[UPDATE: The Official Report for the Workshop is now available. Please click here to download the report.]
IPSI members visit a local winery to learn about landscape uses in Tuscany today.
Overview:
The first Satoyama Initiative European Regional Workshop was held from 27 to 29 May 2014 in Florence, Italy. The event was co-organized by the Secretariat of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) and the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation and its International Institute Life Beyond Tourism, who very generously offered to host the event at their facilities in Palazzo Coppini and the Auditorium al Duomo. Around 50 IPSI members and non-members alike gathered for the three days of presentations, discussions, and outings.
The theme for the workshop was “Revitalizing production landscapes in Europe: travel and dialogue for people and biodiversity”, which reflected both the concepts of the Satoyama Initiative and Life Beyond Tourism’s focus on the role of responsible travel in promoting better societies and environmental outcomes around the world.
The Regional Workshop was co-chaired by Dr. Maurizio Farhan Ferrari, Environmental Governance Coordinator at the Forest Peoples Programme, and Mr. Naohisa Okuda, Director of the Global Biodiversity Strategy Office of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The workshop benefited from the active participation of a wide variety of people, including both IPSI members and non-members, people involved in landscape and seascape approaches, those interested in issues surrounding tourism, governments and other diverse parties, leading to a great deal of interesting and fruitful discussion. A list of participants can be found in the Annex to this Report.
A welcome speech on responsible travel and two keynote speeches about the concept and key aspects of the Satoyama Initiative and current issues in European cultural landscapes were given in the opening plenary session and provided conceptual and contextual background for the workshop discussions. Four more presentations on concrete examples of work related to the workshop theme were given in the plenary session, and five presentations helped to stimulate discussion in breakout groups.
The breakout groups engaged in lively discussions and shared their results in the following plenary sessions on four suggested issues:
- Key issues for socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) in Europe
- Challenges and opportunities in promoting travel to promote sustainable management of SEPLS
- Possible future actions
- Lessons learned to share with other regions
The final plenary centered around future actions and lessons learned for and from other areas outside Europe. Future actions were identified falling into four broad categories:
- The collection and systematization of data
- Issues of collaboration, education and capacity-building for different stakeholders
- Connecting policy and practice
- Awareness-raising
As a conclusion, it was suggested that priority activities should be identified during follow-up phases, and that the compilation of specific data and cases, and also specific means of influencing EU policy, could help to create greater collaboration and synergies for implementation.
It is hoped that this workshop will have the effect of creating closer connections and greater synergy between various organizations promoting the concepts of the Satoyama Initiative in Europe, and lead to concrete steps toward the sustainable management and revitalization of socio-economic production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) in the region.
The workshop was held at the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation’s headquarters at Palazzo Coppini and the Auditorium al Duomo from 27 to 29 May 2014. The official report and presentation files for all of the presentations given at the workshop can be found below.
For more information on the International Institute Life Beyond Tourism, please visit http://www.lifebeyondtourism.org/
Official Report
20140527-29 Florence Regional Workshop Report
Presentation Files
Introduction to the Satoyama Initiative and Regional Workshop by IPSI Secretariat
Welcome address: Mr. Paolo Del Bianco, International Institute Life Beyond Tourism
Keynote speech: Professor Kazuhiko Takeuchi, United Nations University “Revitalizing Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes: Toward Creating Resilient and Sustainable Societies”
Keynote speech: Professor Mauro Agnoletti, Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems, University of Florence “Socio productive landscape in Europe: tools and approaches for their conservation and valorization”
Ms. Marie Kaerlein, Landcare Germany (DVL) “Landcare in Germany – benefits for man and nature in cultural landscapes”
Professor Emma Mandelli, Faculty of Architecture, University of Florence and International Institute Life Beyond Tourism “International Institute Life Beyond Tourism – By the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco”
Ms. Marie Kvarnström and Dr. Håkan Tunón, Swedish Biodiversity Centre “Scandinavian reflections on the Satoyama initiative”
Mr. Alessandro François, Agricultural Company Castello di Querceto S.p.A.
Kathrin Trommler, HERCULES Project, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin “Sustainable Futures for Europe’s Heritage in Cultural Landscapes: Tools for understanding, managing, and protecting landscape functions and values”
Dr. Lucio Graziano, International Agency for the Protection of Biocultural Landscapes and for a New Rurality (AGER) “Reading biocultural landscapes: a new concept for cultural tourism in rural areas, the experience of AGER”
Mr. Rodics Gergely, Pogány-Havas Association “Europe’s hay meadows in decline: How nature benefits from tourism a case study from Eastern Transylvania”
Dr. Pia Kieninger, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) “High mountain pastures in the Austrian Alps and the White Mountains in Crete and the role of tourism: Results from the pilot study: Grazing & Biocultural Diversity – A Transdisciplinary System Approach: How to optimize pastoral land use from an ecological and socioeconomic viewpoint”
Mr. Aivar Ruukel, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences “Tourism as a tool for the conservation of semi-natural landscapes: Case studies from Estonia”
Workshop Schedule
| Day 1: 27 May (Tuesday) | |
| 09.00-09.30 | Registration |
| Plenary session [Venue: Vasari room, Auditorium al Duomo] | |
| 09.30-09.40 | Opening remarks:
Kazu Takemoto (Director, UNU-IAS) |
| 09.40-09.55 | Welcome from host organization and Introduction of the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation and of the International Institute Life Beyond Tourism: Paolo Del Bianco (President, The Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation, Life Beyond Tourism) |
| 09.55-10.00 | Welcome speech from Province of Florence: Fabrizio Boni (Deputy Head, Cabinet of President of Province, Province of Florence) |
| 10.00-10.20 | Keynote speech 1 :
Kazuhiko Takeuchi (Senior Vice-Rector, United Nations University) |
| 10.20-10.40 | Keynote speech 2:
Mauro Agnoletti (Professor, University of Florence; Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry Policy) |
| 10.40-11.10 | Photo &Coffee break |
| 11.10-12.00 | Short presentationsand Q and A
|
| 12.00-12.20 | Introduction of the outline of small group discussions as well as the Satoyama Initiative and IPSI |
| 12.20-13.45 | Lunch
(Participants move to the Palazzo Coppini.) |
| Small group discussion session 1 [Venue: Palazzo Coppini] | |
| 14.00-17.00 | Small group discussions – participants divide into 3 groups
Facilitators:
Yoji Natori (Ecosystem Policy Manager, Conservation International) Brief presentations:
|
| 17.00-17.30 | Break – participants move to the plenary venue |
| Plenary session 2 [Venue: Vasari room, Auditorium al Duomo] | |
| 17.30-18.00 | Sharing of the first day’s discussion |
| 19.30 | Reception |
| Day 2: 28 May (Wednesday) | |
| Small group discussion session 2 [Venue: Palazzo Coppini] | |
| 09.00-10.30 | Small group discussions (cont’d) |
| 10.30-11.00 | Break – participants move to the plenary venue |
| Plenary session 3 [Venue: Vasari room, Auditorium al Duomo] | |
| 11.00-12.00 | Presentations from each group
Q and A |
| 12.00-12.30 | Discussion and wrap-up |
| 13.00-15.00 | Lunch |
| Day 3: 29 May (Thursday) |
| Excursion
Agricultural Company Castello di Querceto, Greve in Chianti, Tuscany |