It is imperative to
place greater value
on the protection
and restoration of
natural ecosystems
and the responsible
use of resources
Our intention is to
recover and give
value to knowledge
that has been
built up over many
centuries and
which, in many
cases, has been
denigrated for the
sake of a presumed
development
Some communities are currently
developing exemplary community
work and environmental
awareness activities
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promoting sustainable practices such as organic farming and
higher animal welfare standards. All this must be articulated
through specific measures for rural areas that facilitate the
development of new professional projects, equal access to
public services, the anchoring of population and attraction of
talent, as well as a sustainable use of our resources.
With all this in mind, one of the aims of this publication is to
contribute to the gathering of lessons from the past that rural
communities have taught us in order to plan and promote a
more sustainable future. It is not our intention to return to an
idealised past which no longer exists, but to recover and give
value to knowledge that has been built up over many centuries
and which, in many cases, has been denigrated for the sake of
a presumed development.
In the words of Juan Pan Montojo, Professor of Contemporary
History at the Autonomous University of Madrid, “[...] it is
a question of learning about local forms of production and
consumption that have disappeared in order to take advantage
of an immense wealth of productive solutions adapted to
the environment, more manageable in their entirety by small
groups, with much more acceptable energy costs and with
a more limited generation of waste and residues, through
systematic recycling and, above all, reuse [...]”.
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