Introduction

Rural areas across the world face many unique problems and challenges. Such communities have had an economy based historically on farming, forestry or mineral abstraction. Rural incomes and livelihoods have therefore been linked directly to the fortunes of these primary production sectors, with farming being the most common occupation in many rural areas. In Europe, rural incomes have been boosted, or at least secured, by very favourable policies relating to agricultural subsidies in particular. Farmers have been rewarded for (in effect) over producing, often resulting in wastage on a vast scale (butter mountains; wine lakes etc.). In the wake of the clearly unsustainable nature of such production systems these policies are changing and farmers are likely to get subsidies in the future for the non-production related goods associated with agriculture such as taking care of the rural landscape, the protection of biodiversity and sensitive habitats and allowing public access for recreational pursuits. The implication for farm incomes and for rural life in general is immense.