The impact on the landscape, environment and society of new productive chains in a mountain area: strategies, analysis and future perspectives

Abstract

Zootechnical farms enhance the preservation and valorization of the environmental value of the surroundings in marginal areas, such as the mountains of Friuli Venezia Giulia. An important tool for relaunching mountain animal husbandry can be the promotion of an appropriate policy to maintain and develop local food chains, supporting typical products, tightly related to the peculiarity of the agro-ecosystem. The aim of the chain Carne della Montagna Friulana-Carne di Qualità is to create a cooperation among primary producers, transformation companies, sellers and research institutes, in order to develop innovative pathways throughout the production of meat in Carnia (UD). The project was designed in 2007/08 but it was operative from 2010, with a first batch of animals. The stakeholders subscribed a chain agreement, adopting production guidelines and a commercial trademark. Since the meat is not yet ready, the present paper is, in part, an analysis of the preliminary modification of the operative context and, in part, a previsional examination of the possible effect of the activation of this production chain on the area. The results investigated economic, social, landscape, technical and technological (related to food safety) elements. It can be observed, by an introductive evaluation, that this productive circuit may valorize the resources of this mountain area and can enhance zootechnics in mountain areas. The guidelines allow a vertical integration throughout the production path, coordinating all the operators. This type of production can be considered a niche product, related to the territory, with the maximum guarantee for the consumers. The environmental worthiness is the recovering and the improving of these marginal, agricultural areas. Actually, an overall evaluation can be done only from the summer of 2011, when data such as the organoleptic and qualitative characteristics, selling prices, level of appreciation by the customers and landscape effects will be available.

Design and Development of a Forest Nursery, for the Enhancement of Multi-Functional Agriculture and for a Didactical Purpose

“…The varieties and species were chosen with the specific target to individuate which crop was suitable for valorizing the uniqueness of this highland. The plants, in this particular contest, have to be easy to cultivate with low input, marketable and with a good final profit [23].…”

Evaluation of the Nutritive Value and the Fatty Acid, Phenol, Tannin and Terpenoid Contents of Nine Pastures in an Alpine District during the Summer Season

“…For this reason, their terpenoid profiles have been proposed as biomarkers to trace mountain cheeses [16]. Mountain pastures are therefore essential for the local economy and land conservation and are of paramount importance for rural sustainable development [17].…”

Analysis of the Criticizes for Zootechnics Development in a Mountain Area of Italy

“…The depopulation and the related economic, social and technical difficulties of zootechnis compartment had deeply modified the agriculture and landscape contest, creating a deleterious and progressive inexorable deterioration of the surroundings [11,12]. The environmental challenges such as climate modifications, water management, land abandonment, employment of bioenergy and decreasing of biodiversity are dramatically actual and need huge and urgent strategies for the preservation of biological, landscape and cultural diversity [13].…”