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The Remote Rural Pathways in Estonia—Neo-Productivism or Conservation Designated

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Three Decades of Transformation in the East-Central European Countryside

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Abstract

The study identifies remote rural areas in Estonia and discusses their divergent neo-productivism and conservation designated pathways. Remote areas characterised by excessive population decline and low population density cover roughly half of Estonia’s territory, while accounting for only 9% of the total population and producing less than 5% of the national GDP. Unfavourable trends in demography, social welfare, and entrepreneurship have accelerated after Estonia’s EU accession, despite the introduction of common agricultural, cohesion and regional policies. There has been remarkable productivity growth in the primary sector but public policies have not been able to generate rural renewal. The allocation of business and governance have been concentrating within the urban region limits. At the same time, remote rural areas were exposed to the nature conservation measures. A divergence of rural areas is presented by two narratives: the neo-productivist path, centred on intensified production and place-based capacity building, and the nature conservation path characterised by declining economic intensity, restricted human activities with part-time residency and stringent conservation regimes.

The success of large numbers of rural regions highlights the potential that can be tapped when rural communities are able to mobilise their place based assets.

—Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General (OECD 2017)

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Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by the Institutional Research Grant IUT2-17 of the Estonian Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tartu Regional Energy Agency, Tartu, Estonia

    Antti Roose

  2. Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, Tartu, Estonia

    Garri Raagmaa

  3. Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Jaak Kliimask

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  1. Antti Roose
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  2. Garri Raagmaa
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Correspondence to Garri Raagmaa .

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  1. Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Warsaw, Poland

    Jerzy Bański

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Roose, A., Raagmaa, G., Kliimask, J. (2019). The Remote Rural Pathways in Estonia—Neo-Productivism or Conservation Designated. In: Bański, J. (eds) Three Decades of Transformation in the East-Central European Countryside. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21237-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21237-7_4

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