Congressi Nazionali SISEF

*

Poster

Marandola D, Raschi A

Natural resources and sustainable development in a local perspective: The case study of Natura2000 sites in a rural area of Italian Apennines

Riassunto: In the last decades, interest in tourism has been growing in rural and remote areas. Tourism has been seen as an agent for rural economic regeneration and as a way for fostering conservation of natural resources. Among the different types of tourism, nature-based tourism has largely increased its importance in recent years, even if it is a potential source of conflicts, for nature conservation and socio-economical-cultural balances. To avoid these conflicts, research energy should be channelled into practical ways of assisting all forms of tourism to develop in a perspective of sustainability. Endogenous development processes have to be supported through the valorisation of local knowledge (skills, culture) as well as through the direct participation by local actors to the design of the local development strategies. This poster summarise a research experience carried out in a rural area of mid-southern Italian Apennine. The research, developed in the frame of a wider research program, aims to investigate, in a perspective of tourism-based development, the role that local communities and natural resources (i.e. Natura2000 sites) can play to strengthen the local tourism supply. The research is set up in Fortore-Tammaro, a rural inner area of Benevento province where, in the most recent years, investments for the valorisation of local food and rural culture were expected to give impulse to the local economy and tourism. So far the results did not correspond to the expectations, maybe for a short-sighted approach adopted by the policy makers. As a matter of fact the area (about 900 square kilometres) hosts several Natura2000 sites (for more than 90 square kilometres), but few actions have been carried out to convert this important asset in a concrete contribution to nature based tourism development. The surveys, on the one hand, show that visitors’ expectations are related not only to food, but also to nature and landscape. On the other hand, instead, Semi Structured Interviews and Focus Groups highlight that local community have scarce knowledge of the potentialities of the territory and of visitors’ demand. Natura2000 sites, for instance, result completely unknown to tourism entrepreneurs and local associations, even they both consider “natural resources” a strength point of the territory. These first results have the potentiality to represent a useful tool for local decision makers in the perspective of promoting development and tourism. They suggest, actually, the importance to involve local communities in information and dissemination processes, to foster bottom-up strategies and to increase the value of the natural resources in a local development perspective.

Citazione: Marandola D, Raschi A (2009). Natural resources and sustainable development in a local perspective: The case study of Natura2000 sites in a rural area of Italian Apennines. In: VII Congresso Nazionale SISEF “Sviluppo e adattamento, naturalità e conservazione: opportunità per un sistema forestale in transizione“ (Università degli Studi del Molise, Isernia - Pesche (IS), 29 Settembre - 3 Ottobre 2009), Abstract-book, Contributo #c07.7.38. - [online] URL: https://congressi.sisef.org/?action=paper&id=1221


Dettagli

Congresso VII Congresso Nazionale SISEF
“Sviluppo e adattamento, naturalità e conservazione: opportunità per un sistema forestale in transizione”
Università degli Studi del Molise, Isernia - Pesche (IS), 29 Settembre - 3 Ottobre 2009
Collocazione c07.7.38 (#)
Sessione Sessione Poster
Moderatore/i -
Data Oct 03, 2009
Ora 09:00-19:00
Luogo -
Info Autori
(*): speaker

D Marandola
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie per l’Ambiente e il Territorio - S.T.A.T.
Italy

A Raschi
IBIMET, CNR, Firenze
Italy