Introduction to the MAB-6 ALT PIRINEU program. The study area

Abstract

The HIGH PYRENEES MAB-6 programme has been developed over a three year period since 1985 in part of the Catalan Pyrenees mountains. Research was launched on local initiative with the scientific support of the Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the High Pyrenees Study Group, and with financial support from several institutions. The principal objectives set for the programme were the comprehension in deph of the problems specific to mountains and the outlining of viable alternatives for development. The study area described in this article covers an area of 1. 097 Km around the town of la Seu d'Urgell, the area's service center. The total population is 14.751 inhabitants, 10. 101 of whom live in the capital, while the remainder are spread over some 100 settlements. The major problems affecting the area originate in the profound crisis in agriculture and in rural society, and in the total inadequacy of basic infrastructures -roads, telephone, network, electricity...- which, together, make development of area impossible. As a result, emigration and a serious population crisis have left the region with a skeleton population, which is moreover structurally unbalanced and excessively old.