Gaetano de Persiis, for all of us “Nanni,” left us last night. Sad news, a great loss for us, for SLO, for all those who have fought and are fighting to safeguard what remains of this nature mistreated and devastated by selfishness, business interests and indifference. Nanni was among the first,10 years ago, to start, together with some of us, the adventure of Salviamo l’Orso.
For many years he was our vice president and the delegate for issues concerning the Lazio bear range with the goal, always chased and never achieved, of creating an environmental protection area on his beloved Ernici Mountains. We rejoiced together at some successes and suffered at many defeats however, like us, he never lost hope for a better future for the nature of our Apennines and for the bear, which he did not call Marsican, but precisely of the Apennines.
A man of other times, of absolute honesty and integrity, refractory to any kind of compromise that sacrificed his principles, he never gave up or ceased to hope that a virtuous path of coexistence between rural communities and nature could finally be set in motion.
Passionate nature photographer and author of numerous books, whose protagonists range from bears to butterflies, from deer to his beloved Ernici Mountains, we like to remember him for the volume he wrote for SLO, “ERNICO – History of a Bear of the Apennines,” a story that precisely encompasses his two loves: bears and his Ernici Mountains. Rest in peace dear Nanni!!!
