Landscape hooligans. Green light for the devastation of Tuscany?

by Federico Giannini (Instagram: @federicogiannini1), published on 24/02/2015
Categories: Opinions - News Focus / Disclaimer
Are you familiar withTuscan art from just about every era, from the Middle Ages to the present, via the Renaissance and the Macchiaioli? If there is a hallmark of Tuscan art that cuts across the tastes, styles, eras and personal inclinations of the artists, it is landscape. We may find ourselves in front of a quiet, calm composition by Perugino or a tormented vision by Filippino Lippi or Domenico Beccafumi, but if there is one thing we will see everywhere, it is landscape: certainly, declined according to the artists’ interpretations, but always present. And could you imagine Raphael’s Madonnas, Giovanni Fattori’s views, Fra Bartolomeo’s solemn compositions, without the Tuscan landscape? And if the first work we know of a genius like Leonardo da Vinci is a landscape, there must be a reason, right?

Detail of the landscape from Raphael’s Madonna of the Belvedere preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

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Well: there is a risk that we may have to erase centuries of history and art from our minds, because that landscape is heading for concrete and devastation. And if that happens, there will be a group of politicians from the Democratic Party to thank, but most of all we will have to thank the corporate interests behind the maxi-amendment through which the above politicians intend to distort the landscape plan of the Region of Tuscany presented last year by the town planning councillor (in IdV quota) Anna Marson, in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, local authorities and universities in the region. Finally, one thought, politics has given us something done right. With the plan, the territory of Tuscany has introduced a detailed and analytical study of the territory, through maps and surveys that photograph every single area of the region: crops, industrial areas, urban areas, archaeological sites, river and stream basins, and so on.

But that’s not all: in addition to this important analytical work, the landscape plan also clearly and precisely indicated the rules to prevent the exploitation and devastation of the landscape, and thus where construction should not be done and which activities should cease in order not to damage the environment and to safeguard the protection of the land while preserving its enjoyment. And the interesting thing is that the plan is not only about the postcard excellences we all have in mind: there are also directions for redeveloping degraded areas. On the Region’s website, the plan is presented as a set “of certain rules, aimed at maintaining the value of the landscape even in the transformations to which it is continuously subjected, while promoting a better knowledge of the identity peculiarities of regional landscapes, urban and rural, and of the role they can play in development policies; a greater awareness of the need for integrated policies; and a strengthening of the relationship between landscape and participation, between landscape care and active citizenship.”

Ox by Giovanni fattori immersed in a Tuscan landscape (work preserved in private collection)

It starts, then, with the best of intentions. But it remains to be seen whether best intentions will be able to prevail over interests, because the plan has yet to be finally approved. The process, in fact, will end next March 10, and let’s remember that it has been quite a long one. It took about a couple of years to work it out, then Councillor Anna Marson, in January last year, proposed it to the junta, which, in turn, approved it and submitted it to the Regional Council. The Regional Council provisionally approved it last July 2: then began a period in which the plan was liable to revisions and amendments before its final approval, which will be voted on, precisely, on March 10. And just a few days before the fateful date, the PD (in agreement with Forza Italia: evidently the broad understandings and pacts of the Nazarene work at the local level as well) presents a series of amendments that will upset the work done so far.

FAI President Andrea Carandini has associated, with a formidable image, the PD councilors with the Feyenoord hooligans who caused the damage to the Barcaccia</strong in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna. Could we call them landscape hooligans? While we wait for the question to be answered, let’s see what they came up with. The main idea is to turn what used to be a directive, and therefore an obligation, into a guideline. This idea, according to Legambiente, will go on to “nullify the sense and usefulness” of the plan, because it is quite legitimate to expect that if the rules contained in the plan itself are no longer binding, those who have an interest in speculating on the land will do everything in their power not to abide by the addresses dictated by the plan, which should therefore be taken as advice to avoid the devastation of Tuscany. But the problem is that Tuscany does not need advice: it needs strict regulations that can protect a region that is already suffering the blows of those who have little interest in the landscape. Like the marble exploiters.

In fact, the PD amendment very closely affects the marble quarries of the Apuan Alps, for which the plan, as initially structured, had envisioned gradual closure, given that marble quarrying is an activity that has a very strong impact on the environment and the quality of life of the citizens of Carrara and its surroundings. The plan initially prevented the opening of new quarries, the expansion of existing ones, the reopening of disused quarries, and excavation in virgin areas: the new amendments remove the constraints on these critical issues, leaving intact only the ban on excavation above 1,200 meters above sea level. But only where there are not already active quarries: active ones, even above that altitude, will also be allowed to expand their operations.

Anna Marson speaks of “a brick and stone party trying to establish itself.” It is likely that her term as alderman will come to an end at the end of the current legislature, since it is to be expected that she will not be reappointed: for this reason we express to Anna Marson our sympathy and our invitation not to give up and to go forward on the road already marked out. The protection of the landscape cannot be subjected to the blackmail of jobs, the new weapon that politics has elucidated to have the path paved to the worst turpitudes. Are Tuscan politicians so short-sighted that they do not understand that, for example, reconverting the entire Apuan economy on the basis of a sustainable development plan that encourages zero-impact activities could create even more jobs than the impactful marble industry does? Models already exist, and have been developed by experts and environmental associations. All it takes is to have the will to stop the slaughter of the land and get around a table to discuss, not to impose.

In the meantime, environmental committees and associations have launched a petition to demand the withdrawal of the maxi amendment and help save the Tuscan landscape. We have already signed it.

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