Savona. Ecosystems, species, genetic resources; food, water, energy, resources; biosafety, agricultural education, biotechnology. In a word? Biodiversity. World Biodiversity Day is celebrated on 22 May, an anniversary established by the United Nations to protect and safeguard an increasingly threatened nature in its habitats and species. In such a scenario, how can we guarantee a better future?
Coldiretti and Campagna Amica invest in the figure of the custodian of the territory: that is, an aware and attentive farmer, capable of carrying out ethical agriculture and spreading it through direct sales markets, which lend themselves to forms of dissemination and real educational moments, like the one organized in the Campagna Amica Market in Savona on the occasion of Biodiversity Day.
“Liguria is a very particular region: its lands are located at very different altitudes and this implies a heterogeneity of pedoclimatic conditions which are reflected in the variety of ecosystems and species. The province of Savona has over 30 Sites of Community Interest (SCI), ranging from Piana Crixia to the Cadibona forest, from the island of Gallinara to that of Bergeggi. But also Monte Beigua, Monte Galero, the promontory of Capo Mele and the Rocca dell’Adelasia. The woods occupy over 70% of the overall provincial surface area, not to mention the geological, historical, archaeological and floristic resources, which make the Savona hinterland of particular interest and a strong productive area from an agricultural point of view. From this perspective, agriculture can represent the possibility of all-round protection: local farmers ensure seasonal and diversified food production (1), safeguard the landscape through the protection of woods, hedges, meadows and insects pollinators (2), counteract land consumption from a building point of view (3), and protect citizens from environmental damage such as hydrogeological instability (4)”, comment Marcello Grenna and Antonio Ciotta, President and Director of Coldiretti Savona.
“The protection of local agriculture therefore has a dual purpose: to protect the nature that surrounds us and to contribute to the social and cultural development of local populations – they continue – This can also happen through educational initiatives that can serve to transmit these values. What better opportunity than to talk about our region through its rural biodiversity?”
Precisely for this reason, in the week dedicated to Biodiversity, Campagna Amica organizes an educational event dedicated to schools in the province of Savona: particular importance, when talking about biodiversity, must be given to bees, whose absence on the planet would drastically reduce global biodiversity . It is thanks to the pollination of bees that approximately 90% of wild plant species depend. In Savona, at the Campagna Amica Market in Piazza del Popolo, an activity will take place on Wednesday 22 May with various classes of the De Amicis Elementary School. The laboratory is dedicated to bees, flowers and leaves: the section dedicated to beekeeping and the importance of bees for the creation and maintenance of terrestrial biodiversity, alongside demonstrations and activities related to the flora of our region, will be carried out by Daniela Andreis From the “Vivai Montina” agricultural company/educational farm in Cisano sul Neva and Giulia Montina from “Il Poggio del nonno Piero”.
Grenna and Ciotta conclude: “The teaching represents another demonstration of the multifunctionality of the role of the farmer, who becomes an interlocutor of the territory through the protection of rural biodiversity and the valorisation of local crop varieties, also and above all with the consumers of tomorrow.”
