A GREEN OASIS

In Trentino the protection of environmental integrity and the preservation of biodiversity have always been an important factor for development, capable of improving the quality of life for its inhabitants and those who want to spend there some time on holiday.  One can see that people live well in Trentino just by visiting its territory and discovering the beauty and salubrity of its scenery, starting with the Dolomites, Unesco World Heritage Site. That is regularly certified, year after year, by surveys and rankings like those by the newspapers Il Sole24Ore or Italia Oggi, which place it in top position for quality of life, and by the award of many Blue and Orange flags.

Nature parks and protected areas, veritable biodiversity “safes”
The protection of the territory and its natural resources has ancient roots in Trentino. This attention has also led in time to pioneering environmental policies that helped create, nearly fifty years ago, two large Nature Parks, the Adamello-Brenta and the Paneveggio – Pale di San Martino parks, in addition to the Trentino portion of the Stelvio National Park. To accompany the three parks, a true “Trentino system of protected areas” has developed in the last 30 years: 73 between nature reserves and provincial biotopes, 222 local reserves, 135 SCIs (Sites of Community Importance), 19 SPAs (Special Protection Areas) and numerous river protection areas, veritable “safes” of biodiversity. To this network is about to be added the “Riserva della Biosfera UNESCO Alpi Ledrensi e Judicaria” (Ledro Alps and Judicaria UNESCO Biosphere Reserve), a large portion of territory spreading from the Brenta Dolomites to Lake Garda, where sustainable development will be instrumental in territory growth. And there are more than 120 protected animal species according to the European “Habitats” Directive.
Altogether, these protected areas cover 30% of the whole territory and are currently at the heart of a green proposal that harmonises conservation with the opportunity to experience in a fully sustainable way such oases of precious natural environment thanks to organized activities such as guided visits in different periods of the year, environmental education initiatives and teaching workshops addressed in particular to local people and younger guests.

Taking care of the territory
What could be more invigorating in the heart of summer than a walk in the cool of the woods, breathing in deeply the clean air? Thick and homogeneous, forests cover 60% of the total territory of Trentino. They count about half a billion trees, that is more than 1,000 trees per inhabitant, and provide nearly half of the national production of quality timber. From the forestry point of view, Trentino can be considered at the forefront thanks to the widespread practice of naturalistic silviculture and its basic criteria: respect for dead trees and a constant attention to maintaining forests with trees of different age and rich in all native plants are practices that go in the direction of preserving biodiversity.
Mountain farming also strongly pursues sustainability in order to guarantee the quality of products and of the rural environments were many animals and plants live, in addition to preserving biodiversity, for example with the livestock farming of autochthonous Rendena cows and Pezzata Mochena goats.