For the first time in human history the majority of people no longer live in a rural environment. According to the United Nations, over 50% of the global population now lives in cities. The abandonment of the rural environment has grave consequences for society in general, as these areas are healthier places to live, produce the food we all depend on, and are an important factor for preserving biodiversity and environmental sustainability.
So, rural depopulation is a very real thing in Spain (and Italy) and is a very real thing here in our village. Our village is not unique, far from it. It is part of what is called “Empty Spain”.
The phenomenon of depopulation is mainly rural, and affects small towns most of all. Over the last decade, 6,232 municipalities have seen their population decline, in other words, three out of every four municipal areas. Fuente Tojar is no exception.
The area I am referring to is more commonly known as La España vacía (“empty Spain”) or La España vaciada (“emptied Spain”). It encompasses agriculture-reliant regions in the vast interior of the country such as Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura and Aragón as well as the interior of Andalucia. These territories missed out on much of the speedy industrialization and development that larger cities and the tourist-friendly coast enjoyed from the latter years of the Franco dictatorship onward.
On 1 January 2016, 60 per cent of Spanish municipalities had fewer than 1,001 inhabitants, occupied 40% of the country’s surface and concentrated barely 3.1% of the population. Eurostat data situate 19 Spanish provinces among the least dense of the European Union in 2015. This notable imbalance between population and territory, the basic problem of a vast area in the north and centre of the Iberian peninsula, is characterized by ageing, a relative scarcity of women because of large-scale differential emigration based on gender, and transitory immigration that has been unable to compensate for the demographic outflow which has affected these places since the middle of the twentieth century. The demographic sustainability of this heterogeneous set of municipalities is hanging in the balance. This situation constitutes a major challenge and, moreover, the great diversity of these towns should be borne in mind when it comes to applying public policies.
Unlike what happens in other Spanish regions, which are constantly losing inhabitants from the whole region, in Andalucía the migratory processes are internal. This process takes place mainly from inland to the coastal areas.
After the 1950s, there was a progressive decline in the socioeconomic conditions of rural areas which were unable to compete with the upward social mobility offered by cities. Between 1950 and 1991, these towns lost almost two and a half million inhabitants and were the leading contributors in the rural exodus to urban centres. Without this rural emigration we would not have today’s large metropolitan agglomerations of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia and, within the emigration areas in many regions of the interior, provincial capitals would not have been assured of their demographic sustainability
Spain’s rural areas are undergoing unprecedented environmental and social transformations, with depopulation and climate change as the most prominent phenomena. Some 17.5% of its rural territory is exposed simultaneously to high rates of depopulation and to aridity. The literature and the experts point to various depopulation mitigation factors, such as the development of agroindustry and of renewable energies, rural and environmental tourism, immigration, housing availability, the rural cultural and entertainment offering, and connectivity with urban zones.
However, some of the latter may involve undesired social and environmental effects. For example, agro-industrial development brings with it the concentration of farms and agricultural services, which makes it more difficult for young and immigrant farmers to gain access to the land. Similarly, livestock farming intensification can contribute to soil erosion, to overexploitation and to the contamination of water resources, thus increasing the risk of aridity and reducing the resilience of the territory to climate change.
In this context, rural co-working has become an alternative for regaining and attracting inhabitants. “Creating these spaces with good infrastructure and programmes of activities can become a powerful means of attraction for rural areas,” explained Carles Méndez, an expert in co-working and researcher in the UOC’s Faculty of Economics and Business.
Rural co-working also includes professionals from companies and organizations, linked above all to work in the fields of ICT, engineering and communication. In Catalonia, professionals working in these fields account for around 45% of users of rural co-working spaces. The remaining 55% are from areas such as the graphic arts and tourism, among others,” said Méndez.
Rural co-working involves a wide variety of professional profiles. “This attractive environment is chosen by a variety of self-employed workers, freelancers and even some employees, who aim to combine the comforts of working in a natural environment with the demands of their career,” he said.
Antonio Saz, a co-ordinator for the España Vaciada association, says that while the electoral platform may be new, the “struggle against depopulation and for territorial rebalancing” dates back at least 20 years.
“We always say we’re not some kind of planned action; we’re the consequences of ignoring and abandoning the rural world and depopulated areas,” he says. “These problems are now on politicians’ agendas, even if we’re not yet seeing them in their programmes and actions.”
Among the platform’s 101 initiatives is a national plan with guaranteed funding that would enable overlooked parts of the country to catch up with more developed ones, the creation of a non-political, expert agency to tackle depopulation, and improved rail links and services.
“We also have a simple plan to drive recovery and balance things up that we call 100/30/30,” says Saz. “Thats 100mbps of symmetrical internet, 30 minutes to basic services such as education, health or security, and 30km [18 miles] to a high-capacity road. If we could get all that, we’d have a far more well-balanced country.”
Rural depopulation in Spain involves a number of interrelated problems, one of the most salient being the aging rural population. The average farmer in Spain is 61 years of age. There is also the problem of gender imbalance in rural areas, where women enjoy few opportunities or alternatives. In turn, low fertility rates, increasing stress on limited public healthcare, education and transpor-tation resources, a lack of cultural activities and poor connectivity are also factors driving rural depopulation.
The only group which is increasing the rural areas in Spain are immigrants, who now account for 10% of the rural population, often performing the agricultural, fishing and livestock farming activities abandoned by native residents. This group, along with young people, and women of all ages and the programs which support them may offer a solution to the challenge of depopulation.
What are other solutions?
Well…
Agriculture cannot be the only employment opportunity.
Participation and accompaniment throughout the process are essential to repopulation project, involving individuals, families and local groups.
The welcome and integration of newcomers must be planned, especially in the case of people of foreign origin.
Environmental sustainability and the preservation of biodiversity are essential components of all actions.
All projects must be planned over the long-term, providing time to observe results and evaluate the integration of newcomers.
It is essential that private initiatives work with public authorities and administrations.
What our village needs is a progressive and forward thinking mayor with a supportive village government that realises just how profound the problem of a dying village is and the effects of this on its inhabitants. It needs people with the drive to change this decline and the will to enact it in the face of what will be many locals who refuse to see the problem.
Whether we have such a mayor is very much open to question and whether we have a population who are willing to allow positive changes is also debatable.
Our village will not die in the next couple of years but it most certainly will within the next generation unless changes are made. Not cosmetic changes but profound ones that can attract new people as well as keep those that already live here.
Changes can be made and they will make a difference. It will be a challenge and it will require some different thinking. For all of those who love where we live, we hope that the word change is not seen as something negative but as something more affirming.
Some other links…