Abstract

The paper investigates whether environmental protection policies may play a role in tackling the depopulation and marginalization of the italian’s inner areas. Normally, these phenomena were mainly caused by the agglomeration process toward urban centers. Once surveyed the main drivers of rural depopulation in the literature, the paper presents the results of a linear regression analysis, estimated by OLS method, aimed at evidencing any role played by Protected Areas in lessening the italian’s inner areas marginalization and the ensuing depopulation process during the last census period (2001-2011). The analysis highlighted a significant relation between environmental protection policies, in particular National and Regional Parks, and abandonment processes in inner areas.