As a citizen of the Abruzzo such as I think of myself - I have been honoured with the bestowal of honorary citizenship in the township of Lama dei Peligni – to speak of "my " region brings me immense and profound pleasure. For us inhabitants of Rome the Abruzzo is that rugged, impervious land one knows lies out beyond the serrated blue grey of flu skyline eastward from the Capitoline. The Abruzzo - noted for wolves, for players of the native bagpipe, for its shepherds, for the expanse of Lake Fucino -which stirred the interest of the major Roman architects of land reclamation over the course of thousands of years - from the times of Emperor Claudius up to those of Prince Torlonia. For me Lake Fucino, that great green pancake lying in the middle of the map of Italy and which has been given a square shape, represents the way into the region and my memories of the Abruzzo.
In my boyhood, just after the end of the War, my father took me to the town of Avezzano to buy seed potatoes, a product that area had been taking pride in from way back. The twisting and turning Tiburtina-Valeria high road, the looming mountains around Tagliacozzo, the plain all muffled up in a thick freezing mist. And I still have the cowhide leggings, the sort that lace up on the side that he bought as a present for me at the local Fucino street market. Those selfsame leggings in which my aching calves were held a few years later on the steep, rugged slopes of Mount Velino where I had foolishly ventured to hunt rock partridge. I can still picture in my mind my first - it was also for me my last - sight of this splendid fowl as she was nestled on the limestone scree in the midst of alow dosseret of juniper bushes. She was rose-coloured and grey, with beak and feet of a shiny coral and sides with extraordinary feathers of black and rusty red.
Other pictures from memory are about the Gran Sasso - the huge self-engrossed expanse of the Voltigno; the great green solitude of Campo Imperatore; the majestic apple trees that shade the ruins of the Cappelli's farm house in the Chiarino Valley. And the wild charm of the Orfento Valley, on the Majella, along the bottom of which red lilies, peonies and wild orchids miraculously bloom in autumn - a miracle of late blossoming brought about by the gradual melting of the snow mass made by a spring avalanche, a melting that had awakened the buds and the seeds dormant since the previous spring only now, in autumn. And then there's the dread-inspiring charm of the Santo Spirito Gorge at Fara San Martino; or those tracks of a small wolf pack back in March, '73,left in the snow high up which was then mantling the San Leonardo Pass between Pacentro and Caramanico. A whole garlandful of images, feelings, surprises, such as only the wide open mountain spaces of inland Abruzzo can still provide through its intact wildness.
But what really made me impassioned with the region was its National Park. In spite of my deep-rooted love of animals and of the world of Nature, it wasn't until I reached the age of thirty that I came to know these magical places at first hand. The association named Italia Nostra, for which I had been doing work for some time, commissioned me in 1967 to look into the matter of the Abruzzo Park - in those years it was literally on the point of giving up the ghost, overwhelmed as it was by a wretched flood of building speculation. The territorial, urban and socioeconomic survey on the basis of which the Plan for Reorganization which I coordinated was made revealed a situation that was desperate. Fostered by the lack of effective enforcement of the regulations - the previous head had been done away with because he had opposed the despoiling going on - and furthered by the connivance of public administrative bodies which were guaranteeing permits and financing, roads and piped water in support of these wretched things, hundreds of unauthorized buildings were encroaching onto the Pescasseroli Plateau and the high ground of Lecce dei Marsi, the area in the vicinity of the town of Villetta Barrea and of the village of Opi and up into the higher reaches of the Sangro River Valley in the township of Civitella Alfedena. Disgraceful roads that were bulldozed through the forests of beech and slashed across mountainsides fragmented the terrain facing the Province of Molise and facing Lazio and were offensive blots on the landscape's serene loveliness. Of any of the large animals, once the Reserve's boast, there was next to nothing in the way of sightings. Poacher's of big game were having a field day. Projects with huge potential for causing damage were threatening the whole district under protection and the areas immediately adjacent to it. The Abruzzo National Park, created in 1922, one of the oldest national parks in Europe and the boast of Italy, was in the way of turning into a mere geographical expression, an eloquent and tragic testimony to the distorted development that was devastating the country during those years.
The climb back towards a redeeming of the situation was long and arduous. The first efforts to reenforce the regulations in that mountain terrain and in those valleys were met with strong opposition - attacks mounted in the press (I still recall the articles in this regard in "the Messaggero" written by Nino Longobardi and in the Roman paper "the Tempo " written by Alberto Consiglio); threats, protests, criticism. For nearly all of twenty years it was no easy life for the Park's defenders. But then, thanks to the work of Franco Tassi, who - newly appointed Park Director in 1969 - made operative the recommendations put forward in Italia Nostra's reorganization plan, which he had personally taken part in drawing up; to the advent of new local township administrations; to a general rethink as to the means of development and the importance of environmental conservation: thanks to these changes the situation returned to normal. The extent of the territory under environmental protection was enlarged to take in Mount Marsicano-predestined by the speculators to be made the victim of yet more ugly ski facilities. The Park's boundaries got stronger definition, and local public opinion began to get converted to the new ideas. And so today the Abruzzo National Park is a robust, concrete heartening reality.
