ABSTRACT
It is fitting that the main body of this book should close with a chapter on the European rural environment for that environment is becoming the central defining feature of rural areas themselves and of distinctive economic and social trends that are currently emerging in the European countryside. Although it might seem paradoxical to speak of the greening of rural Europe, it is nonetheless true that the importance of rurality in economic, political and social processes is increasingly a consequence of a growing prioritization of its environmental qualities.
