Fire prevention works through the active role of shepherds, who become the guardians of the territory. Over two years, the park recorded no fire of significant size.
The entire area of the Aspromonte national park has recorded no fires of significant size in the past two years. A remarkable achievement, reached through collaboration with the local community and fire prevention activities carried out on the ground by shepherds.
The project, funded under the park's Fsc 2014-2020 operational environment plan, made it possible to establish a genuine local monitoring network across the entire protected area. The formula developed to safeguard the protected area's forest heritage and biodiversity involves, through responsibility contracts, the participation of volunteer and civil protection associations and shepherds, who become the "guardians of Aspromonte's nature".
"To tackle this often dramatic phenomenon, we involved the people who live on the mountain more than anyone else," says Giuseppe Bombino, president of the Aspromonte national park. "These are the shepherds, to whom we try to give ever greater attention, and who have thus been engaged in operations to monitor and protect nature, through collaboration in reporting fires and the early signs of fires," the president continues. "Dozens of shepherds have decided to work with the park, and they receive a bonus proportional to the results achieved."
Each shepherd is assigned specific areas to look after: throughout the year any fires are recorded, and at the end of the year a payment is recognised based on the results obtained. And the numbers vindicate the project, because shepherds know these lands like the back of their hand. "We have achieved excellent results, which I would call outstanding, also thanks to the climate of trust between the administration and the community," Bombino points out. "In practice, over two years we have eliminated forest fires within the park, while at the same time giving new meaning to the role of the shepherd, who is transformed into an 'eco-shepherd'."
Results that take on even greater significance when set against the situation in other Calabrian provinces and across the whole of Italy, which have been dramatically struck by continuous and devastating fires that have damaged significant portions of natural heritage. A way of rebuilding the dialogue between the public body and the community in which it operates. Closing the distances and making that community participatory and active. A fundamental role, both in relaunching the territory and in conserving a natural heritage that is unique in Italy.