Reforestation in Italy

The Porto di Mare area, located in the south of Milan in an urbanised area between the city boundary and the Corvetto district, has a history of being used as a landfill for solid urban waste from 1973 to 1981. The area lies almost entirely within the perimeter of the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano and preserves important landscape elements and wildlife features of high naturalistic value that are recognised and protected at regional and national level. Since October 2017, the Municipality of Milan and the association Italia Nostra, with its Urban Forestation Centre, have been engaged in redevelopment work, which aims to recover the degraded area and make it usable for residents by planting new trees, consolidating the cycle and pedestrian paths, restoring the pond and grassland areas and cleaning up at least 50% of the area of the waste accumulated over the years.

Fastweb has therefore chosen to contribute to the redevelopment of this park by planting 1,000 trees, on a section of this area, which as they grow will improve the landscape and create shady areas to make the park more usable in summer.

The "Parco della Cellulosa" Natural Monument, established by decree-law of the President of the Lazio Region in 2006, is a 90-hectare area that belonged to the Ente Nazionale per la Cellulosa e per la Carta (ENCC), founded in 1952 and now dissolved, a scientific body of great importance in the agricultural and forestry field, whose aim was to adopt measures to facilitate the production and use of national raw materials for cellulose. The Park, currently managed by CREA - Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy), is located in Rome's Municipality XIII, in the Casalotti district, and is an example of a peri-urban park although characterised by areas of considerable population density and still expanding. The park is a place much felt and experienced by the residents of the neighbourhood, who in 2005 created a Committee for the Protection and Safeguarding of the Parco della Cellulosa and obtained its establishment as a protected area, taking constant care of it.

The park needs reforestation and redevelopment of three different types:

1. creation of clearings and woodland edges
2. creation of groves or rows
3. creation of forests on larger areas

With the planting of 1,000 trees and shrubs, Fastweb's aim is to create a green lung within an urbanised environment, improving its usability and at the same time helping to increase the park's biodiversity.

The area where the forestation work will be carried out is located within the ASI Urban Park (Consortium for the Industrial Development Area of Bari-Modugno and Molfetta), in the industrial area between Bari and Modugno.

The Consortium, created in 1960, involved in its activities, from the very beginning, public entities such as the Provincial Administration, the Municipalities and the Chamber of Commerce of Bari, and as a private entity, the Confindustria Bari-BAT, with the objective of meeting the demands of large manufacturing companies. Therefore, it has been consistently working on the implementation of infrastructure works in the area, becoming an industrial hub with an unprecedented business appeal for its service network and for the consequent external economies. Today, the Consortium area covers about 2,000 hectares and has a network of roads and primary infrastructures; however, it is lacking in green areas which provide protection for the soil, reducing CO₂ emissions and improving the psycho-physical well-being of workers in the area.

Fastweb will therefore contribute to the greening of the area by planting 1,000 trees with the main purpose of increasing the green area, mitigating the effects of heat islands and consolidating the soil thus reducing the risk of erosion caused by rain.