Visit of representatives from Brussels: next objectives and the launch of new training courses

by Ludovica Schiaroli
September 22, 2023

The fourth monitoring visit by the LIFE Programme Managing Authority (CINEA), which funds Stonewallsforlife, took place on September 19 and 20 at the Manarola amphitheatre, where project activities began in 2019. The project aims to restore and maintain five hectares of dry stone walls in order to increase the territory’s resilience to climate change, with the Cinque Terre National Park acting as lead partner and project coordinator.

The visit programme for the representatives from Brussels included a first day of meetings with project partners — Cinque Terre National Park, University of Genoa (DISTAV), Fondazione Manarola, ITRB Group, Legambiente, and Diputació de Barcelona — held at the Park’s headquarters, followed by a second day “in the field,” during which the programme representatives visited the Amphitheatre of the Giants and observed the progress of the works, now well underway.

Meanwhile, land acquisitions by the Fondazione Manarola are progressing; these areas will later be granted on loan for use to local agricultural enterprises, after being restored to cultivation and having their dry stone walls rebuilt. Researchers from the University of Genoa (DISTAV) have installed three multiparametric monitoring stations, and data have been collected for several months, which will help provide a detailed understanding of how walls and soil respond to rainfall of varying intensity.

The tender for the reconstruction works of dry stone walls in lots 2 and 3 will soon be launched, and training courses organized in collaboration with Isforcoop will continue. The partner ITRB will carry on with in-depth activities aimed at replicating the project both within the Park area and in the Parc del Garraf in Catalonia.

Thanks to the valuable work of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) and Legambiente, the Park’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan is currently being drafted, with the aim of protecting both the people living and working in the Park and its ecosystems.

“These were two days of discussion and planning with the Managing Authority,” stated Patrizio Scarpellini, Director of the Cinque Terre National Park, “to share the strengthening of project objectives and the timeline for the final phases. Thanks to Stonewallsforlife, the terraced amphitheatre of Manarola has become a laboratory for defining a first pilot district resilient to climate change, not only from a structural point of view but also with particular attention to the conservation and enhancement of soil biodiversity.”

“We are very satisfied,” added Stefano Di Marco, Head of Legambiente’s Project Office, “with the results this project is achieving, which are particularly significant also for their replicability. In this regard, the drafting of the Park’s Adaptation Plan represents an absolute novelty in the context of Italian protected areas. The plan will pave the way for our park system and will certainly become a reference model.”

“The LIFE Programme is one of the main European programmes dedicated to nature and has over thirty years of history,” stated Boyana Vasileva, representative of CINEA in Brussels (Managing Authority of the programme). “In 2014, a subprogramme dedicated to Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation was launched. Stonewallsforlife was funded in 2019 due to the importance of this issue for the Cinque Terre, for the protection of cultural heritage, and for risk reduction, as well as for its potential as a best practice in the recovery and management of terraced agricultural areas. I hope the project will continue and conclude its activities successfully.”