Gema Cárdenas Alonso

25 Years of the Leader Initiative as European Rural Development Policy: The Case of Extremadura (SW Spain)

Abstract For 25 years the rural development policy has been implemented through the LEADER Approach in the EU to reduce differences between rural and urban areas, as well as to satisfy the basic needs of the population. In this paper, Extremadura is analysed, which is a Spanish region where LEADER has been applied since its inception in 1991. The objective is to assess if the distribution of rural development aids has been influenced by the diverse demographic and socioeconomic realities that Extremadura presents from the analysis of variables that represent these realities on the territory through a GIS. Following this methodology, it has been noticed that the largest investments have been executed in the most developed rural areas of the region.

The Rural Development Policy in Extremadura (SW Spain): Spatial Location Analysis of Leader Projects

Since the 1990s, a series of rural development aid programs (LEADER Approach) has been implemented in European rural areas, including Extremadura, in order to solve the demographic, social, and economic problems that rural areas experience. The main objective of these programs is to diversify the economy to reverse these problems. The purpose of this present paper is to study the distribution of the investments committed during the period of 2000–2013 in Extremadura according to the geolocation and to perform the analysis of clusters through Local Moran’s I, Getis-Ord Gi*, and Kernel Density in order to determine whether the results are related to the demographic and economic behavior of each territory of action and if these act as location factors for investments. We found that most dynamic towns receive more investments, leaving out the more physically, economically, and demographically disadvantaged ones.

25 AÑOS DEL MÉTODO LEADER EN EXTREMADURA. SU ESTUDIO MEDIANTE TÉCNICAS SIG Y ANÁLISIS MULTIVARIADO

Durante los ultimos 25 anos se viene aplicando en el medio rural europeo el Metodo Leader, como una estrategia territorial con la que activar su desarrollo economico y disminuir, en lo posible, sus diferencias respecto a las urbanas. Esto a traves de proyectos cofinanciados por fondos europeos y las administraciones nacionales y la poblacion local, contando con la participacion de esta y segun sus caracteristicas y necesidades. Asi, se establece un modelo alternativo de gestionar los asuntos publicos, en el que la base principal son los ciudadanos y el territorio que habitan y por ello el interes de analizar, a traves del Analisis de Componentes Principales, la correlacion entre las variables que representan ambas realidades, la socioeconomica y demografica y la referida a las ayudas al Desarrollo Rural, y determinar un Modelo Territorial en el que se represente la influencia de las ayudas bajo el Metodo Leader.