The D.P.R. 616/77 (a decree issued by the President of the Republic) has marked an essential step in the process of growth of the protected areas in Italy. Thanks to the transfer of the competences about the protected areas from the State to the Regions and the consequent establishment of the Natural Parks, decades of silence and inactivity have been interrupted.
Besides considerably increasing the total surface of protected national territory, the regional parks have also given birth to a period of debate and conceptual innovation about the issues regarding the form, the role, and the management of the protected areas.
In particular, according to similar experiences in other European countries, the regional parks have been able to adapt the primitive model of North American park to the complex reality of the urbanized Italian territory . The originality of these parks consisted of their ability to join the preservation of the natural resources with their social exploitation and the sustainable development for the local population.
The parks have been a permanent field of ecological experimentation where, with a new cultural and economic approach, it is possible to define a model of territorial management which can also be applied to the rest of the Country.
Nowadays the regional protected areas cover a surface of more than one million hectares. The Provinces are also getting involved in this process through the creation of their own protected areas thanks to the approval of the law 142/90 dealing with the decentralization of the competences.
Further information in our protected areas database. |
