European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Why Italy is interested in wilderness
Wilderness conservation issues in Italy with examples from Region Emilia-Romagna.
1. Introduction In this paper, wilderness conservation issues in Italy are discussed and some examples coming from Emilia- Romagna Region are given. Emilia-Romagna region was chosen as example because of its position in an ecological key area1 located between continent and the peninsula (see Figure 1) and for the complexity of biodiversity and ecosystem types (from sea to subalpine peaks) abundance, of different and numerous socio-economical situations with fast land use dynamics ,of a complex protected area system presence and the availability of data and maps. Italy is (or it should be) interested in wilderness because of many reasons or ecosystem services like the following:
Per se nature protection; Preservation of most important natural areas; Preservation of a net of reference ecosystems; Protection of biodiversity at ecosystem scale; Education to ecology, to Gaia’s fu tio i g and to her self-repairing system; Recreation of soul, mind and body; Landscape ecological rebalancing; Lesser costs of land management; Finally yet importantly, public safety. Despite centuries of exploitation of natural resources, high population density and an overwhelming anthropocentric culture, Italy still holds ecosystems relatively slightly modified by humans, rich of high natural values. If we assume that wilderness areas can occur at every scale2 and pristiness is not indispensable3, many of these ecosystems are virtually suitable to become wilderness areas. Existing and potential wilderness areas are subjected to different regulations and have different reconnaissance by people. Mostly suitable areas are (obviously) located into existing protected areas. However, unprotected semi- natural areas and anthropogenic landscapes offer also potentiality to wilderness.
1 See e.g. European Environment Agency 2014. Spatial analysis of green infrastructure in Europe. EEA Technical Report 2/2014. 2 Leopold, A. 1942. Wilderness Values. The Living Wilderness7: 24–25. 3 Foreman, D. 2000. The Real Wilderness Idea. USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-15-VOL-1. ______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Scheme 1. Types of wilderness areas according to status.
2. Wilderness opportunities into existing protected areas Italian protected areas system includes 871 areas and cover some 10,5% of the Country4. Current national legislation5 does not include wilderness areas6. Target of the system is more sustainability and conservation of habitats and species than preservation of natural processes. Protected areas are classified as7 National parks, Regional natural parks, State and Regional nature reserves (including strict nature reserves), Other Regional protected areas, Marine protected areas, Wetlands of International importance and Land and marine areas of recruitment (for creation of new protected areas). In addition, there are the Natura 2000 sites, often overlapped to previously listed types of protected areas. Natio al lassifi atio of prote ted areas does ’t follo IUCN ategories8 a d it does ’t appl the 75 per e t rule 9. However, nature reserves are comparable to IUCN categories Ia and IV, parks are mosaics of categories I, IV and V. Zonation in parks is organized by a plan in different belts of decreasing level of
4 Decreto Legislativo 27 aprile 2010. 5 Legge quadro sulle aree protette, n. 394 del 6 dicembre 1991. 6 European Commission 2013. Guidelines on Wilderness in Natura 2000. Technical Report - 2013 – 069. 7 http://www.naturaitalia.it/home_it/biodiversita/conservare-la-biodiversita/aree-protette.html#tab4 (May 2 2014). 8 http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/gpap_home/gpap_quality/gpap_pacategories/ (May 2 2014). 9 IUCN 2008. Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. ______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______protectio fro ore to o tiguous areas. The zo es are four: A stri t reser e o para le to IUCN I ; B guided ge eral reser e o para le to IUCN IV, traditio al uses a e per itted ; C prote tio areas (maybe comparable to IUCN V, traditional and compati le uses are allo ed ; D So ial a d e o o i pro otio areas ostl ur a ized a d tra sfor ed areas . Parks a ha e also e ter al o tiguous areas. Zonation of Italian parks is a compromise between nature protection, private property, and existing uses. It has made possible create larger parks with slight use restrictions. E isti g zo es A i Natio al a d Regio al parks a d stri t ature reser es ould e the ost suita le and potential wilderness areas. Frequently such zones are small. However, they just could to play the role of core areas into larger wilderness areas if a semi-natural continuum exist. In Figure 3 and Graph 1 are shown distribution and occurrence of management zones in Emilia-Ro ag a’s parks and reserves. Other types of protected areas (like Natura 2000 sites and protected landscapes) are not considered here because of their very light restrictions. Strict protection zones involve only a little part of protected areas. I to parks, outside stri t prote ted zo es e ist other de fa to ild or ilder ess areas, here a thropi uses are absent or very slight. These areas have high potentiality and could be identified and formally recognized as wilderness, wild or buffer areas. Natura 2000 sites, after the pu li atio of Guideli es o Wilder ess i Natura 200010 , offer e great opportunities to wilderness. Non-intervention management, free ecological successions and wilderness attri utes i ge eral ha e gai ed i i porta e. No it’s eeded a s ste ati ide tifi atio of ha itats to set aside as wilderness or wild areas in Natura 2000 network.
