TERRITORIAL EXTERNALITIES IN LOCAL AGRO-FOOD SYSTEMS OF TYPICAL FOOD PRODUCTS THE OLIVE OIL PROTECTED DESIGNATIONS OF ORIGIN IN SPAIN

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceThe objective of the paper is to elaborate the guidelines for an innovative methodological proposal on the analysis and the assessment of the territorial externalities created by the economic and institutional activities of Local Agro-Food Systems (LAFS), such as those linked to protected designations of origin (PDOs) of olive oil in Spain. We base our analysis in the case studies carried on by the author and by the international bibliography on this subject. We use a multi-disciplinary approach relating to the LAFS theories, coming from the Franco Mediterranean scholarship, as well as to the perspectives of Agricultural and Rural Multifunctionality theories. The relevance of olive oil LAFS in Spain may be found in the fact that they are a fine example for the analysis of the multifunctional behaviour and their potential in contributing to territorial governance. They have important implications on the environmental and landscape management, corresponding a farming type in which landscapes of high environmental and cultural value, made up of traditional olive groves, are set to become more and more marginalised economically as a result of the global intensification of the olive farming process, having dramatic problems of erosion. On the other hand, PDOs can create interesting formulas for the institutional and the inter-professional organisation of identity-based food products. In order to provide suitable guidelines for related public policies which aim to maintain and improve these olive landscapes, methodological developments on the analysis and valuation of a series of territorial externalities is required