Disintegration of Italian rural landscapes to international environmental agreements

Abstract

In Italy, the first law that puts landscape and historical buildings under public\ud control was implemented in 1922. While this represents a significant achievement for those times, for that law landscape essentially has an historical and aesthetic connotation, without any explicit reference to the components of flora, fauna and geology. Today, many protection policies and initiatives are still biased by the lack of reference to the intrinsic value that biodiversity and ecosystem services have for the maintenance of traditional\ud landscapes, as well as for the survival of the human species. The priority accorded to historical and aesthetic values can lead to a lack of attention to the complex relationship binding the natural environment, agriculture and urban processes. Hence, there is a need in Italy for an increased awareness of the functional role exerted by agriculture as a link between ecosystems and ‘‘techno’’ systems. The complex and polysemic concept of landscape plays a crucial role in designing new strategies for the rural territories, their\ud economies and their cultures. Moving towards a shared and integrated strategy for multifunctional agriculture involves a substantial revision of the general objectives of growth and development, combining conservation and innovation. In this respect, the full integration of the Strategic Environmental Assessment in regional planning processes is one possible method for building a framework in which policies to promote the development, protection and enhancement of landscapes can work in an integrated way. These observations lead to some final conclusions on the network logic which should drive the integration process of planning and evaluation, along with some reflections on the Italian programme for inland areas

Peripheral, Marginal, or Non-Core Areas? Setting the Context to Deal with Territorial Inequalities through a Systematic Literature Review

“…Entrepreneurship is also addressed in the agro-food sector by Baumgartner et al [49], linked with the issue of natural capital in peripheral areas, both in terms of agricultural production and innovative enterprises [64], considering multiple interactions of landscape with economic, social, and cultural contexts [137] and often overlapping with the issue of rurality. Some authors highlight the urgency for a diversification of socio-economic activities and services related to agriculture, including terms such as multifunctional agriculture, smart land, and high-natural value farmlands [138]. In an exploratory study of small food processing firms in 11 European peripheral regions, De Noronha Vaz et al [139] highlight the importance of regional cooperation and networks to stimulate innovation in SMEs [49], the potential role of social media to mitigate the unfavorable location of agribusiness firms in rural peripheral areas and to reduce the distances between firms and users [135], as well as opportunities from smart specialization strategies [65].…”

Lessons learnt in global biodiversity governance

“…(Anyone denying the significance of national politics need only look as far as the elections of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro as profound evidence to the contrary.) And the point is certainly hammered home by Marsden (2018), who demonstrated the impending uncertainty over conservation policy and options as Brexit was nearing Scotland, despite overarching convention architecture offered by the Aarhus Convention on public participation, the Ramsar Convention, the Bern Convention, and others; and Guarino et al (2017), who explore the role agriculture plays in linking ecosystems with "techno-systems" in Italy. Lim (2016) also emphasizes the importance of understanding each level of political organization for effective transboundary biodiversity governance.…”

An Updated Checklist of the Sicilian Native Edible Plants: Preserving the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Century-Old Agro-Pastoral Landscapes

“…Two blatant examples are the ongoing replacement of Citrus orchards with greenhouses, while intensive vineyards are gradually substituting dry groves. Mechanized agricultural practices and the massive input of chemical fertilizers and pesticides select the weeds, to the detriment of Mediterranean plants and archaeophytes and favoring plenty of non-native tropical and subtropical species, which also take advantage of high nutrientand water input (Guarino et al, 2015).…”