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prior activities had concentrated on small, local initiatives and provided pilot cases. The pioneer
function is esteemed invaluable and serves as reference for enlarging these activities to a wide range
of regions in Austria. The accompanying discussion process referred to those experiences and
broadened the application. The phase of bring up “niche” activities and raising awareness and
acceptance for such new initiatives (see Loibl 1997) thus entered into a new phase.
For the mountain areas also the new paradigm of sustainability gained importance as the
environmental performance turned to be a key issue. This reflects both the valuation of research on
global change (Price 1999), underlining their relevance with regard to future life resources of
humankind, and also the view that rural amenities in mountain areas are basic assets of the regional
development potential. An integration of the environmental concern into the mountain economies
(Dax and Wiesinger 1998) is not at hand, but numerous initiatives start to develop concepts and, in
particular, local projects.
5. Changes underway and innovation
Still several years ago “marginal regions (were) traditionally characterised by depopulation,
demographic distortion and long distances to growth centres” (Persson 1994, p. 127). Moreover, in
many western European countries with a developed welfare system, marginal regions are
characterised by a high dependency on public support to compensate for weak economic conditions.
Whereas the unfavourable situation of many marginal regions expressed by those indicators is
relevant for great parts of the mountain areas as well, a series of quite different trends and estimations
of regional characteristics are reported recently. In many occasions international studies start to draw
a more optimistic picture by separating dynamic from lagging rural regions (OECD 1996, EC 1997).
As mentioned above for the Austrian case there is ample evidence that also mountain areas are
affected by these tendencies.
For these areas it is in particular the re-evaluation of regional resources which has brought about an
increased awareness of the scope of the potential of peripheral regions, too. This assessment is
primarily lead by a horizontal shift in the expectations of rural and urban people. It thus lead through
immigration, increased social and economic interrelations, cultural and life styles changes to persistent
changes in the social structure in rural areas. These alterations have been extremely strong where