Regional brands and large-scale protected areas – Processes of branding in selected protected area regions of Europe in the context of sustainable regional development

欧洲的区域保护正在经历一次典型的重新定位，即主要以隔离为导向的做法已被日益一体化的做法所取代。作为“活生生的风景”，保护区将成为示范空间，展示区域如何塑造可持续发展。来自政界、商界、民间社会以及该地区民众的利益攸关方将建立大规模保护区(LPA)与广泛的期望联系在一起，这就是为什么LPA越来越被视为区域发展的工具，特别是在周边农村地区。在这种背景下，可以注意到，在不同的LPA中，区域品牌的数量越来越多，它们充当了一种结晶核心，并承诺LPA和区域品牌之间将相互协同。然而，农村地区在关于地方品牌的科学话语中一直没有得到充分的代表。此外，很明显，到目前为止，区域品牌现象只得到了零星的科学关注，尽管在欧洲的各种LPA中的分布越来越多，而且在可持续性过渡、农村地区发展或对LPA的认识和接受方面可能存在潜力。初步观察表明，将出现或应该形成特定的治理结构，以启动、扩展、延续和在必要时在保护区内对此类区域品牌进行质量控制。在不同空间层面的背景下，这类品牌的扩散也令人感兴趣。在这种情况下，可以假设，当一个品牌的想法在另一个保护区实施时，它是根据各自的情况进行调整的。总体而言，缺乏一项更全面的研究，将重点放在LPA区域的这些区域品牌上，在现有关于地方品牌的论述的背景下对它们进行审查，特别是还全面考虑正在出现的治理结构、扩散模式和不同的欧洲实施背景，以及基于这些背景在LPA区域中这些区域品牌概念的发展。在一个联合项目的框架内，计划介绍和解释在欧洲LPA背景下选定的区域品牌的发展情况，以确定品牌发展的传播途径和关键的背景条件，以及品牌特征、行为者及其相互作用，并指出对这一概念的相应调整，特别是在保护区管理形式方面。此外，还将确定与这些品牌相关的可持续发展潜力，并对现有品牌概念进行比较类型化。为此，将在比较案例研究的框架内探讨两组国家(法国、西班牙、葡萄牙和奥地利、匈牙利、罗马尼亚)LPA中选定的区域品牌。

Area protection in Europe is undergoing a paradigmatic reorientation, whereby a primarily segregative oriented approach has been replaced by an increasingly integrative one. As "living landscapes", protected areas are to become model spaces that demonstrate how regions can shape sustainable development. Stakeholders from politics, business, and civil society, as well as the regional population, associate the establishment of a large-scale protected area (LPA) with a wide range of expectations, which is why LPAs are increasingly being considered as instruments of regional development, especially of peripheral rural areas. In this context, an increasing proliferation of regional brands in diverse LPAs can be noticed, which act as a kind of crystallization core and promise mutual synergies for the LPA and the regional brand. However, rural regions have been underrepresented in the scientific discourse on place branding. Furthermore, it becomes clear that the phenomenon of regional brands has received only sporadic scientific attention so far, despite an increasing distribution in various LPAs in Europe and the presumed potential regarding sustainability transitions, the development of rural areas or the awareness and acceptance of the LPA. Initial observations suggest that specific governance structures will emerge or should be formed for the initiation, expansion, continuation and, if necessary, quality control of such regional brands in protected area regions. In the context of different spatial levels, the diffusion of such brands is also of interest. In this context, it can be assumed that the idea for a brand is adapted to the respective circumstances when it is implemented in another protected area. Overall, there is a lack of a more comprehensive study that focuses on these regional brands for LPA regions, examines them against the background of existing discourses on place branding, and in particular, also comprehensively considers emerging governance structures, diffusion patterns, and different European contexts of implementation as well as developments of the concept of these regional brands in LPA regions based on these contexts. Within the framework of a joint project, it is planned to present and explain the development of selected regional brands in the context of LPAs in Europe, to identify dissemination paths and crucial contextual conditions of brand development, as well as brand characteristics, actors, and their interaction, and to point out resulting adaptations of the concept, especially with regard to forms of protected area governance. In addition, the potentials for sustainable development associated with these brands will be identified and existing brand concepts will be subjected to a comparative typification. For this purpose, selected regional brands in LPAs of two groups of countries (France, Spain, Portugal and Austria, Hungary, Romania) will be explored within the framework of a comparative case study investigation.