“Think again and involve us.” The ministerial order that to contain African swine fever prevents multiple activities (hunting, fishing, mushroom and truffle hunting, trekking and mountain biking) has not been passively accepted by a Val Borbera that has long been trying to relaunch itself by promoting a kind of environmental tourism where the fulcrum is the woods declined in every form of activity and refreshment, a form of economy that aims to stop the depopulation of the villages.
“The ordinance is yet another tile on our territory and on our work, we were struggling to get up from the pandemic and now we find ourselves” crippled “falling back into a sort of new lockdown”, explains Michele Negruzzo, president of the hoteliers association and restaurateurs of the Borbera and Spinti valleys who also speaks of: «A territory that stops and a population hostage to incomprehensible choices. We live on tourism often linked to nature and local products, this measure affects our economy both as restaurateurs and as a valley in general ».
Even the Paradiso val Borbera group – an association promoting the valley – doesn’t mince words: “Banning people from accessing the woods is tantamount to banning the roads for cars. Going to the woods is of vital importance and is not just a divertissement. Those who choose the Val Borbera know they will find an uncontaminated territory where they are always in contact with nature ».
It is the prohibition to go to woods and paths that hurts the associations in the area the most because stopping many activities directly and indirectly constitutes moral damage and not just economic damage. Irene Zembo, environmental hiking guide who has always offered walking packages to discover the Borbera valley and its history, explains it clearly: «For six months I will no longer be able to work. There were programs with Lombard tour operators for excursions scheduled in late spring but I’m afraid everything will skip, it is a sector where nothing is improvised. As an association of environmental guides we are moving to make our voices heard. As a private citizen I do not accept these rules. Stopping slow tourism means preventing man from going into the woods, from living in contact with nature ». On the same wavelength Giacomo D’Alessandro, referent of the Way of the Rebels, a group that from nothing has invented a new path in the valley: “The ban takes away an essential component for human life”.
There are those who have chosen social media to express their discomfort with a hashtag (#veniteaprendermi) such as Gianluigi Mignacco, an agricultural entrepreneur who posted a video on social media in which he argued with the ordinance with a symbolic gesture that found consensus of many: “For years we have been complaining of damage by wild boars to wine and agricultural crops without having any answers”.
Swine fever, the entrepreneur’s provocation: “I walk in the woods, I violate a senseless ordinance and now come and get me”
In addition to the protest, however, the Borbera valley is also making proposals related to collaboration with the institutions to prevent swine fever, a “think again” that smacks of an outstretched hand towards the institutions. Michele Negruzzo again: «We feel“ rebellious ”because we have chosen to live where we were born and because we have chosen these places. We must be united and speak with one voice to make the scope of this provision understood and to ask for its correction ”.
In these hours, the overwhelming majority of associations in the area made up of volunteers are drafting a common document to make their voices heard and to “dialogue” with the State, transforming the protest into concrete proposals for collaboration that pass from shared choices with the territory and its visitors and not descended from above.