Terrestrial Biodiversity

Common ground: territorial planning with and for the community to prevent wildfires

Wildfires, fire-prone landscapes, and loss of local knowledge on traditional land-use practices are three factors interacting in a vicious cycle in Sicily. Collettivo Rewild Sicily will involve the local community in the municipality of Altofonte, an area heavily impacted by fire in 2023, in the development of a land management tool to tackle wildfire through sustainable land-use and traditional agro-pastoral practices. Participatory approaches will be adopted for territorial planning and management measures identification, setting the foundations for policy tools. Specific measures to prevent wildfires will be implemented on private and public domain. This project will provide a pilot case to be replicated across the region.
The project is teamed up with the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Forest Sciences of the University of Palermo, Sicily Environment Fund and Pro Loco Alfofonte.

*JUNE 2024 UPDATE*

We hosted the first round table of a series of facilitated events aiming to co-create a territorial management plan together with the local community of Altofonte.

We were hosted by ProLoco Altofonte under the walnut tree’s shade of Mulino di Sotto where the we introduced the general project outlines, shed light on the tool of ‘piano territoriale agro-silvo-pastorale’, and had a look at the map and details of the main two wildfires 2020 and 2023.

Next step: crowdsourcing of past, present and future land use! Thanks to all the wonderful partners and allies in this adventure!

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*JULY 2024 UPDATE*

2nd round table for territorial planning and wildfire prevention!

Hosted my our friends from ProLocoAltofonte we took a deep dive into local knowledge on past, present and future mapping of the territory of Altofonte with the involvement of the department SAAF of the University of Palermo and with the participation from Eleonora and Philipp from Gestione Olistica Italia.

Uniting the vast knowledge of local inhabitants, volunteers of the Civil Protection, and the mayor of Comune di Altofonte Angela De Luca, we collected essential information for a sound territorial plan which is deeply rooted in the local community.