The agro-silvo-pastoral and landscape mosaic of the cork oak forest, the sites of the Natura 2000 network and protected landscape areas, biodiversity and ecosystem services, ecological tourism and nature trails, protected designations of origin (DOP), the UNESCO intangible heritage appeals, the Campo Branco and the Castro Verde Biosphere Reserve, the climate change and mitigation measures of the Alqueva development, the archaeological sites and fields (Mértola), the fields and literary landscapes, there are ten examples of “territorial distinctive signs” that can decisively contribute to the construction of a region's iconography, its impressive territorial mark.
We know, however, that time is merciless and that it runs fast. We often rush to identify and delimit the distinctive signs of a territory, but then we rush to export these distinctive signs to the “universal and cosmopolitan city”, the city where all signs can be viewed and visited.
On the other hand, it is very interesting to observe what will happen to rural spaces, even the most remote ones, which we believed to be immune to this general movement of contamination, immersed in a broth of "environmentalization, touristification and culturalization" that, today in day, the digital universe and social networks spread at the speed of light.
On a more analytical level, the territorial distinctive sign generally implies two ways of reading: the monospecific way and the multifunctional and multisectoral way. This means that there is a specific DOP universe (a wine, an oil, a meat, a cheese) and a universe or territorial imaginary full of evocations and meanings, a terroir, a desired territory that needs to be worked in conjunction in several areas.
Among all the distinguishing signs, we have chosen the Protected Designations of Origin (DOP), because they lend themselves to this double interpretation and we know well how wine tourism is the link between agriculture, environment, recreation and leisure, culture and creative activities.
In fact, protected designations of origin (PDO), as well as other distinctive territorial signs, do not escape this general movement of touristification.
What will be important to promote and monitor from now on is the happy cohabitation between all the parts and, in the end, to rejoice in the fact that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”, in this case, that Alentejo DOP is greater than the sum of the Alentejo PDOs. And always with special attention to the phenomenon of gentrification, in its various manifestations, urban and rural.
For the Alentejo to be a desired territory, an “Alentejo DOP”, it is necessary that its main territorial distinctive signs are connected to each other and under the aegis of an actor-network that is capable of imprinting on them a symbolic and strategic intentionality, if we want a common language and operational cooperation within the framework of a “PDO network economy”. Let's look at some topics that help us to delimit a “DOP speech” about distinctive signs.
1. PDOs are a distinctive sign of territorial excellence
PDOs are a distinctive territorial sign, but they are always an option for the producer who has other production options at his disposal; It is good not to forget that DOP causes segregation in production and consumption, by stratifying producer and consumer options, and that this stratification may be at the origin of some "territorial noise" by generating some dose of free raider e moral hazard;
2. At each historical juncture there is a dominant discourse about the PDOs and their technical-economic orientation
PDOs can have several conceptual and technical developments with legal, regulatory and financial repercussions in a certain direction: more technological, more agroecological and environmental, more commercial and financial, more localist and territorialist; in the end, it is very likely that we are composing a mix of very diverse and legitimate interventions and interests, that is, we are facing a very particular corporation of DOP interests.
3. The PDOs have a hidden desire: they feed on the immanence of a territory to then present themselves as the transcendence of that territory
All PDOs, by their own ambition, delve deep into the mystery of the nature that surrounds them and, in a way, capture that territory through their own interpretation of this particular heritage; through the products that DOP manufacture, they project this mystery of nature as if it were a sublime form of transcendence.
4. PDOs are, essentially, a space of production, but they are, increasingly, a space for recreation and consumption, with various associated services
PDOs are increasingly a composition of products and services and this composition progressively changes the original value chain and even the nature of the "terroir" original; this permanent commitment between product and service has a structural impact on the DOP's value chain and its way of functioning, which must be constantly recreated.
5. PDOs have a specific agroecological and landscape content
All production options involve environmental and landscape implications and these options are not indifferent to the consumer, the visitor and the resident; this means that there are several agro-environmental and landscape representations and that this composition of different representations is a central element for decision-making and business management.
6. Landscape representations of the DOP and their futures terroirs have an undeniable aesthetic, artistic and scenic value, useful for creative and cultural activities
The "DOP scenarios" are a fundamental resource at the disposal of territories to compose, with other territorial distinctive signs, a very interesting network and visitation economy and, above all, to attract new actors to creative and cultural activities, that is to say, the "terroir" as to future artistic and cultural representations.
7. PDOs are, fundamentally, a sign of collective territorial intelligence and, therefore, have a degree of social and political exposure in the regional public space
The DOPs urgently need to dialogue with each other, to create a privileged communication channel, as they have an abundant and cheap resource called “proximity cooperation”; the Alentejo PDOs occupy practically the same territory, so it is difficult to understand the absence of their own platform to manage in common so many distinctive signs, which would bring a very significant added value to the respective names.
8. DOPs have a social, environmental and territorial responsibility and are therefore “obliged to create a DOP network economy”
The Alentejo PDOs together need to create a critical regional mass and a series of agglomeration effects, positive externalities and returns to scale, that is, an economy of network and visitation, a common good, for the respective territories; This cooperative connection structure is fundamental to increase the network-intensity of inter-DOP relations and from there on, an immense field of new possibilities opens up for all territories.
9. There is a “constellation of DOP interests” around each denomination, that is, at each moment there is a composition of interests that produce a certain result.
There is an intra and extra DOP reality that is not limited to the inner circle of the appellation of origin; regulation, public support, technological evolution, market behavior, the distribution of power within value chains and respective commercial circuits, the financial difficulties of organizations, the competence of bodies and their members, relations between members , the evolution of the DOP's own brand image, all this implies a commitment of interests and fine management by the administration of each denomination.
10. DOPs have a specific institutionality and dedicated governance
The PDOs have a management and administration burden, perhaps disproportionate to their economic, social and territorial dimension; that is, it is necessary to check at every moment whether the governance of the DOP does not segregate people and territories, that is, whether it lacks a territory culture that safeguards its sustainability in the future; in any case, and from what has been said, it is clear that the composition of so many interests requires, by itself, a specific institutionality and dedicated governance.
Final grade
In the DOP universe, everything suggests that it is the “regulatory culture” that prevails among producers, associations, DOP management entities, certification and control bodies, regional agricultural services, advisory and consultancy companies, national and European inspection authorities.
After a few interviews in Alentejo, we do not know a “PDO social movement”, a common territorial culture, a communication platform.
We need to know if the PDOs are a promising image for local and regional productions or if they are an “increasingly cantonated denomination”, unrepresentative, even equivocal, and without evident expression in the territorial policy instruments.
In this sense, we are convinced that an "iconographic narrative of the region" is lacking and that the recomposition of the regional territory around ten distinctive signs, such as those mentioned at the beginning, would bring another reputational image to the region and, certainly, more fundamental added value for the enhancement of PDOs.
Author António Covas is a full professor at the University of Algarve and a PhD in European Affairs from the Free University of Brussels
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