Economic Analysis of the Traditional Cultural Terraced Olive-Growing Landscape and Participatory Planning Process

Terraced landscapes are increasingly considered as valuable cultural, social, and environmental systems. However, we could attribute the loss of most of these landscapes and their tangible and intangible heritages to the abandonment or degradation of these areas that could be valorised and protected. The main goals of this study are providing a methodology and tools to analyse traditional terraced landscapes integrating spatial analysis with socio-economic analysis and suggesting operational or political proposals to reduce the abandonment of agricultural terraces. The selected study area is the olive-growing area in the municipality of Trevi (Umbria Region, Italy). This study’s innovative contribution is its methodology composed of two main steps: construction of an integrated and open database followed by launch of a participatory planning process. The results show that the main weakness of the conservation of the olive-growing landscape is the profitability level of olive oil production and sale. Some measures need to be implemented to address these issues, and a joint public and private effort is required. On the one hand, public institutions should provide direct funding and incentives, and on the other, consumers should be willing to pay more for extra-virgin olive oil with landscaped value. Moreover, nomination for inscription into UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a cultural landscape, advocated by local institutions, could generate useful synergies to implement efficient collective marketing policies, which are particularly demanded by olive growers.