<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>3</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">An interdisciplinary approach for integrating landscape management in the Common Agricultural Policy: Application to the municipality of Mertola, Southern Alentejo, Portugal</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ROLE OF BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN THE TRANSITION TO RURAL SUSTAINABILITY</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2004</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">I O S PRESS</style></publisher><pub-location><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">NIEUWE HEMWEG 6B, 1013 BG AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS</style></pub-location><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">41</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">254-260</style></pages><isbn><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1-58603-395-6</style></isbn><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">This paper seeks to present the methodological approach of a case-study&lt;br/&gt;at a local scale, in the south of Portugal, where the European Union&lt;br/&gt;Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has significant impacts in terms of&lt;br/&gt;environment, socioeconomic and landscape aspects.&lt;br/&gt;The municipality of Mertola is located in the south-eastern part of the&lt;br/&gt;Alentejo Region, in a marginal area in relation to socio-economic&lt;br/&gt;parameters and agricultural production. As in the region as a whole, the&lt;br/&gt;dominant land use system is the Montado in a diversified pattern, which&lt;br/&gt;has in the last decades been subject. to successive significant changes,&lt;br/&gt;raising questions as to future landscape quality, identity and the&lt;br/&gt;required management. As in other European rural areas, the&lt;br/&gt;transformations in agriculture and the productive function resulted in&lt;br/&gt;changes in the landscape, which have impacts also on other functions&lt;br/&gt;such as conservation, environment balance, recreation, life support and&lt;br/&gt;preservation of cultural identity. These other functions attract each&lt;br/&gt;day more attention as a possible set of alternatives uses in marginal&lt;br/&gt;areas of Europe, such as Mertola. This actual context requires thus a&lt;br/&gt;landscape management based on integrated policies for the rural world,&lt;br/&gt;following the new perspectives of the CAP but also based on a deep&lt;br/&gt;knowledge of local landscape dynamics and requirements for preservation&lt;br/&gt;of identity. This project intends to evaluate and understand:&lt;br/&gt;(a) the changes that have occurred in the municipality in the last&lt;br/&gt;decades; and&lt;br/&gt;(b) how they have affected landscape pattern and also people's&lt;br/&gt;perception and connections to this landscape identity.&lt;br/&gt;The intent is to build up proposals for a more integrated and locally&lt;br/&gt;adapted formulation of CAP objectives and instruments. This paper will&lt;br/&gt;present the changes in landscape pattern and character registered in the&lt;br/&gt;study area for the last decades, the interdisciplinary methodology&lt;br/&gt;adopted, as well as the results of the first phase of the project.</style></abstract></record></records></xml>