«Less land consumption and more social sustainability for the development of Cuneo and its province», the title of the conference organized in Cuneo by «Sinistra italiana», «Con + Voce», the «Regeneration» association, «Cuneo Possibile». After the reports by Livio Berardo (“Italian left”), Domenico Sanino, (“Pro natura”), and Ettore Chiavassa, (“Observatory for the protection of the Langhe and Roero landscape”), Patrizia Candido intervened for “Regeneration” and Gabriele Rosso for «Possible». Also present were the candidates for mayor for the next administrative elections, Luciana Toselli and Silvia China.
«Not even Covid – denounced Marco Grimandi, regional councilor of“ Liberi Uguali Verdi ”- has stopped the consumption of the soil in our Region; in 2020, the horrible year of the pandemic, another 439 hectares of fertile soil left in Piedmont and 40% of this will certainly be lost forever ».
«The data relating to our province are impressive – explain the promoters of the meeting -, in Alba and Borgo San Dalmazzo now 20% of the territory is cemented or asphalted, 15% in Bra and Cuneo. The case of Cuneo is particularly heavy, because it is a very large municipality, slightly smaller in area than Turin (a city surpassed by Fossano as well as by some mountain municipalities). Overbuilding of the soil favors climate change: wind storms, sudden overheating, violent downpours, hailstorms. It prevents the capture of carbon dioxide and methane, which end up in the atmosphere, fueling global warming. It contributes to the depletion of water resources, often polluted by nitrates from farms or pesticides from intensive farming ».
«The regional urban planning law dates back to 1977 (councilor Astengo) – it is recalled in the interventions -. Since then it has undergone several changes, almost always in a pejorative sense. The latest attempt is the Marin (Lega) bill which, under the pretext of simplification, promotes deregulation and land consumption ».
From the conference, proposals emerged for a change in the management of the territory at the municipal level: “Regulatory plans with zero land consumption, starting from the residential and commercial sectors, inter-municipal planning especially for productive settlements (think of the problems posed by plants such as Merlo or Mondo Rubber which arose on the border between several municipalities), implementation of the provincial territorial coordination plan, where it provides for transparency (absent, for example, in today’s Amazon settlement), periodic consultation with interested parties, as well as, precisely for the crucial capital area – Borgo – Cervasca – Bernezzo, the drafting of a supra-municipal PRG ».
In addition to hoping for a more sustainable agriculture, during the conference a greater balance between woods and cultivated land was called for: “In fact, if in the mountains the forests grow in a disorderly and not very useful way in areas abandoned by depopulation, in the Langhe the monoculture of vines or worse than hazelnut, it impoverishes the soil and the landscape, with damage to the tourist offer itself. Reforestation must also be promoted in the plains, with a strong urban green policy and the renaturalization of disused portions of road or areas with abandoned warehouses ».