Lagundo Manifesto for the Landscape

Our strategic plan for the enhancement and development of the municipality of Lagundo’s territory, presented August 5, is a pilot project for the implementation of the new Territory and Landscape Law (10/07/2018) of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano—South Tyrol, a law that regulates the protection and enhancement of the landscape, the governance of the territory, and the containment of land consumption.

The LAND Masterplan Manifesto pursues the aims of sustainable environmental, social, and economic development of the urban and rural territory provided for by the Law. It has been built as part of an important multidisciplinary and intersectoral participatory process in dialogue with the Commission for Municipal Development, a technical-consulting body to implement the legislative objectives.

The need for a unitary development framework was created to protect the landscape and cultural heritage from the consequences of fragmentation due to the uncontrolled growth of the tourist offer. The Municipality of Lagundo – which has about 5,000 inhabitants – records around 570,000 overnight stays every year: the increase in the number of accommodation facilities that arise misconnected to the primary urban centre poses a threat both to the environmental heritage, the primary resource for tourists visit these places, and to its inhabitants, who have shaped the cultural landscape historically linked to viticulture and apple growing.

The LAND project, in line with the “project to protect” philosophy means the active protection of the territory, was developed in two phases: phase 1 (in 2019) of a preliminary study of analysis and interpretation of the landscape layout of the Lagundo municipal territory to identify values and potential;  phase 2 (in 2020) of a genuine participatory process for the construction of a shared vision for Lagundo and its territory, able to promote the active protection of the landscape through sustainable development projects.

There are four guiding principles for the creation of the strategic and participatory vision:

1. Productive landscape as a model of active management of a complex natural ecosystem and a historical and cultural palimpsest of great value;
2. Cultivating nature in everyday life as a model of integrated ecosystem management of the agricultural and natural landscape that generates multiple benefits for the community;
3. Soil protection for sustainable social and economic development in order to preserve local resources and identities and also to allow a competitive role in the tourism market;
4. Territorial cooperation on governance and innovation to create and strengthen a regional and transnational network to foster debate, exchange of experiences, synergies and catalyse partnerships for European funds.

Through a programme of working tables involving representatives of the Commission, administrative officials, sector experts, and stakeholders, LAND has guided the project path by identifying scenarios of opportunities and critical issues related to the territory’s strategic sectors.

Therefore, the new Masterplan-Manifesto, which is firmly rooted in local communities, aims to “move on old paths in a new way”.  The plan combines in a unitary design:

• The Adige: a river park as a green-blue infrastructure and as a linear recreational space;
• The local communities: public spaces designed for people, residents and tourists;
• The routes: thematic variety between nature and culture;
• Transition spaces: fields of attraction as transition zones between cultural landscape and natural landscape;
• The productive landscape: networked agriculture between farms as the cultivation of sustainable tourism.