On Wednesday 8 February, the PRO.GRE.S.S. project (Proactive Green Communities and storytellers for Natural Capital Safeguarding) was presented in the Aula Magna of the DIBAF/DAFNE Department of the University of Tuscia.
The project involves a transnational network of rural communities in four Mediterranean countries: the Municipality of Tripoli (Greece); the Regional Reserve of Selva del Lamone and the Municipality of Farnese (Italy); the Parque Natural de Sa Dragonera and the Conselll de Mallorca (Spain), and the Municipality of Beaumont de Pertuis (France).
The project, co-financed by the European Commission and led by Arci Solidarietà Viterbo SRL Impresa Sociale, started on Monday, 6 February 2023 with a meeting in Farnese of representatives of the communities involved. The partners took part in two days of mutual acquaintance and planning of the activities that will take place over the next two years and carried out community activation activities in the Lamone Reserve and the Municipality of Farnese.
The conference, entitled “Inland Areas and Neopopopulation: rural communities as a resource against climate change” was open by the greetings of the director of the DAFNE department, Danilo Monarca, of the DIBAF department’s reference person for education, Luigi Portoghesi, and of the mayor of the Municipality of Farnese, Giuseppe Ciucci. After which the following project partners presented their territories: Maria Pilar Gómez Calatayud (Director of the Sa Dragonera Natural Park); Isabel Ferrer (Environment Department of the Province of Mallorca) Sonia Sarantopoulou (Cultural Heritage expert – Greece); Joanna Roussou (Municipality of Tripoli, Greece); Pierluca Gaglioppa (Director of the Selva del Lamone Regional Reserve) and Monique Natta of the Municipality of Beaumont de Pertuis.
In the second part of the conference, focused on rural communities, agriculture and environmental conservation in the era of climate crisis, spoke Gabriele Antoniella, President of the Biodistretto del Lago di Bolsena; Filippo Tantillo, researcher of the territory and expert on inland areas; and Antonio Nicoletti, National Manager of Protected Areas and Biodiversity at Legambiente.
As underlined by the project coordinator Sandra Gasbarri, PRO.GRE.S.S. proposes a model of democratic participation to stimulate debate among citizens on environmental issues, climate change and the ecological importance of wooded areas and agricultural landscapes. As pointed out by Marco Trulli, from Arci Viterbo, inland areas have been affected by strong territorial inequalities on which this project intends to intervene. The issue of depopulation was addressed by Pierluca Gaglioppa, director of the Selva del Lamone Regional Reserve: “the maintenance of a lively and vital local community, also economically,” he said, “is a prerequisite for the preservation and protection of the landscape,” and in this process, agriculture plays a fundamental role; “stopping depopulation and neo-population,” he continued, “are the keys to possible rural revitalisation.
