Landscape Planning

1982  Pollino Natural Park

The “Pollino Project” was proposed by the Basilicata Region in 1977 to improve the social and economical conditions of the Pollino’s populations, by announcing a national competition for the creation of a natural park. An interdisciplinary group, uder direction of professor Guido Ferrara, won the competition and published in November 1979 the Report nr.1: “Pollino, a natural park that concerns you”, which was followed by the park  plan and implementation projects.

Today the park area also extends into the bordering land in Calabria region and the Pollino National Park, the largest in Italy, covers an area of about 192.00 hectares, of which about 88.00 on the Lucanian side and about 104.000 on the Calabrian side.

WHERE

Basilicata Region- Italy.

WHEN

1977-1978.  Pollino Natural Park National Competition – First place.

1979-1981.  Preliminary Plan- Approval by  Basilicata  Region,  July 1981.

1980-1982.  Park Plan – Approval  by  the Mayors Board  of the 13 Municipalities of the Park,  March 1982.

1982.  Detailed Projects.

WHO

Designers / Technical group/ M. Agnoloni, C. Baldassini, P.F. Galigani, Agriculture; G. Avena, F. Bruno, Botany; D. Baccani, Territorial Analyses; U. Bagnaresi, Forestry; P. Brunetti, Animal production; A. Cagnardi, Built heritage G. Campioni, Historical and cultural heritage; G. Di Giovine, V. Romani, Legislation; G. Ferrara, Landscape planning; G. Ferrari, U. Wolf, Land use; A. Formica, Local identities; V. Giacomini, Ecology; F. Lieberherr,  Rural sociology; T. Romualdi, Farmhouse; G. Rota, Economy; H. Selem, Human settlements; A.  Simonetta, P. Mannucci, Zoology; P. Spadea,  Geology; G. Turco, Infrastructure; B. Guccione, L. Vallerini, Land Planning; G. Ferrara, Project Responsible and Coordination.

WHAT

Size/ Land Surface Area  is about 77.000 hectares in 13  Municipalities.

It’s a vast area of the South of Italy located between two seas, the Ionian and the Tyrrhenian, characterized by very high environmental values (natural, agroforestry, architectural,  old towns and local culture) and, in the 1980s, plagued by problems of social and economic underdevelopment, by phenomena of cultivated areas and hydro-geological degradation. In the 1980s the area had been subjected to various attempts of  intensive tourist developments to use  the abundantly snow-capped peaks during the winter.

The project found an alternative solution between the proposals for the development of a tourist-mountain center and those of total conservation without human intervention. The project focused not only on the conservation and enhancement of nature and landscape values, but also on the need to recover and relaunch another resource: the local people. And that not as a recovery of local identities for “folkloristic” purposes, but by giving to the Pollino’s inhabitants the central rule in the action of environmental and natural protection.

REFERENCES/LINK

Regione Basilicata, Progetto Pollino. Proposte per un parco naturale. Materiali per il piano territoriale di coordinamento, Dipartimento Attività Produttive Ufficio Turismo, s.l. 1987, 6 voll., pp. 655, ill. b.n. e col., cm 29.

Guccione B. e Vallerini L., Pollino:un parco del Mezzogiorno, in “La Nuova Ecologia” n, 7 Ottobre 1981, Milano.