Do for the climate, guided tours to understand the crisis

T.experience first-hand the effects of climate change on the places richest in history and nature in our country. This is the goal of the Fai for climate campaign (#faiperilclima)launched by the FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano ETS on the occasion of the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP27)underway in Egypt, in Sharm El-Sheikh from 7 to 18 November 2022.

Do for the climate, guided tours: ideas for the weekend

The initiative is underway in these days, while heads of state and delegates from nearly 200 countries are busy deciding actions and measures to combat global warming. Geologists, botanists, agronomists, pedologists, geographers and other Fai experts will accompany visitors to discover the assets treated and managed by the Foundation on which the environmental crisis shows its effects more clearly. But they will also illustrate the strategies and projects for adapting and mitigating these effects. Starting with simple good practices that we can and must all adopt.

The extraordinary variety of FAI assets, from the Alps to Sardiniafrom pastures to wetlands, from the Olivetti Shop in Piazza San Marco in Venice to the Kolymbethra Garden in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, allows the Foundation to investigate the different effects of climate change that it threatens natural ecosystems and traditional crops, but also urban landscapes and historical monuments.

Here then are the appointments not to be missed.

Walking with the beekeeper

Sunday 13 November, 3 pm, at the Moroni Gardens, Bergamo. A visit to discover pollinating insects, whose role is crucial for the balance of ecosystems. Annunzio Grisa, expert beekeeper and one of the founders ofBergamaschi Beekeeping Association leads the walk inside the gardens and vegetable garden of Palazzo Moroni to get to know the biology of honey bees, and their role in maintaining biodiversity. Explaining how much, due to his experience among the hives, climate change has been able to affect the ecosystem of these precious insects.

Ancient gardens, new climate

Saturday 19 November, 11 am, at Villa della Porta Bozzolo, Casalzuigno (VA). Plant species and cultivation techniques used for centuries now have to be rethought to adapt to the new climatic conditions. In a historic park or garden, all this is accompanied by the need to keep the memory of the place without distorting its identity. At the park of Villa Della Porta Bozzolo, as well as in the other FAI assets, they have been in place for some time strategies for a transition towards “more resilient green works”, that is, less demanding and more adaptable to climate change. The visit with the agronomist Raffaele Orrù it will be an opportunity to deepen some of these strategies and to reflect on the evolution that the landscape, both natural and shaped by man, is undergoing.

Mountains and territorial security

Saturday 19 November, 3 pm, at the Castle and Park of Masino, Caravino (TO). Masino Castle dominates the Canavese plain from a hill. Opposite, it has the suggestive moraine barrier of the Serra di Ivrea behind which the Alps stand out. The Serra, in fact, originates on the southern slopes of the Colma di Mombarone (2,371 m): its formation is of glacial origin and dates back to the Pleistocene. It was created by the transport of sediments towards the Po Valley by the great glacier that ran through the Dora Baltea valley. In other words, it is a truly privileged place to taste the magnitude of geological and climatic changes. Professor Michele Freppaz (professor at the Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences of the University of Turin and expert in snow and high altitude soils) will explain to visitors the phenomena that we are experiencing today on our mountains up to the repercussions for the whole territory but also which mitigation and adaptation interventions are necessary for the safety of the territories.

A new colonization: invasive alien species

Sunday 20 November, 11 am, at the Saline Conti Vecchi. Climate change also has important repercussions on the proliferation and distribution of plant species transferred by man outside their natural environment. Species that are defined alien or invasive exotic. Species that, as in the lagoon context of Santa Gilla (2700 square meters of pond in which the longest-lived salt pans of Sardinia, the Conti Vecchi, extend) are more advantaged than the native ones. The walk is guided by the botanist Gianluigi Bacchetta.

The most resistant grape to climate change

A landscape built on the height of the river

Sunday 20 November, 11 am, in the Villa Gregoriana Park in Tivoli (RM). A walk to discover how much the history of the city of Tivoli has been marked by the passage of a river, the Aniene, and by the flow of its waters. The visit, led by Carlo Innocenti, Enel Hydroelectric Production official, will be an opportunity to read the territory. And how it changed as a result of the floods that took place from 105 BC onwards. With the relative modifications of the terraces on which the ancient Tibur developed up to the nineteenth-century Gregorian arrangements. Naturally, the issue of risks deriving from extreme weather-hydrological events and how to prevent them will also be addressed.

How oil changes in relation to the climate

Sunday 20 November, 5 pm at Castello di Avio, Sabbionara di Avio (TN). Alessandro Armani, Property Manager of Castello di Avio, will talk about how the olive tree has changed over the years due to changed climatic conditions, with the growth of extreme phenomena in particular. Through a guided oil tasting the participants will be guided to “feel” how the product, the oil, is also changing in relation to the climate.

Two producers will participate: Michele Adami from the Slow Food Valle dell’Adige-Alto Garda convoy (OlioCRU farm) and Alessandro Sometti from Garda Veronese associated with the Marchio del Baldo (El Siresol farm). The experts will guide the public to the tasting of two of their oils from 2019/2020 and, if already possible, also of the new oil. The tasting will not miss the Castello di Avio oil.

iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED

ttn-13