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National Park Service emotional and practical success

09 Dicembre 2020
National Park Service emotional and practical success Foto: Alberto M. de Marsanich Alberto M. de Marsanich

It is all in one word. Each time we repeat “culture” the Latin etymology (colĕre, to cultivate) unconsciously reminds us of the profound connection to the territory. In 2018 the project aimed to the “Culture of the Communities”, between the Comando Unità Forestali, Ambientali e Agroalimentari dei Carabinieri (C.U.F.A.) and Parchi Letterari® was born. The Arma dei Carabinieri relationship with culture and territory epitomize the continuity of a long historical and internationally acknowledged tradition of both excellence and competence. It is worth reminding, together with the Comando Unità Forestali, Ambientali e Agroalimentari, the work of the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale

 Every community is defined by his own range of values, symbols, conceptions, beliefs, behaviours and practical undertakings. Preserving diverse identities in order to “open what is in the world to the world”, starting nationally from the local communities and projecting the conversation towards the world. The approach prompts the notion of an historical similarity between the evolution of the idea of environmental and cultural conservation in the Unites States of America and in Italy. 
 Evolved differently and independently, in the United States of America and in Italy, the national identity cohesion process historically embodied the safeguard of the local heterogeneity; both culturally and environmentally. Today, proving how much the idea is current and essential, the horizon has widened again becoming global (UNESCO, 1992 World Heritage Convention, the first official international ruling protecting the “cultural landscape”). 
 It was in 1822 when Carlo Felice, king of Sardinia, instituted the Corpo Forestale dello Stato. In 1872 Ulysses S. Grant founded Yellowstone, the first national park of the United States of America, and George Perkins Marsh, the father of the idea, became the first ambassador of the United States of America to the newly born kingdom of Italy (“L'Ambasciatore delle Foreste” - by Paolo Ciampi). 
In 1916 Woodrow Wilson founded the National Park Service. The intertwining similarity continues relating to the concept of “cultural landscape”, between 1976 Stanislao Nievo’s idea in Italy and the 1981 statement in the mission of National Park Service in the USA. 
 The profound emotional connection, undoubtedly alongside the intellectual and the institutional ones, that has flourished between the American people and their own parks, with more than 318.2 mln visitors per year (source: National Park Service, 2018), countless publications and events, is not only a source of vague inspiration for the Italian experience but could be the foundation of a partnership founded on shared values and competences grown during a long process of historical and cultural evolution. 

The conservation of the biological and cultural complexity, of which Italy is rich, is certainly necessary in order to maintaining a fundamental element of the own distinctive local and national identity. It is as well the undertaking of a larger, global responsibility to enrich, with the diversity in the contributions, the collective platform of dialogue. It is one word only, again. Culture to planting and harvesting. 

From the American pragmatism we could learn that the potential economic leverage for the local communities is immense. During 2018 (Source: National Park Service) the visitor expenditure in the areas of the National Park System was about 20.2 bln usd with a contribution to the national economy of 329.000 jobs, 13.6 bln usd in labour income, 23.4 bln usd in value added and 40.1 bln usd in economic output. And the above remarkably shows that culture, particularly the one connected with the territory, is an extremely strong development catalyser for the local economies. It reminds to us the fundamental and long term value of the investment directed to the safeguard, promotion and accessibility (hoping as well that it will enough to persuade of how inopportune is the abused concept of short term valorisation).


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