Italy: wonderful, but fragile

Translated by Mariateresa Tauro

We, Italians, are well aware that we live in a wonderful country, rich in art, culture and great food. Indeed, on our days off, we love to go out for a day trip and discover new and unexpected places.

A nation of explorers and sailors like us knows exactly how to enhance its land and heritage, and how to show tourists all the wonders that can be enjoyed throughout the country. However, our country is fragile – very fragile – and requires special care: we must realise that cutting down trees, pruning them incorrectly, and building where we shouldn’t puts everything we hold dear at risk of landslides and fires.

In recent times, we have witnessed events of this kind, and we know how much sadness, frustration and despair they cause in those who experience them. Out of the blue, these events have forced so many people to flee their homes, leaving behind all the memories of a lifetime.

The entire Italy can be considered at risk: landslides, wildfires and hydrogeological risk. And we can't expect to get by if we keep going like this, thinking it's enough to just patch everything up and fix the damage as it comes. That’s not the way to go about it. We need to focus on prevention and raising awareness, explaining that our land is beautiful but must be respected and cared for if we still want to see the nature and art cities that so attract us.

Italy is a fragile country, facing a high hydrogeological risk, which must be studied and made safe before it is too late. You only need to look at the maps that the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the Civil Protection Agency have made available online free of charge to see that the north, centre, south and islands are all at risk. No place can be considered truly safe.

Our rivers, mountains and hills are at risk of landslides, and urbanisation – often uncontrolled – has made the situation truly worrying and difficult to manage. What happened in Niscemi, Sicily, and later in Liguria shows that poor and inadequate land management can cause serious damage and permanently disrupt our country.

Men and women forced to leave their homes, taking with them the memories of a lifetime. Families who suddenly discover that their home is built on unstable ground, unsuitable for new construction. An environment that is changing forever because nature – trees, rivers and lakes contaminated and ruined by pollution and weakened by mismanagement – can no longer hold the ground in place. This leads to landslides, floods and all those extreme events that have permanently devastated so many areas and, with them, the lives of so many people who lived there.

Our country is suffering. A lot. We can no longer turn a blind eye; we must face reality and realise that we will regret it in the future if we do not respect our planet.

Everything is closely interconnected; from north to south, our country is speaking to us, asking for our help.

Experts claim that “understanding what happened in Sicily is essential, in an Italy where 1,200 landslides are under constant monitoring, in order to adapt and plan for the future: the same geological conditions found in Niscemi, in fact, apply to many other towns across the country”. The data from ISPRA (the Italian Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) are not encouraging and urge us to take care of the future of our planet and of Italy. The figures speak for themselves: “the 15% increase in the area at risk of landslides identified in the Hydrogeological Risk Management Plans (PAI), rising from 55,400 km² in 2021 to 69,500 km² in 2024 – equivalent to 23% of the country’s total land area – is deeply concerning.” The most significant increases were recorded in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (+61.2%), Tuscany (+52.8%), Sardinia (+29.4%) and Sicily (+20.2%), and are mainly due to more detailed studies carried out by the district river basin authorities and the autonomous provinces. The areas of the national territory classified as high-risk areas (high-risk P3 and very high-risk P4) have risen from 8.7% to 9.5%. By 2024, 94.5% of Italian municipalities will be at risk of landslides, flooding, coastal erosion or avalanches.”

Trees in cities are poorly pruned and neglected, left to fall into disrepair and abandonment. The local environment is not respected in the slightest – on the contrary, treated as if it were a vast rubbish dump for our waste. These are just some of the factors that contribute to the fragility of our local environment. This is why we must act immediately to safeguard the places we love.

Respecting the environment means respecting ourselves and our planet – a gift for future generations and for ourselves too.

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