Giacomo ZANOLIN, University of Genoa, Italy
Protected areas are traditionally conceived as natural spaces in which ecological dynamics take place independently from human activities, even though (especially in Europe) they generally appear to be rural spaces, where ecological dynamics and biodiversity directly derive from human work, that has shaped ecosystems over centuries and millennia (Giacomini, Romani 2002). Despite this awareness, many protected areas continue to promote themselves as "uncontaminated" natural spaces, implicitly underlining the destructive role of human actions in the ecosystems.
Starting from a study on Italy's national parks, which derive most of their ecological dynamics directly from the constructive work performed by human beings throughout rural history, this paper aims to reflect on the actual meaning of sustainability in protected areas. By defining national parks as rural systems, rather than as natural spaces, we can indeed promote interesting educational paths aimed at redefining the ways people interact with them and, more in general, at rethinking the interaction between humans and ecosystems (Agnoletti 2012).
This perspective introduces a potential advancement in the concept of sustainability, because it opens up the possibility that the protection of ecosystems primarily aims at maintaining and revitalizing the constructive processes generated by rural activities, from which both ecosystems and local human communities derive their strength. In order to pursue this advancement, it may be useful to focus specifically on the principle of responsibility (Jonas 1979), to explore the opportunity to rethink the role of human beings as parts of ecosystems and as subjects (and communities) that inhabit places and take care of them as they are aware of their own role, sometimes destructive, but very often constructive (Berque 1996).
Mots clés : Italy|National Parks|Responsibility|Rural landscapes|Sustainability
A105446GZ