Great object of attention
National Landscape Day is an anniversary established since 2016 with the aim of promoting and raising citizens' awareness of the aesthetic and cultural value of the landscape in all its forms and manifestations. These categories include classic natural landscapes, such as woods, mountains, lakes, sea coasts, etc., but also anthropic landscapes such as rural ones which well characterize our peninsula in many forms and different geographical expressions. The agricultural landscape in particular has been the subject of attention since 2012, when the then MIPAAF established theNational Rural Landscape Observatory, agricultural practices and traditional knowledge with the clear aim of recognizing the cultural importance of rural landscapes. A unique act of its kind at an institutional level, as for the first time value is given to the environmental, historical and cultural role of our agricultural territory.
Traditional and typical elements
Not all agricultural territories fall into these protection categories, but only those that preserve the traditional and typical elements of the rural landscape despite the continuous and inevitable processes of change to which agriculture is subject in order to respond to new markets and technologies . This is a demanding challenge, as it is not always easy to combine traditions, landscape variability, natural elements with current production needs. First of all, local communities must become aware that their rural landscapes are a fundamental part of their culture and therefore perform a fundamental function for their identity. The lower market productivity must then be compensated for in other forms, such as for example services linked to rural tourism and the provision of targeted contributions (already provided for in Rural Development).
Habitat of excellence
Hunters' interest in this challenge is very high and in some ways crucial, as it is only with the maintenance of agricultural territories rich in landscape elements and therefore biodiversity that there will be excellent habitats for wildlife. The ATCs and CAs should therefore pay special attention to encouraging with their own funds the simplest elements of the rural and traditional landscape that risk being abandoned and neglected (country hedges, dry stone walls with flowered edges, rows of trees, 'water...) and thus make an important contribution to the protection of the rural landscape (Federcaccia Fauna and Agro-Environmental Studies and Research Office).