The guardians of the Mountain
A journey through Aspromonte, Italy, where fire does not burn
© Jacopo La Forgia / Michele Spatari
Every summer wildfires devastate Calabria, the southernmost inland Italian region. In 2017 only, fires wiped out 1/6 of the forest heritage, making Calabria one of the most damaged European areas.
But at the tip of Italy, one place does not burn: the Aspromonte National Park.
While in the rest of the region fire prevention and extinction are rarely effective due to criminal infiltrations and incompetenceof local administrations, in the mountains of Aspromonte wildfires are efficiently contained.In recent years, the Park Authority has implemented an intervention strategy involving local shepherds and volunteers in sighting and extinguishing activities; their determination and daily commitment in landscape safeguard were able to stem wildfires that devastates the rest of Europe.
In the Aspromonte, stronghold of one of the most powerful worldwide criminal organization – the ’ndrangheta – fires do not seem to burn.
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Every summer wildfires devastate Calabria, the southernmost inland Italian region. In 2017 only, fires wiped out 1/6 of the forest heritage, making Calabria one of the most damaged European areas.But at the tip of Italy, one place does not burn: the Aspromonte National Park.
In 98% of cases wildfires in Calabria are provoked by men, often with criminal intents: they are set to illicitly transform woodlands in pastures or buildable lots, to feed the reforestation system, to increase electoral approval through seasonal jobs, in retaliation against non-collaborative administrations. "It was deliberately targeted and violated the forest heritage of national parks”,said Carlo Tansi, head of Calabria Civil Protection, at the end of the devastating summer of 2017. Fire prevention and extinction are rarely effective due to criminal infiltrations and incompetenceof local administrations.
The Aspromonte National Park is an exception: in the protected natural area in the province of Reggio Calabria, mostly known to be a ’Ndrangheta stronghold, wildfires are efficiently contained. Thanks to a local monitoring network, implemented in the last five years, local shepherds and volunteers are involved in sighting and extinguishing activities.
"If it was not for us [shepherds], the Aspromonte would now be in ashes," says Domenica Romeo, a shepherd-sentinel who, while grazing the goats, checks for wildfires in her lands.
The shepherds are hired by the National Park as guardians, entrusted in checking a portion of territory: if wildfires did not break out, at the end of the year they are rewarded with a small fee, ranging from 300 to 400 euros. It is not the economic interest to drive them, though: it is the investiture as guardians of the mountain that push the shepherds to defend the territory they viscerally love. "There are people who have no idea of the value that they are burning. [...] While you burn [parts of the landscape] that will grow again in a year, you also burn what it takes ten years to regenerate, " says Nino Nucera, a shepherd-sentinel, talking about episodes that in the past saw shepherds involved in setting up wildfires.
The same type of liability contract is stipulated with the Civil Protection voluntary associations operating in the territory. In an area that has experienced an increasingly depopulation phenomenon since the 1950s – a bold migration flow towards the Ionian coast and northern Italian regions – involving the remaining inhabitants, who have a deep bond with their lands, in the fight against fires has led to excellent results: "we have canceled the woodland fires", declared in 2017 Giuseppe Bombino, President of the Aspromonte National Park.
Many young people are also involved in the Park's safeguard plans: in the fifth European region for youth unemployment rate (55.6% in 2017 - Eurostat data), being part of a voluntary cooperative constitutes an act of love towards the territory. "The Park is like a relative, it's part of us," says Damiano Priulla, a 26-year-old boy who volunteer as lookout during the summer.
Aspromonte is mostly known for the local syndicate, the ’Ndrangheta, one of the most powerful criminal organization in the world. ’Ndrangheta controls 70% of cocaine business in Europe, manages billions through extortion, has a key role in arms trafficking and in these mountains set up fires to make lands for marijuana farming, of which, in 2015 only, 13 132 plants were seized in Reggio Calabria district.
Yet shepherds, volunteers and the civil protection manage to keep wildfires under control. In Aspromonte fires do not seem to burn: the guardians of the Mountain are, as the Calabrian author Corrado Alvaro once wrote, people with "skin so thick you could sharpen a razor on it".