The mayor of Pescosolido, a small municipality on the border between Abruzzo and Lazio, has proposed that 300 hectares of his mountainous territory be transferred to the protection of the Abruzzo Lazio and Molise National Park. This is an area located at an altitude of 1,800 m, where there are no agricultural or pastoral activities and where silvicultural activity itself is practically absent, given the difficult conditions of the area both from an environmental and a logistical point of view.
In spite of the undoubted advantages that such a choice would bring, including a probable greater influx of tourists and European funding for environmental protection and restoration that would be showered on the entire municipality, there are many who do not look favourably on the request, passing it off as an action that goes against the autonomy of the local populations. Speaking out are well-known faces, such as those belonging to a well-known association of hunters who, against all logic, enjoy the support of Coldiretti of Frosinone, according to which the farmers would have ‘contributed to preserving and maintaining the area with their activities’. It remains to be understood what they are and, above all, where they are developed, given that in the numerous wildlife monitoring trips, our association has never had the opportunity to see the results.
It should be added that a large part of the territory of the Municipality of Pescosolido is already included in the Natura 2000 Network, a coordinated and coherent system of areas intended for the conservation of biodiversity, established by the European Union, which includes the SACs (former SCIs) and SPAs throughout Europe and brings with it certain constraints aimed at protecting the ecological values (i.e. animal and plant species and habitats) that are of collective interest at a European level and certainly cannot be protected by the local communities alone. But the constraints, as is also the case in the PNALM, do not deny any acquired rights of the communities involved, such as the civic uses of grazing or woodland.
Given the importance of the request, and the undoubted advantages it would bring, Salviamo L’Orso, together with Appennino Ecosistema, WWF Abruzzo, WWF Lazio, Pro Natura, Italia Nostra (L’Aquila section), GrIG – Gruppo d’Intervento Giuridico CAI Abruzzo, SOA – Stazione Ornitologica Abruzzese ALTURA, Orso and Friends, LIPU Abruzzo, FEDERTREK, GUFI – Gruppo Unitario Foreste Italiane, will continue to support the Mayor and Administration of Pescosolido.