Official Agreement for local development “Milano Metropoli Rurale”

In recent years, Lombardy Region focused its governance attention on rural-urban areas, in order to counteract the processes of urbanisation and the related strong pressure on settlement and infrastructure development. It also elaborated the so called “Land take law” (31/2014). Within this context, the two main challenges for the metropolitan area are – how to manage the complexity of the urban-rural territory and – how to promote innovation and economic competitiveness in the peripheral rural areas.
The Agreement for local development “Milano Metropoli Rurale” was signed in 2015. It focuses on the reinforcement of the rural territory of the Milan Metropolitan Area and aims to define new sustainable modalities to balance urban and rural development. The different stakeholders worked together to define thematic and territorial objectives and to develop a shared Action Plan. The Plan serves as an operative instrument for implementation of the goals set in the Agreement. The proximity of the Rural Districts (clusters of local enterprises formally acknowledged by Lombardy Region) to the city of Milan exposes the rural fabric to strong urban and infrastructural pressures, but at the same time offers opportunities for farmers to build a mutually beneficial dialogue between rural and urban areas.
The main stakeholders and beneficiaries are public administrations (the Municipality of Milan, the Metropolitan Authority, the Regional Authority) and the Rural Districts.