Cidrás Fernández, DiegoLois González, Rubén CamiloPaül Carril, Valerià2019-10-272019-10-272018Cidrás, D., Lois-González, R.-C., & Paül, V. (2018). Rural Governance against Eucalyptus expansion in Galicia (NW Iberian Peninsula). Sustainability, 10(10), 3396http://hdl.handle.net/10347/19991Researchers, planners, and decision makers admit the need to take into account the social conflicts inherent to invasive species management in order to minimize controversy. These conflicts are mainly based on differences in values systems, thus causing antithetical policies in environmental management. On the topic of Eucalyptus plantations, this paper studies two cases in Galicia, a region under an emerging social fight between advocates and opponents: firstly, we analyze a local community that is progressively eradicating Eucalyptus through the principles of ecological restoration; and secondly, a planning initiative led by a local government with a common goal. In order to set the spatial and social dimensions of the conflict, the methodological approach is based on the components of cognitive hierarchy theory and risk perception theory. The results are discussed with the purpose of examining to what extent the case studies imply a new model of rural governance, and in this respect, are transferrable to other situations. We conclude that institutional non-interference in Eucalyptus management facilitates the emergence of diverse new governance practices in the local scale but endures the conflict in its regional dimensioneng© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Invasive speciesRural governanceEcological restorationCognitive hierarchy theoryRisk perceptionjournal article10.3390/su101033962071-1050open access