In the future, people in rural regions will only be able to live and survive if economic development is encouraged which is in harmony with nature and which uses the resources of that region sustainably.

In the poor countries of the South the rural population is fighting for sheer survival in many cases. In Europe it is not life itself which is directly threatened but cultural and economic existence and the opportunity to make a living from the land into the future. Rural exodus, migration to the bigger towns, is as big a problem here as it is there.

This documentary film uses the examples of UNESCO biosphere reserves in Switzerland, Columbia and Austria to show how a basic concept for the protection of natural resources alongside the economic, cultural and social development of rural areas can be differentiated and implemented in a location-specific manner.

The film is  available from ATV Assmann in Dornbirn (Austria), atvassmann@aon.at.