Go and see, go about in the World and talk about the Abruzzo. You 'II find that people won't have things to say about the Church of Collemaggio or the fountain with the ninety-nine spouts. It's not of the Gran Sasso or of the Pescara pinewoods they 'II talk. They won't ask about the Sixteenth-Century Citadel or about the Capestrano Warrior. All but all for whom the word "Abruzzo" has some meaning will ask you about the National Park. Will ask because the Abruzzo Park is, as no one can put in doubt, the central nucleus where the Apennine world of Nature is most concentrated. It is here one finds the versicolour beechwoods whose foliage goes from purple brown in winter to yellowy green in spring and from summer's dark green to the brilliant copper colour of autumn. Here are the limestone boulders, crammed with fossil material, that plummet, plumed with twisted pines and stunted maples, to the bottom of the ravines and settle where there are level patches of field. Here are the slender snippets of grassy ledge at high altitude where the mighty Abruzzo chamois graze and where gentianellae bloom like flakes of sky. Here the eagle soars its black-feathered, wheeling flight and the bear treads its cautious way among the wild laburnum bushes. There's that icy-cold tumbling of the streams and the soft thud of the snow falling from the branches. And the pale blue smoke from the chimneys and the clamour of the jays in the thickets.
And today, in these present times, this treasure which is for the most part unspoilt is producing results. Tourism of a qualified sort, and not that horrible type which is all to do with discos and waterscooting, is beginning finally to take over. Around the "seedlings" which the Park has distributed (in the form of visitors' centres, areas for viewing the animals, trails, picnic spots, mountain refuges, etc.) there has grown up a whole range of local initiatives which are unobtrusive, aware, knowledgeable and capable of providing goals and incentives for the tourism that is attracted by the ecology and job opportunities for local youth. Youth hostels have been brought into being, handicraft work has been given a shot in the arm, guides and group leaders find employment, and socioeconomic growth is verifiable. As can be inferred also from the results of the study that the WWF commissioned Nomisma, major holding company in Bologna specializing in economic research that Romano Prodi heads, to carry out following the news appearing in an important financial newspaper that the town in Italy that held first place with respect to the size of bank deposits per capita was Civitella Alfedena, a place in the heart of the Abruzzo National Park, inhabited by a few hundred people. In that analysis, that was done based exclusively on statistical data, the important reality of the advantages arising from the presence of the Park emerges undeniably.
Every parameter relating to the socioeconomic position, from, schooling to the existence or otherwise of bathrooms in the houses, from the per capita income to the level of occupation, gives figures that for the municipalities whose boundaries are entirely within the confines of the Park are higher compared to the figures for towns or villages that are partially within the environmental protection area and much higher than the figures for villages that have no connection with the National Park albeit having similar resources and situated in comparable geographical areas. In addition, something the study does not bring out is the fact that the people that live within the Park's boundaries enjoy the huge, immeasurable advantages of breathing clean air, of having unpolluted water to drink, unspoilt scenery to admire and of having contact with flora and fauna of rare, intense beauty. These findings, which were made public by the Environmental Association, have resulted in the voluntary participation by other municipalities, like those in Molise Province on the border with the Mount Marsicano Reserve in the southeast portion of the Park, in an enlargement of the protected zone to cover some nearly ten thousand acres of their territory. But the most heartening, indeed exhilarating result of the work carried out up to today in the National Park has been the way that the Abruzzo regional government has taken such a truly civilized approach in its readiness with regard to the creating, within the terms of national law 394/91, of two very large new parks in its territory - the Gran Sasso-Laga Park and the Majella one.
As of today, taking into account national and regional parks, nature reserves and WWF protected areas, more than thirty per cent of the territory belonging to the Abruzzo is by law under environmental protection In view of these achievements (that await, however, being transformed into solid reality) the Abruzzo can rightfully assume the title of Europe's Green Region. In fact today all of its principal massifs starting with the Laga Mountains, going on to the Gran Sasso, the Velino-Sirente range and the Majella to finish up with the Meta Mountains, are protected almost in their entirety, to which are to be added some nature reserves and limited protected areas. This nature treasure will activate, as the regional government is aware, a type of development that is different and is constant, bound to Nature and to traditional cycles.
