Qualitative Objectives to Preserve, Protect and Valorise the Lombardy Rural Landscapes in the Regional Landscape Plan

Twenty years after the European Landscape Convention, the paper aims at reflecting on the role of landscape planning in contrasting peripheralization processes and risks in rural contexts. The issue is debated referring to the research studies developed in the frame of the ongoing review process of the Lombardy Regional Landscape Plan. The Lombardy context is considered as representative of a huge variety of landscape conditions, as well as the rural system is recognised as one of the main components structuring and defining the identity of the regional territory. The rural landscape is formed by the interaction between anthropic and natural elements that express the cultural and productive traditions characterising the different territorial contexts within the Region. At the same time, these rural contexts are potentially affected by several peripheralization risks due to abandonment, degradation, banalisation phenomena or land take and fragmentation processes. In this frame, the paper presents three main qualitative objectives defined to preserve, protect and valorise the different rural landscapes characterising the Lombardy Region context facing potential peripheralization risks.