Sustainable development and equids in rural areas: an open challenge for the territory cohesion

The European countryside has a great deal to offer; in fact it gives essential raw materials, it represents a place of beauty, rest and recreation and a battleground for the fight against climate change. Many people are attracted by the idea of living and working there. In the past the total number of resident and raised animals decreased with related problems linked to forest and woodlands fires, to soil erosion, to desertification, etc. But over the last years considerable worldwide changes in rural environment have occurred. Europe’s rural areas face significant challenges and, between them, the opportunities and capacity to create sustainable development. Central to the idea behind sustainable development is that the long-term preservation of the environment and habitat, as well as its biodiversity and natural resources, will only be possible if combined simultaneously with economic, social and political development particularly geared to the benefit of the poorest members of society. Equids are now playing a rising role in animal biodiversity preservation and in the micro economy of rural areas. Horse husbandry contributes to the diversification of agricultural activities and to the utilization and preservation of extensively cultivated and natural areas, as well as the development of agro tourism on horse farms. In EU’s rural areas the diversity of the ‘equine culture’ and equine-related activities are focused to the leisure and tourism activities, to the preservation of rural socio-cultural life and to the most relevant socio-economic issues. They all represent an open challenge for the territory cohesion. This paper will emphasize the role of equids in the rural development in Europe, identifying the farming systems in a general context of environment and landscape safeguard and of biodiversity preservation.