage the population to settle in rural areas are positive, but not sufficient.. As with the rest of urban areas, there will be no return of the population to rural municipalities until access to education, health and cultural services is secured”.
In this sense, Antonio Martínez Puche, professor of Human Geography at UA; and David López, a postgraduate professor of Agroecology, rural development and Agrotourism at UMH, agreed on the idea of providing public services. “Tax incentives encourage and help, but what really gets the population settled down is, access to public services. That is, ensuring that someone from Algueña or Lliber, or any municipality with these characteristics, is guaranteed a basic resource, such as a toilet, within the same distance as if they were living in a big city,” they commented.
In addition, they also consider necessity. improve phone and internet connectivity to facilitate the arrival of companies and professionals. “There has been a flight from major cities to inland municipalities, but in many cases there has been a return to the urban environment as the communication system was inadequate,” Sellés said.
Experts also demanded the articulation of a carbon footprint compensation system that would generate income linked to their environmental contributions for forest and agricultural resources. At the same time, and in anticipation of future photovoltaic generation facilities, an effective landscape protection system is created that takes care of the most fertile and fertile agricultural soils.
The challenges of the agricultural sector
Those responsible for the agriculture sector, especially wine, underlined the recovery after the pandemic, with the recovery of the sales level and the recovery of ethnological and rural tourism.
However, the challenge is to “ensure that this situation is consolidated, not temporary, in response to the pandemic situation,” said the Director-General for Rural Development. In addition, Torres said he believes the pandemic situation has “leaded many people to recognize the value of rural settings and the extraordinary quality of life that exists in many towns.”
With the crisis we are in, there are difficulties in supplying qualified personnel in both the restaurant and agriculture sectors. Attention was drawn from the cooperative as well as the Wine Route to the need to work to qualify and honor agricultural work, to create price control frameworks that make farms profitable, and to create new models of assistance in marketing and promotion.