Land use change and socio-environmental conflict in the Alt Empordà county (Catalonia, Spain)

The aim of the present article is to examine the processes of change in land use over the last 40 years in a traditional, rural western Mediterranean area. It is hoped to link these processes to the role played by such socio-economic structural forces as agricultural modernisation, tourism, and environment conservation policies. It is also hoped to correlate the changes in land use with the appearance of conflicts of a social or environmental nature and demonstrate how these changes affect the basic resources of the area. It is therefore submitted that, to be really effective, the policies employed for the planning and regulation of rural Mediterranean areas must take these changes into account and assume the responsibility of attempting to resolve the related conflicts.