Landscape Works. Balancing Nature and Culture in the Pantelleria National Park

Anna Laura Palazzo,Romina D’Ascanio,Andrea Filpa,Giorgia De Pasquale,Lorenzo Barbieri

doi:10.3390/su132313371

Abstract

Traditional agricultural practice and peculiar geographical features in the Mediterranean basin have not only moulded cultural and heritage values, but also created the conditions for the development of habitats to be protected. Therefore, Landscape proves a suitable concept both for the enhancement of cultural features and for nature conservation. The aim of this work is to apply the landscape approach to the Pantelleria National Park, providing the opportunity to reflect upon and discuss whether and how to encompass rural landscape planning and management within the broader context of natural values, offering a frame of reference for the zoning of the future Park Plan. Specifically, the research aims to define zoning categories, typical to protected areas planning, using criteria related to landscape features and patterns, environmental quality, traditional agriculture, architectural heritage. Established in 2016, the Pantelleria National Park is the most recent Italian National Park and the first one in Sicily. The Park covers 79% of the island, encompassing two sites of Community Importance as well as one Special Protection Area belonging to the Natura 2000 network. Pantelleria is a microcosm gathering a great variety of natural and human-made landscapes characterized by high levels of complexity embodying the antagonism of two protected ‘noble interests’: Nature and the environment on the one hand, Culture framed as traditional rural practices on the other. The main challenge of the new-founded National Park is to combine quality and values relating to the domain of Nature, which is expanding, with those expressed by Culture, represented by a wide array of historical rural values at risk due to ongoing abandonment of most remote areas.

Highlights

Over the last several decades, attempts to jointly take into account nature conservation and preservation of cultural heritage have led to new approaches focusing on their interplay considering inherent risks and trade-offs
The island of Pantelleria, southwest of Sicily, gathers in some 83 square Kilometres a wide variety of natural and human-made landscape patterns featuring high complexity and embodying two constitutionally-protected ‘noble interests’: nature and the environment on the one hand, with tangible and intangible cultural assets linked to traditional agriculture on the other
It was preferred to expand the areas of oriented protection (Zone B) and to introduce a third area of general protection (Zone C) coinciding substantially with the landscape system of current and formerly cultivated fields typical of the historical rural landscape

Summary

Introduction

Over the last several decades, attempts to jointly take into account nature conservation and preservation of cultural heritage have led to new approaches focusing on their interplay considering inherent risks and trade-offs.This issue is pivotal in Mediterranean countries, where natural factors require humans to adapt their living environment and attune farming to geomorphology [1,2].The landscape approach, in recognizing the inextricable links between cultural and natural values in the protected areas planning, was tested in the Pantelleria National Park [3].The island of Pantelleria, southwest of Sicily, gathers in some 83 square Kilometres a wide variety of natural and human-made landscape patterns featuring high complexity and embodying two constitutionally-protected ‘noble interests’: nature and the environment on the one hand, with tangible and intangible cultural assets linked to traditional agriculture on the other. Over the last several decades, attempts to jointly take into account nature conservation and preservation of cultural heritage have led to new approaches focusing on their interplay considering inherent risks and trade-offs. This issue is pivotal in Mediterranean countries, where natural factors require humans to adapt their living environment and attune farming to geomorphology [1,2]. The island of Pantelleria, southwest of Sicily, gathers in some 83 square Kilometres a wide variety of natural and human-made landscape patterns featuring high complexity and embodying two constitutionally-protected ‘noble interests’: nature and the environment on the one hand, with tangible and intangible cultural assets linked to traditional agriculture on the other. ‘Culture’ is considered under different standpoints, encompassing traditional rural settlement patterns, farming regimes, as well as intangible assets [4]

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