Strategy for Rural Europe (1994)
ECOVAST’s policy approach for rural Europe is set out in our “Strategy for Rural Europe”, published in 1994: this has been translated into many European languages, and widely distributed. You can download it in English, French and German using the links below.
EN: Strategy for Rural Europe
FR: Une Strategie pour L’Europe Rurale
DE: Eine Strategie für den ländlichen Raum in Europa
Position Statement on Strategy (2006)
In 2006 ECOVAST produced a POSITION STATEMENT to monitor progress made since 1994 ECOVAST document “A Strategy for Rural Europe”. The document was prepared with contributions from Arthur Spiegler (Austria), Ralf Bokermann (Germany) and Michael Dower (England).
Position Statement from 2006 is available in English and in German.
EN: A Position Statement on Strategy for the rural regions of Europe
DE: Eine Positionsbestimmung zur Strategie für die ländlichen Regionen Europas.
Papers and a further discussion on this topic may be found at the DorfWiki site operated by Franz Nahrada from ECOVAST Austria.
Landscape Indentification – A guide to good practice
In 2006 ECOVAST prepared a publication Landscape Identification – a Guide to Good Practice.
The purpose of this guide was to help the citizens of Europe to understand, to celebrate and to protect the landscape in which they live; and to assist governments in their work to implement the European Landscape Convention.
ASSET Project
The Importance of Small Towns – research within the ASSET project
The original formal ECOVAST Position Paper The Importance of Small Towns was produced in 2013.
That Paper has been converted into a publication The Importance of Small Towns, compiled by Valerie Carter in 2014, together with the team of the ASSET project and additional examples from other ECOVAST members and partners.
Additional document, The Evidence Base, which supports the above document, was published by ECOVAST in 2015.
Other publications
Agriculture and Forestry: sustaining their future in Europe (1997)
Summary: This policy statement was produced by an ECOVAST Working Group in 1997, as the outcome of a sequence of meetings. It is addressed to all policy-makers and practitioners at European, national, regional and local level.
Also available in French and German:
FR: Agriculture et sylvuculture: Soutenant leur futur en Europe
DE: Landwirtschaft und Forstwirtschaft: gestärkt in die europäische Zukunft
Traditional Rural Architecture : A strategy for Europe (1996)
Summary: This policy statement was produced by an ECOVAST Working Group in 1996, as the outcome of a sequence of meetings. It is addressed to all policy-makers and practitioners at European, national, regional and local level.
Sustainable Development in Rural Areas: its practical role in Regeneration of the Balkans (2001)
Summary: Proceedings of the ECOVAST Conference and workshop held at FOJNICA, Bosnia & Hercegovina, 11 to 13 October 2001
Samobor Declaration (2007)
Samobor Declaration, adopted in 2007 during one of activities of the project ASSET (Action to Support Small European Towns) drew attention to the fact that small European towns deserve more attention, and are vital for both rural development and heritage protection. While cities and large towns are well covered through various funds and EU programmes, the project stated that small towns and their hinterlands deserve more attention.
United Kingdom Towns & Cities (2017)
This report is a database of all the towns and cities in the United Kingdom, developed during 2015 and 2016 and published in 2017. The study has been carried out by Valerie J. Carter a geographer and town planner who has worked in rural development since 1984 and has been a member of several European organisations since 1998 and has been President of ECOVAST since 2010.
History of ECOVAST
This report is a record of ECOVAST meetings, documents and publications from the time of its foundation in March 1984 until March 2019.
It has been compiled and written by Valerie Carter (United Kingdom) using archive material kept in Germany and the United Kingdom, with Michael Dower acting as editor.
Download HISTORY OF ECOVAST: A RECORD OF ACTIVITIES FROM 1984 TO 2019
Photo credits: Top image by kconcha from Pixabay