Special Section: After anthropocentrism? Environmental conflicts, social movements and power, edited by Alexander Koensler and Cristina Papa

Local farmers vs. environmental universalism: conflicts over nature conservation in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, Italy

Author: Sandro Piermattei (Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy)

  • Local farmers vs. environmental universalism: conflicts over nature conservation in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, Italy

    Special Section: After anthropocentrism? Environmental conflicts, social movements and power, edited by Alexander Koensler and Cristina Papa

    Local farmers vs. environmental universalism: conflicts over nature conservation in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, Italy

    Author:

Abstract

Italy has suffered severe depopulation of its mountains over the past six decades. National and European environmental legislation has been aiming to arrest depopulation by promoting local economic development as well as nature conservation. Cultural and social struggles remain between managers of the protected areas and local populations. By exploring the conflict in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, a protected area in the Central Apennines, this work reveals how professional ecologists seem to conceive a universalistic form of possession and management of nature that excludes local traditional uses and knowledge. The needs and expectations of the local communities are overlooked and the bureaucratized forms of nature protection, in addition to the continuous, strenuous political negotiations between the park and the local administrations, tend to nourish feelings of disillusion and hostility towards the park. Perhaps, the time has come to affirm a principle of democracy of knowledge and the need for a participative political ecology.

Keywords: European protected areas, mountain areas, depopulation, community, agriculture

How to Cite:

Piermattei, S., (2013) “Local farmers vs. environmental universalism: conflicts over nature conservation in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, Italy”, Journal of Political Ecology 20(1), 306-317. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/v20i1.21769

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Published on
01 Dec 2013
Peer Reviewed