New coexistences in mountain regions: territorial resilient strategies against rural abandonment

Mountainous landscapes are determined as vulnerable to land abandonment. Relations of this trend to socioeconomic factors have already been revealed: the emigration of rural inhabitants during the 20th century and the accessibility of more suitable lands are for cultivation were detected as main drivers of mountain desertification. Nevertheless, mountain and inner valleys in Europe and particularly in Italy are valuable areas, not only for the significance of rural heritage and biodiversity conservation, but also for the unexpressed potential of reuse, ranging between forms of spontaneous repopulation of self-managing communities and re-activation process connected to cultural heritage, sustainable tourism. The application a long-term strategy to set compatibility measures for active protection of deep rural community is still not effectively defined, while these territories could represent a rural response to an emergent Euro-Mediterranean challenge: the refugee migration. Starting from the rediscovery of rurality to enhance cultural heritage and new forms of coexistence, the paper traces an overview of re-evaluation process undergone in particular case studies, such as Bussana Vecchia and Riace