10 European Commission 2013. Op. cit. ______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Figure 1. Location of Region Emilia-Romagna
Figure 2. Protected areas system in Region Emilia-Romagna
______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Figure 3. Management zones of parks and reserves
Graph 1. Occurrence of management zones in parks and reserves (both National and Regional) of Region Emilia-Romagna.
______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
3. Wilderness opportunities in unprotected semi-natural areas and anthropogenic landscapes. As pointed out by a first study11 in 1996, Italian wildlands occupied 20,8 % of the Country, and (only) 5,4% of Italian coastline was in wildlands. No wonder, wildlands were mainly distributed in the Alps, in the Apennines and Sardinia. Although wildlands areas of this study cannot be considered entirely wilderness because of presence of forestry, grazing, hunting and other incompatible uses12; stud ’s result as important and showed potentiality for wilderness. Recently, European maps of Wilderness Quality Index13 confirmed distribution of wilderness and its correlation with reliefs. Sadly but not surprisingly wildest areas are located in high mountains. Therefore, a wilderness system including just wildest and largest areas of Italy, would contain only few mountain ecosystem types. Efforts would be essential to create wilderness areas in the most disparate ecosystems. Land abandonment is an important phenomenon in Italy as well as in Europe 14. It affects poorest regions, often adjacent to existing semi-natural landscapes. Rewilding15 projects could improve quality of life of local communities, other than environmental conditions. Figure 4, Graph 2, show dynamics of land cover naturalness in Emilia-Romagna Region from middle XIX century to 2008. To land cover classes of Emilia- Ro ag a’s aps ere applied la d o er atural ess s ores a ordi g to Fisher et al. 2010)16. Altough not completely omogeneous, land cover maps of different years show a general vision of dynamics of naturalness. The map of middle XIX century17 show a relatively large extension of high naturalness areas (lagoons, wetlands, riverbeds and woods) in Po plain. Apennine was a mosaics of medium and high naturalness areas (extensive fields, pastures and woods). The map of 195418 shows that most of plain naturalness is lost. Apennine was still a mosaic. The map of 197619 shows the critical situation with a minimal extension of high naturalness areas. The last map (200820) shows an increasing of high naturalness areas, due probably (and mostly) to land abandonment.
11 WWF Italia 1996. Ecosistema Italia. Prima stesura. 12 According to Appendix II, in Wild Europe 2013 A Working Definition of European Wilderness and Wild Areas 13 http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/wilderness-quality-index#tab-hard-copy (7 may 2014). 14 See e.g. Verburg P. H. et al. 2010 Trajectories of land use change in Europe: a model-based exploration of rural futures. Landscape Ecology 25:217–232. 15 See e.g. Navarro L. M. & H. M. Pereira 2012 Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe. Ecosystems 15: 900– 912. 16 Fisher, M., Carver, S. Kun, Z., McMorran, R., Arrell, K. and Mitchell, G. (2010). Review of Status and Conservation of Wild Land in Europe. Project commissioned by the Scottish Government. 17 Regione Emilia-Romagna 2007, Uso del suolo storico. 18 Regione Emilia-Romagna, Carta uso del suolo 1954. 19 Regione Emilia-Romagna, Carta uso del suolo 1976. 20 Regione Emilia-Romagna, Carta uso del suolo 2008 ______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Graph 2 confirms the general view given by maps. It shows the passages from a pre-industrial landscape with extensive exploitation to a present day landscape with an intensive exploitation but with abandoning of poorest lands. Scheme 2 summarizes past a d a tual t pi al ha ges i Norther Ape i e’s la ds apes. Other wilderness potential areas, in Italy, like in other European Countries, are located in modified and suburban landscapes. Remnants of natural ecosystems, self-rewilded areas and semi-natural river sections are often small, but in densely populated lands, they play a key role in terms of ecological rebalancing, recreation and education.
Figure 4. Diachronic comparison of land cover naturalness in Region Emilia-Romagna.
