The Wilderness Concept and its Philosophy
in Italy: The History and the Successes of
the Idea as a Conservation Principle
Franco Zunino
Abstract—The Associazione Italiana per la Wilderness (The Italian
Wilderness Society) was founded in 1985. The organization
brought together “spirited people” to battle for wilderness, with
initial efforts toward spreading the wilderness philosophy and
conservation concept while facing head-on the challenge of creating protected wilderness in a highly populated country, where
land is mostly privately owned, and few wild places remain on
public lands.
In Italy, the Wilderness concept as a conservation principle was for the first time illustrated by myself in the
early seventies, after I discovered it in some American
environmental magazines and books. “Per un’ Idea di Wilderness” (For a Wilderness Idea) was the motto I coined for
my private campaign, in the early 1980’s, for the knowledge
and spreading of the Wilderness philosophy and concept in
Italy; and Documenti Wilderness (Wilderness Papers) was
the newspaper I began to publish for such a campaign.
There was a need to connect this campaign to a specific
place so that people, particularly environmentalists, could
more easily understand a Wilderness place and the importance of preserving others like it. The area I chose to focus
on was, and still is today, the wildest area remaining in the
whole European Alps: the Val Grande and its surrounding
mountains. Thanks to this initial focus and to the help
obtained from some resolutions approved by two World
Wilderness Congresses, today the Val Grande is a National
Park. Though a pure Wilderness concept is not applied, it is
at least taken into consideration as a value to be preserved
when managing the Park (and, unfortunately, as a touristic
slogan too!). This was the first real victory for the Wilderness
Idea movement in Italy.
After some years of effort and my participation in the 3rd
World Wilderness Congress in Scotland in 1983, interest
grew, and I decided to found the Associazione Italiana per la
Wilderness (The Italian Wilderness Society), with the aim to
aggregate “spirited people” to battle for Wilderness.
The Associazione Italiana per la Wilderness (AIW) was
founded in 1985, and immediate efforts were toward spreading the Wilderness philosophy and conservation concept. In
In: Watson, Alan E.; Aplet, Greg H.; Hendee, John C., comps. 2000.
Personal, societal, and ecological values of wilderness: Sixth World Wilderness Congress proceedings on research, management, and allocation, volume II;
1998 October 24–29; Bangalore, India. Proc. RMRS-P-14. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
Franco Zunino is Secretary General of the Italian Wilderness Society,
Via A. Bonetti 42 (Borgata Piano), 17010 Murialdo (SV), Italy.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000
1988, the very first Wilderness area was designated in
Italy and in Europe: Fosso del Capanno, a small part of a
larger wild and roadless valley. This first Wilderness area,
established with an agreement between the AIW and a
private foundation, soon grew, enclosing Regional Forest
Service lands and Municipality public lands. (Now the Fosso
del Capanno Wilderness area is 760 hectares, encompassing
almost all of the remaining roadless area.)
The question remained of how to establish Wilderness
in a country as highly populated as Italy, where land is
mostly privately owned and few wild places were left on
public lands. We chose the democratic approach to Municipality government members—people elected to administrate the Municipalities. We obtained designation of one
Wilderness Area by means of the decision of a local authority, and others followed. In such wild places, we sought
serious commitments for the preservation of the wild characteristics of the areas, with neither roads nor buildings
permitted.
To gain public support, we adopted a specific political
action based on the concepts of self-resolution and rationality. We emphasized to local people the necessity of preserving their own environmental treasure and not to depend on
imposed higher authorities. Rational use of the protected
renewable natural resources include hunting, woodcutting,
and grazing (and we are now working for a touristic use to
be managed within a carrying-capacity framework). Thus,
we have not been opposed by these categories of resource
users. Without their support, it would be almost impossible
to obtain local acceptance for environmental preservation
in Italy.
In selecting specific places for protection, we adopted the
United States’ criteria for designation, but with a European
adaptation due to ancient settlements characterizing the
environment; there are many artifacts everywhere, and
natural landscapes always show signs of man’s manipulation. A second important adaptation was due to the extensive private properties in Europe, and also due to local rights
to use natural resources on public lands. Most important
among selective criteria was the wild aspect of the areas to
be protected, with emphasis on the naturalness, isolation
(with a very wild core), and integrity (unbroken by roads or
any other artificial lines).
The legislative aspect was another challenge to proposing
Wilderness Area designation and preservation; such legislation is lacking in Italy. We resorted to administrative
measures by public bureaus that manage lands, based on
the moral aspect of any agreement: the will of respecting it.
We first suggested the moral, but formal, will to the authorities (Municipalities or Regional Forest Services) to give
up and refuse any project of development for designated
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Wilderness Areas; then, we suggested the respect, with a
strict protective criteria, of the environmental laws existing on the Areas.
Such a method is extremely democratic because it is based
on a local consciousness of the values of the wilderness
qualities of a place, instilling within the people the importance of being directly included in preservation efforts. This
was the greatest contributing idea to promoting the designation of Wilderness Areas in a country where neither
State nor Regional laws exist to recognize such a type of
conservation preservation.
Since the first Wilderness Area was established, year
after year, the AIW has obtained additional Wilderness
designation; some are from Municipal or Regional Forest
Service authorities, and in rare cases, from private holdings.
A total of 12 areas are designated now.
The second Wilderness Area designated was also the very
first designated by a Municipality. The Monte Cesima Wilderness Area, located near the site where the World War II
battle of Cassino and Monte Lungo took place, was designated in 1990, and recently enlarged to another Municipality for a total of 1,310 hectares.
