Agnes Kirschenbaum

The Story of a Community Based Greenway Initiative: Rural Livelihoods and the 'on Our Heritage Trail Greenway' Agnes Kirschenbaum

Greenway developments are a global phenomenon, and apart from a number of common underlying principles such as the support of non-motorised transportation, they can take on numerous forms and have various multipurpose objectives depending on the local context. In Central and Eastern Europe, greenway programs aim to link local community initiatives through a shared vision that encourages people to find local solutions to problems. The aim of this work is to analyse the potential benefits and challenges of a young greenway initiative in Hungary -the 'On Our Heritage Trail Greenway' (OHTG)-to rural livelihoods. Interviews with core organisers, and a questionnaire of 139 people from 3 selected villages involved in the initiative were conducted. While all 3 villages face similar economic and social problems, they are heterogeneous in terms of means, possibilities and endowments. The work provides useful baseline information for monitoring temporal changes and achievements specifically for the OHTG, and also other greenway or rural revitalisation initiatives, which will help to understand outcomes and contribute to developing more flexible and adaptive management of such schemes.