A new governance model for the conservation and enhancement of Italian ancient transhumance routes.

Transhumance routes mark the natural path followed by herds during their seasonal movements. These routes are disappearing in many European countries. In Italy, a few fragments survive in Molise, in southern Italy, called Tratturi and run along grassy paths. The Tratturi are considered to be of archaeological, economic and landscape interest, sources of cultural and environmental attraction, protected by a national law. However, the landscapes connected to the Tratturi are disappearing both as a consequence of non-use and as a consequence of the advancement of wooded areas, and this poses a problem related to the governance system that involves many stakeholders, both at international, national and local level. The study, through the use of the combined approach of Stakeholder Basic Analysis and Social Network Analysis, identifies the role of the stakeholders involved, their power, their interest and their ability to support the decision-making system. Furthermore, the paper uses multivariate statistical analysis to detect the key stakeholders. A new model of governance, allowing to preserve the Tratturi and to enhance the services they can provide, is introduced, and it is named Authority for the Conservation and Enhancement of Tratturi (ACET). This study can help to identify appropriate management models for ancient routes based on all stakeholders involved, and more generally to implement shared and co-responsible planning choices in socio-ecological systems.

Sustainable local development and agri-food system in the post Covid crisis: The case of Rome.

This paper focuses on the research pathway related to the drafting of a strategic Agri-Food Plan of Rome. The paper highlights the theoretical background and investigates the strategic vision and actions, as well as the role played by the Covid-19 Pandemic by changing priorities. The merging between two strands of study is identified: urban food strategies and sustainability in the debate on post Covid-19 food planning studies and the analysis of local agri-food systems for economic development. This work shows that in the case of urban and metropolitan areas around the Mediterranean, agriculture, the cultural dimension of food, logistics, research and innovation, and tourism marketing can be included within a single planning and policy tool. In the case of Rome, the place-based approach allowed us to consider the specificities of social and spatial contexts with interactions of market drivers with public institutions. This approach may constitute a promising path of research for the future of sustainable planning, particularly in Mediterranean cities. The results have interesting policy implications that should be more explicitly considered in addressing urban agendas, and in particular, the role of food to promote local development by integrating economic, social, and environmental and spatial values at a regional scale.

How did Italian diversified farms tackle Covid-19 pandemic first wave challenges?

The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, in the period March-May 2020, quickly triggered a deep crisis, causing an immediate economic slowdown and consequently a strong contraction in domestic demand and trade. The food supply chain faced severe difficulties, although its anti-cyclical nature allowed for greater resilience compared to other economic sectors. In this framework of ongoing uncertainty, it is important to understand the response of farms to the crisis, and their role in the sustainability of the post-pandemic food supply chain, even for future policy interventions in the short and medium term. The purpose of the paper is to investigate how diversification affected the response of farms to the Covid-19 crisis, and explore whether the changes required by the post-crisis scenario can produce opportunities for their activities. The study investigates a sample of fifteen farms in central Italy through semi-structured interviews, performing a lexicon-based text and sentiment analysis. The results highlight the importance of farm diversification in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and emphasise the role of diversified farms for the sustainability of the agri-food system. These results have interesting policy implications, particularly regarding support for the competitiveness of farms by improving sustainable logistics, electronic commerce and exchanges of knowledge and innovations among farmers; these measures should be taken into account to target the future agricultural, rural and food policies, at both national and local level.