Sustainable rural development: The role of traditional activities in Central Italy

tTraditional farming systems and other activities such as craftsmanship (e.g. manufacturing activities,local food production), represent a sustainable example of human integration with nature. Their main-tenance and development, with opportune adaptations to the current socio-economic situation andcultural/technological advancements, are therefore valuable. Under the new Common Agricultural Policy(CAP), preference will be given to projects with a participative approach presented for funding coveredby the Common Strategic Framework 2014–2020 programming. The challenge is to integrate participa-tory planning, people’s attitude to traditional work with the European strategy for rural development.LEADER actions are an effective tool suitable for the implementation of such local development policies.In this paper, a ground-breaking attitude model to traditional activities has been developed. A question-naire was compiled on the basis of current literature on attitude models and distributed to the communityof a rural area in Central Italy (six municipalities). The data gathered were statistically analysed by struc-tural equation modelling (SEM). The results obtained allow several factors influencing attitude to beidentified as well as highlighting the difference in the responses of farmers and artisans compared withthose of the rest of the community.In addition, several strategies (leverage points) have been defined for an efficient rural developmentof the study area in line with peoples’ perception. Such strategies would be capable of strengtheningresidents’ sense of place and transforming the local community into a more resilient and adaptivesocio-ecological system, capable in turn of ensuring and preserving the ecosystem services provided.Specifically, all the suggested actions aim to increase cohesion among citizens and institutions, tostrengthen the sense of community and to promote the creation of local networks, an essential pre-requisite to the setting up of Local Action Groups, as programmed by the European Strategy for RuralDevelopment.The novelty of the work lies in the use of SEM for the definition of leverage points, following Meadows’classification proposed within systems theory (Meadows, 2009).This paper, by focusing on local traditional activities as a leverage point, puts forward recommendationsfor planners and policy makers, and opens a different perspective on today’s increased need for ruralre-development and social innovation.