Peri-Urban Matters. Changing Olive Growing Patterns in Central Italy

Ottavia Aristone,Anna Palazzo

doi:10.3390/su9040638

Abstract

For centuries, olive growing has played a major role in the central regions of Italy, with hectares of olive groves surrounding hill towns and hamlets as part of a strong deep-rooted farming tradition. With reference to Lazio and Abruzzo, this article makes use of historical documentation, geographical surveys and in-depth interviews with professionals and experts, in order to provide evidence of how olive growing, once of the mixed type, now with specialized cultivations, has somehow challenged the structural features of traditional landscapes. In some cases, this ancient farming tradition has been awarded the ‘Protected Designation of Origin Brand’ according to strict technical production policies. Besides intensive crops, today also practiced on flat ground, for some years now, olive trees have been cultivated by ‘hobby farmers’. This is frequent in fringe areas, threatened by urban sprawl, within small plots belonging to detached family homes conferring a sense of rural ‘revival’. Whether all these diverse settlement patterns are socially and economically sustainable is debatable. Definitely, such persistence in land use, which now and again can be read even as a material survival of certain tree specimens, allows for olive farming as an enduring cultural practice in the face of increasing urbanization.

Highlights

All over the Mediterranean basin, olive growing is associated to peculiar rural landscapes and economies somehow unified by highly symbolic values conveyed by the olive tree, which is recognized as the universal symbol of peace and prosperity, being rustic, domestic, durable and useful (Braudel, 2002) [1]: “The Mediterranean Sea runs from the first olive tree one encounters when coming from the North to the first palm groves that appear with the desert” (p. 19)
In the Latin world, the olive tree and olive growing are frequently mentioned by agronomists, poets and writers
In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder includes the regia di Sabina (Lazio) among the 14 varieties of olives grown in Italy; Virgilio mentions the presence of the olive in the Marsica (Abruzzo), while Ovid discusses the production of olive oil in Valle Peligna (Abruzzo) confirming the practice as well-established [18]

Summary

Introduction

In central Italy, olive landscapes stand as a major result of long-term relationships between communities and their elective space in terms of possession, use, control and exploitation of local resources.The aim of this article is to assess how and to what extent new practices in olive growing, urged by different driving forces, such as demographic dynamics, urban development and market-oriented behaviors, are challenging landscape characters either in specialized cultivations in rural areas or in residual plots within the urban fringe.All over the Mediterranean basin, olive growing is associated to peculiar rural landscapes and economies somehow unified by highly symbolic values conveyed by the olive tree, which is recognized as the universal symbol of peace and prosperity, being rustic, domestic, durable and useful (Braudel, 2002) [1]: “The Mediterranean Sea runs from the first olive tree one encounters when coming from the North to the first palm groves that appear with the desert” (p. 19). All over the Mediterranean basin, olive growing is associated to peculiar rural landscapes and economies somehow unified by highly symbolic values conveyed by the olive tree, which is recognized as the universal symbol of peace and prosperity, being rustic, domestic, durable and useful (Braudel, 2002) [1]: “The Mediterranean Sea runs from the first olive tree one encounters when coming from the North to the first palm groves that appear with the desert” The olive tree plays a fundamental role in the construction of images and the imaginary of the countries overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and in the liturgy of the three monotheistic religions. OliveOfliavremfianrgmpinrogvpidreosvimdeasnimfoalndifaosldsocaisastoicoinastiobnestwbeeetwn eaesnolaidscoulildincaurylinaanryd gaansdtrognasotmroincotmraicdition and tthreadditiivoenrsaendlatnhdesdcaivpeersedloanmdisncaatpeeds bdyomthineattreede,bpyrtehseentrteein, psrpeasersnet,inscsapttaerrsed, socarttdeerseidgonredecsuigltnievdations (Figucruelt1i)v.ations (Figure 1)

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