The Horitzons 2050 Private Foundation presented a seminar this Monday in which the impact of the global population increase on the rural world will be addressed. With the title Let's Movilicémos, rural world, the objective of this seminar that will take place on November 17 and 18 at the Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs (IEI) and Torrebesses, is to propose possible strategies oriented towards new territorialities.
The president of the Foundation, Antoni Gelonch, has explained that the "reflections" that emerge will be transferred directly to the Government so that it has tools to solve many of the problems experienced in small towns.
In this sense, he highlighted the need for governments to adapt their budgets based on the problems of this part of the country.
Antoni Gelonch explained that the seminar wants to be a point of exchange between the rural and urban world. He intends to give voice to many of the development initiatives in the rural world that are being carried out, up to 250, of a cultural, ecological or tourist nature, among others, to make "balance" with the urban world possible. It will be done using a cartographic viewer called multi-criteria GIS.
Access to housing will be one of the topics of debate at the meeting, as will access to services and communications. Above all, being able to guarantee mobility between small towns. It is planned to collect a series of reflections that will subsequently be transferred to the Government so that they can be taken into account. Nor will cultural activity and identity be left aside. And according to Gelonch, there are factors that are related to each other, because if we take into account that the last train that leaves Barcelona for Lleida does so at eight in the afternoon, this does not allow any citizen of the lands of Ponent can enjoy the cultural activity of the country's capital, which takes place beyond this time, if you want to opt for public transportation.
The mayor of Torrebesses, Mario Urrea, has stressed that both from small towns like his and from the entity that he presided over until recently, the Association of Microtowns of Catalonia, it is necessary to denounce the problem of territorial imbalance that the country suffers. In this sense, he warned that this is a problem in the rural world, but also in the urban world, since if in the first there are problems maintaining the population or agricultural activity, in the second there are difficulties due to excess pollution. and overpopulation.
The director of the seminar is Carles Llop, director of the Department of Territorial Urban Planning at the UPC, and during the presentation, in which he participated via videoconference, he outlined the most important parts of the program. Llop has insisted that reflections and suggestions will be launched with the aim of proposing strategies oriented towards "new territorialities."
The seminar will begin on November 17 and up to 10 sessions of between 20 and 30 minutes have been organized in which speakers such as Joan Nogué, Vanesa Freixa, Josep Sucarrats, Iván Cabrera, Jose Gonzalez Cebrian Tello, Ignasi Aldomà, Jordi Franquesa, Josep Maria Escrivá, Francesc Boya or Mario Urrea will reflect on 'Historical rurality and new rurality', as this first day has been titled.
The next day there will be an outing to the dry stone heritage spaces of Torrebesses that will close with a compendium of presentations of experiences and innovative visions for a new development of the rural world.
