The Tanaro Valley will be the Italian living lab of the European project Forest EcoValue, which involves 10 partners from 5 European countries and aims at supporting the ecosystem services of Alpine forests through public-private market models and the strengthening of green and circular value chains.
The choice was shared on 17 of May, at a workshop as part of the "Festival della Montagna. Anima Alpina", whose title recalls, this year, the international recognition obtained by Cuneo’s city as "Alpine City of the Year 2024": great prestige that places it within a network of cities that have the Alps as their territory and the themes of environmental and social sustainability as their development objectives.
Finpiemonte, leader of the European project, together with the Institute for Wood Plants and the Environment - I.P.L.A. S.p.A., took part in the workshop 'Alpine Cities - Perspectives for a new relationship between Alpine cities and mountain territories', illustrating the aims of the project and the operational actions in the identified territory.
The development of the living lab will enable the definition of management models for Alpine forests that are economically sustainable, while at the same time guaranteeing enormous benefits from an environmental and land protection point of view.
The project's Italian partners, in addition to Finpiemonte and I.P.L.A., also include FLA - Fondazione Lombardia per l'Ambiente, which provides expertise in environmental economics, and Consorzio Italbiotec, Lombardy's green chemistry cluster, which offers the viewpoint of the bio-based chemical industry.
The development of the living lab foresees several discussion sessions, the first of which will be held on Wednesday 22 May at Ormea Town Hall, in front of the mayors of the municipalities of the areas involved and the main stakeholders (forest owners, land operators, public bodies and the third sector, agro-forestry companies, tourist operators, etc.). Overseeing the development of the international living lab network, and animating the Piedmontese one, will be Walden – Future-shaped Forests, a startup accelerated under the social doing programme ‘GrandUP! IMPACT Imprese' social doing programme in the province of Cuneo, which collaborates with the cooperative E.R.I.C.A. - Educazione Ricerca Informazione Comunicazione Ambientale, based in Alba.
Finpiemonte has already gained a number of positive experiences, on events involving the transformation and revitalisation of the territories and settlements, with the main objective of developing new skills and new financial instruments/models, with the involvement of local stakeholders, which can then be applied in the territory with the resources made available by the Piedmont Region.
For more information on the Forest EcoValue project and the Piedmontese living lab
Finpiemonte, coordinator
Susanna Longo, Cristiana Tabacco progetti@finpiemonte.it
IPLA - Institute for Wood Plants and the Environment
Fabio Petrella | petrella@ipla.org | Tel. 011.4320425
Walden Srl, animator of the Italian living lab
Lucio Vaira | lucio.vaira@walden.srl | Tel. 349.6764865