Land Use Policy 28 (2011) 783–791 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / l a n d u s e p o l Is farming enough in mountain areas? Farm diversification in the Pyrenees Feliu López-i-Gelats ∗ , Maria José Milán, Jordi Bartolomé Department of Food and Animal Science,Research Group for Agriculture, Livestock and Food under Globalisation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus UAB,Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès) 08193, Catalonia Spain a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 14 April 2010 Received in revised form 12 January 2011 Accepted 15 January 2011 Keywords: Farm adjustment strategy Mountain farming Rural change Farm typologies Pluriactivity a b s t r a c t The continuity of farming in mountain areas in Europe is at severe risk and its future faces manifold uncertainties.Mountain farms are immersed in a long-term process of reorganization. Farm diversifi- cation plays a prominent role in this process of adjustment and reallocation. However, little work has been done explicitly on the role farm diversification plays in the current structural changes occurring. In order to fill this void, the nature of farm diversification has been examined in the Pyrenees, where four different typologies of farms have been identified: absence of diversification, agricultural diversification, farmland diversification and finally farm labour diversification. These typologies reflect a gradation along which the farm diversification practices are applied to more aspects of the farm household. Throughout this gradation farming is increasingly marginalised. Finally, it is argued that the endorsement of policy measures stimulating farm diversification in mountain regions should be cautiously considered, since there is high risk of encouraging further agricultural abandonment. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Recent decades have been a period of major economic restruc- turing and social change in rural Europe. The gradual tertiarization of local economies, the emergence of new uses and interests in rural spaces,the growing integration of local economies into the globalized market, the continued afforestation of agricultural land, the rural population movements taking place – both counter- urbanisation of the service classes and out-migration of young people, the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy and the grad- ual environmentalization of rural policy, are all among the most cited constituents of the changing face of the European country- side (Mitchley et al., 2006; MacDonald et al., 2000). Rural areas, as claimed by Marsden (1999),are gradually becoming less self- sufficient, less self-contained and sectorially controlled, and more open to the wider forces of the world economy.Accordingly, the agricultural sector is also immersed in a long-term process of reor- ganization so as to accommodate these changes. This process of rural change is especially severe in mountain areas. These regions are traditionally indisposed to any kind of quick alteration, as a result of their fragile ecosystems, low popu- lation density, local idiosyncrasies, remoteness and inaccessibility, harsh weather conditions and lack of infrastructures and public ser- vices. Baldock et al. (1996) highlight the remarkable vulnerability ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 93 581 1496; fax: +34 93 581 1494. E-mail address: feliulopez.gelats@uab.cat (F. López-i-Gelats). of extensive family-run farming systems, which are predominantly found in mountain areas. Mountain agriculture in Europe is becom- ing increasingly unsustainable and less feasible in the newly arising rural circumstances.A decrease in the number of farms, farm- land abandonment and neglect of traditional farming practices are wide-ranging phenomena that have been occurring all over European mountain regions in the last decades ( Gellrich et al., 2008; MacDonald et al., 2000). It is the case too in the Pyrenees (Mottet et al., 2006; Laguna Marín-Yaseli and Lasanta Martínez, 2003; García-Ruiz et al., 1996). The rapidly changing rural conditions have forced many farm households to reorganize their operations. The rural studies liter- ature, from a political economy point of view, has provided a few distinct attempts at illuminating rural change and its effects on land use and agricultural structures.On a general level,some scholars have characterised the changing face of rural Europe as a transition from a Fordist to post-Fordist regime of accumulation (Kennedy et al., 1991; Sauer, 1990), from an industrial to post-industrial or service economy (Jollivet, 1997), from a productivist to post- productivist policy (Lowe et al., 1993; Symes, 1992) or even a multi- functionality policy (Wilson, 2001). However, despite the different theoretical approaches to farm restructuring due to rural change, it is clear, as stated by Cloke and Goodwin (1992, p. 333), that “the changing functions of rural areas are by no means uniform or easily predictable”.In view of this, Evans and Ilbery (1992) pointed out that the majority of studies dealing with the restructuring strate- gies employed by farm households are of a preliminary or general nature. Indeed, research into the specific strategies developed by 0264-8377/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.01.005