Fostering social-ecological resilience to preserve biocultural diversity in rural Spain (BioDIV)

Rural areas as places where culture and nature have a deep linkage, coevolving together, and creating biocultural diversity refugia. This is truly true in the Mediterranean agricultural landscapes where traditional management of the land have endured over millennia. However, rural areas are currently threatened by their abandonment, driving by migration to more urban areas, intensification process, or aging population.

There is an urgent need to promote economically and environmentally viable alternative in rural regions, while exploring the future stability of the cultural landscape in order to guarantee its functionality and the attractiveness of these regions for rural tourism.