______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Graph 2. Dynamics of land cover naturalness.
Scheme 2. Past and actual typical changes in Northern Apennine’s landscapes
______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
4. Importance of wilderness preservation and improvement as land management tool Different types of wilderness exist. They can differ by scale, by quality of own attributes and by quality of surrounding landscapes. For example, a high naturalness ecosystem isolated by anthropogenic landscape is very different from another one surrounded by natural landscape. Spatial attributes of ecosystems like scale, own (or topological) naturalness and surrounding (or chorological) naturalness are very important in ecological/landscape analysis and subsequently also for wilderness preservation. Recognizing these difference and to attribute different roles and purposes to each situation could be very helpful to land management. Graph 3 try to show this concept with some examples. Scheme 3 shows a possible subdivision of wilderness areas by spatial attributes and subsequent key roles.
Graph 3. Importance of spatial attributes with some examples
______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Scheme 3. Kinds of wilderness areas and their possible different roles.
Often Italian landscapes are trapped in negative feedback loops. A more ecologically focused land management could break some of these loops: an example is given in Scheme 4. Different land management approaches solved similar problems in different ways with very different effects, as showed by examples of very quite situations of two rivers near the town of Parma. First, the case of artificial basin for flooding prevention on the river Parma. The river was excavated and then dammed with loss of fluvial habitats. Dams affect water, sediments and fishes fluxes. Public access to area is not permitted. Another similar artificial basin is planned on a river Parma’s tributary. Second, the case of another river, Taro, located few kilometers west from river Parma. This section of the river is protected by a regional park. River Taro was excavated in the past, but thanks to protection it is re o eri g. It’s a i porta t ird area a d hold ha itats of Europea o er . Wild boars, roes and even wolves come back in the area. The park offers recreational opportunity. Probably the large riverbed offers protection from flooding as e os ste ser i e .
______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
Scheme 4. Example of negative feedback loop and a possible way to break it.
5. Current difficulties to promote and create wilderness areas in Italy
O e of the ajor o sta les to ilder ess area’s feasi ilit is ultural. Wilder ess a d o -intervention management are foreign concepts to Italian culture (unlike than in Central Europe21). Generally, people consider freely developing nature as a danger and a lacking of care. Anthropocentric vision and a great historical agricultural tradition have nowadays a heavy role. In addition, the aging of population makes it harder to shift towards new ecological paradigms. Other problems are due to fragmentation of land. Currently many areas, in nearly abandoned landscapes are self-recovering, but unfortunately, a network of infrastructures fragments them. Often these lands are hydro-geologically very fragile and had lost their precarious stability kept by anthropic work. In these conditions, both creation of large wilderness (or better, rewilding) areas and restoration of traditional cultural landscape are more difficult. A majority of private land poses also an obstacle. However, non-intervention management is problematic even in public lands because of rights of use overlapped over centuries.
21 Diemer M. et al. 2003 Urban Wilderness in Central Europe. International Journal of Wilderness 9:7 11. ______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected] European Wilderness Academy Days 1-4 October 2014
______
6. Proposals and conclusions
Prote tio a d de elop e t of Italia ilder ess it’s a er ig halle ge. Ho e er, so e a tio s ould play a key role for establishing of wilderness areas in Italy: Environmental education should implement natural processes, rewilding and wilderness concepts. Legislation about protected areas should include wilderness category (or categories22). It would be desirable that National legislation follow IUCN categories. Wilderness areas should be formally recognized in perpetuity for future generations. A study (totally open access and widely publicized) should map wilderness continuum at national scale. In densely populated Countries, each area is important to balance human impact. Therefore, it could choose different thresholds in wilderness continuum in order to identify and protect areas with different degree of wildness, and consequently, different roles in landscape. Most suitable areas could become recognized wilderness, wildlands or buffer areas. Other areas could be identified by their inherent degree of wildness. Future interventions should not diminish their current degree. Land management should shift from actual static approach to a more dynamic one comprising natural processes. Ecological restoration and rewilding should become common practices. National debates (followed by decisions and actions) are necessaries about important themes like management of semi- abandoned landscapes or hydrological recovery of the Country. It’s ti e to rethi ki g Italia la ds apes. For a etter, healthier, a d naturally, wilder Italy!
22 Diemer M. et al. 2003. Op. cit. ______Why Italy is interested in wilderness - Dario Botti, architect and landscape planner, [email protected]