Looking into the future, I see what might become the shape to come of inland Abruzzo, vitalized and enhanced by the big nature reserves which are in the process of being created. In the lowland areas, in those marginal territories included within the confines of the protected areas and that perserve the wonderful mosaic of small fields, meadows, woods, hedges, hamlets and enclosures of bygone days, the parks plan should envisage a heedful upgrading involving incentives - guaranteed moreover by recent EEC regulations nos. 2078/92 and 2080/80 - to biological farming, to the creation of hedgerows to act as refuge for wild flora and fauna, to the restoring of farmland to a natural state. Add to this the activating of agricultural tourism, the recovery of rural building, the creation of areas for the protection of local fauna, the enhancing of the prestige of local artifacts bearing the Park logo, trailblazing... All this to be based, as regards where would play host to the activities, on the restoration and utilization of the marvellous historic towns and villages which surround the protected massif areas. The "heart" of the whole system and its driving force would obviously remain the natural environment.
Once disturbance will have been done away with, the kind brought about by hunting and by uncontrolled access to the more fragile and vulnerable natural settings, the forest and mountain ecosystems would offer incomparable attractions. Imagine, for example, Campo Pericoli on the Gran Sasso with herds of Abruzzo chamois roving across its flower-covered meadows, as one does find at Forca Resuni in the Abruzzo National Park or on the Lauson Plateau in the Gran Paradiso National Park. Or the whirring sound of the flight of rock partridge on the slopes of Campo Imperatore. Or deer along with roedeer wandering on the Voltigno Plain or again chamois moving among the mugho pines on the Majelletta; the dark flight of the Golden Eagle above the Celano Gorge or the howl of wolves heard at night at the San Leonardo Pass. High-altitude trails that allow observing of the fauna and the flowering vegetation without making for damage; comfortable, well-equipped mountain refuges, resting spots having notice boards for information and maps indicating points of interest; opportunity for excursions on horseback or riding mules; facilities for cross-country skiing and for summer and winter hiking; lookout places and locations from which to admire the scenery. Plus - and why not, after all? - in the areas where there is most call, facilities for downhill skiing that would not damage or alter the delicate mountain scenery.
All to be supported by, as I've said, a number of accommodation centres consisting of youth hostels, boarding houses for families, inns and hotels, restaurants serving local fare and cafeterias. All of this to be based on the strong appeal of nature tourism emanating from the parks and to be put into effect utilizing the delightful, already existing historic edifices. This is a dream that will, one hopes, soon by turned into reality. One hopes so, too, for the reason that credible alternatives to this sort of tourism look - it has to be realized -fewer all the time. Especially true as regards the mountain areas, where an ever decreasing and uncertain snowfall - such as to discourage whoever might have in mind these days to draw up plans for ski lifts and trails on peaks in the Apennines - accompanies a progressive rise in world temperature. That ersatz, residential-style tourism based on a "place in the country" lived in a few days of the year and on soulless condominiums is, this too -fortunately, revealing its limitations in the Abruzzo as elsewhere; to this region it has already done a lot of damage. Within such a context the regional government's initiative of decisively going the route of nature tourism based on the enhancement of its areas of natural environment looks very much the winning strategy. So long as it does not, that is (and I put this categorically), remain limited to a fanciful idea on paper. If there is to be real commitment, unless the whole project is to fail this has got to include action of a real sort that can serve as sample pledges ofintent-the restoration of an edifice of the past so that one of the Park's services can be installed in it; the buying of an endangered woods; the setting up of a naturalist museum; the creation of an animal reserve; subsidies and financing for iniziatives already undertaken in the existing Abruzzo National and the Velino-Sirente Parks...
Only be coupling points of tangible evidence within the territory to political action on a broad front will the project as a whole acquire substance and credibility and will there be no misgivings - always in the air in this sphere - that what is actually going on is an end-in-itself exploitation of the issue which wears itself out in empty declamation, shiny paper, conferences and very little else. After years of fine speeches about a nature which is silently disappearing and decades of dressing up a blameworthy indifference to the problems in lamentation and declarations of having no power to do anything, the moment has now come for getting busy and for implementing. National parks are, true, formed on the basis of laws and agreements, plans and regulations. But they consist first and foremost of actual things - signs and rangers, trails and refuge huts, hostels and museums, visitors' reception centres and centres for accommodation, notice boards and picnic areas, camping sites and stables. This is what the environmentalists are expecting and this is the recipe for creating something positive and longlasting in Europe's Green Region, the region which is in first place in Italy in terms of the extent of area protected and the first in the country to have accommodated a national park within its confines.
F. Pratesi
Abruzzo Sheep Universe
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