A new governance model for the conservation and enhancement of Italian ancient transhumance routes.

Transhumance routes mark the natural path followed by herds during their seasonal movements. These routes are disappearing in many European countries. In Italy, a few fragments survive in Molise, in southern Italy, called Tratturi and run along grassy paths. The Tratturi are considered to be of archaeological, economic and landscape interest, sources of cultural and environmental attraction, protected by a national law. However, the landscapes connected to the Tratturi are disappearing both as a consequence of non-use and as a consequence of the advancement of wooded areas, and this poses a problem related to the governance system that involves many stakeholders, both at international, national and local level. The study, through the use of the combined approach of Stakeholder Basic Analysis and Social Network Analysis, identifies the role of the stakeholders involved, their power, their interest and their ability to support the decision-making system. Furthermore, the paper uses multivariate statistical analysis to detect the key stakeholders. A new model of governance, allowing to preserve the Tratturi and to enhance the services they can provide, is introduced, and it is named Authority for the Conservation and Enhancement of Tratturi (ACET). This study can help to identify appropriate management models for ancient routes based on all stakeholders involved, and more generally to implement shared and co-responsible planning choices in socio-ecological systems.

How did Italian diversified farms tackle Covid-19 pandemic first wave challenges?

The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, in the period March-May 2020, quickly triggered a deep crisis, causing an immediate economic slowdown and consequently a strong contraction in domestic demand and trade. The food supply chain faced severe difficulties, although its anti-cyclical nature allowed for greater resilience compared to other economic sectors. In this framework of ongoing uncertainty, it is important to understand the response of farms to the crisis, and their role in the sustainability of the post-pandemic food supply chain, even for future policy interventions in the short and medium term. The purpose of the paper is to investigate how diversification affected the response of farms to the Covid-19 crisis, and explore whether the changes required by the post-crisis scenario can produce opportunities for their activities. The study investigates a sample of fifteen farms in central Italy through semi-structured interviews, performing a lexicon-based text and sentiment analysis. The results highlight the importance of farm diversification in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and emphasise the role of diversified farms for the sustainability of the agri-food system. These results have interesting policy implications, particularly regarding support for the competitiveness of farms by improving sustainable logistics, electronic commerce and exchanges of knowledge and innovations among farmers; these measures should be taken into account to target the future agricultural, rural and food policies, at both national and local level.

Is agritourism eco-friendly? A comparison between agritourisms and other farms in Italy using farm accountancy data network dataset.

This paper presents the results of research regarding the environmental performances of Italian farms with agritourism compared with farms without agritourism. In Italy, agritourism is considered an agricultural activity and can only be performed by a farmer. Moreover, Italian national legislation forces the farmer to dedicate himself mainly to traditional farming, rather than to tourism activities. For this reason, environmental performances have been highlighted by analyzing only features and production systems of the farms. By utilizing the most frequent indicators used in studies regarding sustainability, the authors show how Italian agritourisms tend to develop more environmentally friendly agricultural methods, which have a positive impact on biodiversity, landscape and natural resources. The empirical analysis is based on the Italian FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) dataset. The European FADN was created to represent farms' technical and economic operation in the European Union and on which it drafts the agricultural and rural policies. The dichotomous structure of the dependent variable (presence or absence of agritourism at the farm) has a propensity for an assessment method based on Binary Response Model Regression.