Designated next was the smallest of the Areas near the
town where I now live. Monte Camulera (Bric Zionia) is a
mere 53 hectares, but with the concrete possibility to have it
soon enlarged to over hundreds of hectares of woods, thanks
to a private acquisition by a patron member of the AIW.
Designation of the largest Italian Wilderness Area was
cause for celebration! Establishment of this Area protects a
wild valley in the Dolomite Mountains of the Oriental Alps
chain, part of a larger wild area of almost 40,000 hectares
that the AIW hopes to have designated in the future for
preservation. Valmontina Wilderness Area, with a core
area of about 1,000 hectares was designated by the Regional
Forest Service, and with common lands, combine for a total
of 3,340 hectares.
Other Wilderness Areas include the 2,640 hectares of
the Ernici Orientali; the nearly one thousand hectares of
Gola del Fiume Rapido and the nearby I Monti Bianchi
Wilderness Areas; the Monte Camino Wilderness Area, site
of the famous feudal Captain Ettore Fieramosca ancient
Fief; and the smaller Eremo dello Spirito Santo and Monte
Caira-Gole del Melfa Wilderness Areas near the Castle
where the monk philosopher Saint Tommaso d’Aquino was
born. All of them are in the Central-Southern Region of Italy.
Last spring, we obtained another important inclusion in
our unofficial system preserving Italian wild areas: the Val
di Vesta Wilderness Area, authorized by another Regional
Forest Service office, and protecting a wild valley in the
mountainous region of the well-known Garda Lake. This
Area, the first in a Regional Natural Park, starts a new
principle for us: preserving wild lands in officially protected
areas.
What is important to explain here is that such an activity
is strictly based on the United States Wilderness concept,
not only as a mere preservation of wild areas (obtained
also according to the laws of National or Natural Parks),
but also preserving them in the spirit of Aldo Leopold and
Robert Marshall, the Wilderness Act spirit, with declared
intentions of a “wilderness preservation with a forever
wild concept.” The designations are all following the steps
of the American Wilderness preservation history. We have
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indeed obtained local (Municipality) and bureaus of land
management (Forestry Departments) designation, just
like the first Wilderness Areas established in the United
States in the years of Aldo Leopold and Robert Marshall—a
step toward obtaining Wilderness values preservation by
means of Regional or National Government laws in the
future.
As in many other countries, in Italy, too, wild area preservation is perceived to conflict with some needs of the local
people: owning land or having the right to use natural
resources. Any type of National Park or Preserve is also
conflicting with such rights, however. We have National
Parks that were established almost 80 years ago, where
these conflicts haven’t been solved, largely because of
their extremely large sizes, and in many cases, expanding
into lands with little or no natural value and into towns.
These lands are enclosed in National Parks and forbid
hunting or other activities used for financial gain.
The Wilderness Idea in Italy is to preserve only the
remaining strictly natural wild areas, with emphasis on
local people preserving them for their purposes (selfresolution) and with Municipality support. Now, what is
important to know is that this type of Wilderness is not, as
Vance Martin (The Wild Foundation) suggested in his 5th
World Wilderness Congress speech, of first-class value. He
divided the Wilderness Systems of the world into three
classes; the Italian system has correctly been placed in the
lowest, or third class, because they are not inviolate or virgin
places and have been established by local or regional authorities only.
In Italy, therefore, we have Wilderness Areas where
local people have given up building any type of roads or
buildings, and in some cases (public lands) wood harvesting
too, but where hunting, grazing, and private woodcutting
are allowed. We have obtained guarantees against mass
touristic use of them, and against “taming” them, so that
these Areas can remain as wild as they were and are now,
maintaining their wild character and ancient human uses.
I am now proud to relate to you recent events at the
Italian Wilderness Society. The twelfth Italian Wilderness
Area was recently designated in a famous natural landscape of Italy, and Europe too. It is the River Po Delta, where
the local community (Porto Tolle Municipality, in Vento
Region) opposed a Natural Regional Park, but instead chose
Wilderness classification for durable, self-resolution environmental protection—a solution that obtained the unanimous recognition of all the members of the local government
and of all the local organizations for natural renewable
resource use, such as hunters, fishermen, mussel breeders,
and countrymen. This choice hopefully will soon be recognized by the Provincial Government and by the Regional
authority as well.
An act of the Provincia di Frosinone (Frosinone Provincial Government) recognized only last September the four
Wilderness Areas designated in that Province by the local
municipalities and for any other such Areas designated in
the future. This is an important step politically, as it was
the first Wilderness Area designation obtained by a Municipality—a step that we hope may be the first toward
other Provincial recognitions and for future acceptance of
the Wilderness Idea in both the Regional and National
Governments.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000
Another important step will be obtaining more Wilderness Area designation for the wild areas existing in Regional and National Parks. We hope that the Val Grande
National Park will be mostly all designated as wilderness
and so managed, although some forces are still opposing
such recognition. For the management staff of the Park, the
word “wilderness” has, so far, only been a touristic slogan.
Today, we have 12 Wilderness Areas in six Italian
Regions for a total of over 15,000 hectares, and we are
working to enlarge them and to also obtain designation for
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000
many other Areas. Included among these are: The Serra
Lunga-Lacerno Area in Abruzzo (the finest of them), with
a deep gorge and a large Apennine plateau inhabited by
bears, wolves and the Abruzzo chamois; the Monte
Polveracchio Area, home to a dense, mature beech forest
in Southern Italy; and the Is Canargius drainage, one of
the wildest areas of chaparral providing habitat for the
remaining red-listed Corsican red deer in the Sardinia
Region. There remains much to be done to protect Italy’s
wonderful wild places.
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