Which role for farming external benefits valorisation?
) Abstract Traditional farming systems are declining rapidly in Portugal. These labour intensive and low productivity systems are incompatible with depopulation and ageing of rural areas. This lack of socio-economic sustainability endangers nature and landscape conservation. Agri-environmental measures, applied in European Union since 1994, can be seen as potential answer to that problem in the Portuguese case. But to be effective, these measures need to be part of an integrated strategy directed to mitigate depopulation. The NGOs and the official organisations related to nature and landscape conservation are aware of that and acknowledge it in the National Strategy for Nature and Biodiversity Conservation. This decline in the farming external benefits supply happens simultaneously with the increasing of its demand. General public, of all ages and socio-economic strata, wants rural nature and landscape conservation for use and nonuse purposes. Contingent Valuation studies conducted in
