Governance means territorial justice? Study in the protected areas of the Marche region (Italy)

PAMELA E. DEGELE

Recent Advances in Environmental Science from the Euro-Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions

Springer

Año: 2023;

The Italian territorial-environmental debate is currently ranging between the interests of environmental universalism and directives of European policies on the one hand, and the need for development, repopulation and strong local identity of internal lands on the other. In this sense, the oscillation of powers and priorities between the national, regional and local governments leads to various conflicts and tensions. Internationally, governance is postulated as a useful policy to promote dialogue between territorial agents and tend towards protected areas and consensual territorial projects. However, does the governance system of protected areas (PA) in force in Italy really enable citizen participation? To what extent does this system promote territorial justice? Is there a difference between the case of national and regional parks and reserves? In the Marche region, this debate is especially relevant as parks have been proposed in the last decade as a valuable alternative to boost the economy of internal areas, recently affected by the 2016 earthquake. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study carried out in 2023, which compares the governance models of different PA categories in the Marche region and their contribution to territorial justice. As general results, it is mentioned that: a) regional parks and reserves show greater regulatory flexibility, which favors a more open and relevant management to the territory than the national ones, the latter linked to biologist-oriented discourses and multiple conflicts; b) regional reserves in particular hold a high degree of participation and a sense of environmental-territorial justice, especially linked to the recovery of environments and management agreements (eg Esino river contract); c) the smaller the number of participating communes, the greater the local government commitment to the conservation of a protected area; d) the role of women in the leadership of conservation in the Marche is alarmingly inequitable while there is a lack of gender awareness of this problem in management. The scarcity of research on the subject of in this region indicates the need to continue developing studies while discussing them with other regions of Italy and Europe to tend towards an integrated environmental conservation with greater territorial justice in the post-2020 era