Berichte über Landwirtschaft - BMELV

Foreword
The future of rural areas
Articles of the conference series “Future of rural areas” hosted by the Federal
Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
Globalisation, demographic developments and the outmigration of young and qualified
people pose huge challenges for rural areas. The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and
Consumer Protection (BMELV) considers it important to open up new prospects for rural
regions in the face of the existing challenges. New concepts and instruments are required
to ensure a sustainable development of rural areas. Drawing up new concepts will prove
most successful in a dialogue with the stakeholders and decision­makers. The BMELV
therefore conducted a series of conferences in 2006 – 2008 on the subject “Future of rural
areas”, this series gave rise to a comprehensive exchange of views.
On 5. October 2006, Federal Minister Horst seeHofer opened the conference series
by holding the federal conference “Impending decline or growing attractiveness: the
future of rural areas”. Three regional conferences had subsequently been held in 2007.
The first conference took place in Münster on 22. February 2007 and addressed the issue
of the economy in rural areas. On 24. May 2007, the conference participants discussed the
importance of the infrastructure for the further development of rural areas in Magdeburg.
The third conference was held in Cham on 26. June 2007 and was devoted to the subject
“New concepts of rural development: examples of good practice” and focused on the
importance of regional strategies for rural development.
The Future Forum on Rural Development brought the series of conferences to a close.
This Forum was hosted by the BMELV within the scope of the International Green Week
(IGW) on 22. and 23. January 2008. The Future Forum was divided into a panel discussion,
involving representatives from the industry, agriculture, regional development,
municipalities and the church as well as the actors in rural areas, and twelve lecture events
and open discussions. Due to the extraordinarily positive response to the events hosted
within the framework of the BMELV conference series, the Future Forum will from now
on feature regularly on the IGW agenda. This will provide the subject “Rural Development”
with a regular and broad­based platform. The BMELV wishes to continue the dialogue
with stakeholders and decision­makers to continue to receive interesting impetus for
the further development of the policy for rural areas in the future, too.
The exchange of views among regional actors, administration, scientific community,
agriculture and associations at the technical fora turned out to be extremely constructive.
The debate between high­level experts at the panel discussion met with great interest.
The BMELV has succeeded in turning public attention and the political focus to rural
regions once again. The BMELV policy is geared to preserving and developing rural areas
as places to live in and work and as areas of unspoiled nature, whilst ensuring equal living
conditions, with due regard to the different potential of rural areas for development. We
must maintain the policy of mutual supportiveness among all stakeholders in the shaping
of the future of rural areas. The BMELV wagers on a continuation of the dialogue with
stakeholders and all those concerned. It became clear during the series of events that there
is still a great need for discussion on the subject of rural development. The BMELV wants
to keep public discussion focussed on this subject. In doing so, the attention should not