Landscape indicators for rural development policies. Application of a core set in the case study of Piedmont Region

The rural landscape has long been eroded by urban and infrastructural development that has altered the system of relationships between town and country. These phenomena, including agriculture intensification, have radically changed the rural landscape, especially in terms of land use, visual and ecological diversity and biocultural heterogeneity. However, agriculture is gradually changing, moving from an exclusively productive model (highly specialised) to one more sensitive to landscape issues. In particular, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has many environmental aims and, theoretically, its financial tools might be used for landscape purposes. However, the CAP does not have a “landscape dimension” and does not include assessment and integration phases with landscape policies. These issues that have arisen not only appear to be influenced by a lack of clarity on the differences between environmental and landscape orientations, but also by a shortage of indicators to identify and assess the landscape dimension in the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. Here, we attempt to show that a “landscaped role” for the CAP is possible, based upon identifying the main dimensions involved, as well as verifying the effects and induced changes of rural policies. In this scenario, this paper highlights the development and testing of landscape key indicators to support the decision-makers of rural policies. The main result, in an Italian pilot case, reveals direct and indirect relations between Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) and landscape, not only in terms of negative effects, but also in relation to the real contribution of CAP towards preserving farmland and enhancing the rural landscape. Finally, these tools may also be useful in different timescales and different situations, including the improvement of current RDP spatial targeting which often seems to be ineffective compared to the requirements of landscape character areas.