Agronomists: Targeted strategies are needed
For regional realities, the benefits can be significant, but the issue of costs remains
3' min read
3' min read
Re-cultivating land that has remained unproductive for years. Filling the spaces of a city with greenery. Creating a synergy between restoration, protection and conservation. The objectives of the Nature Restoration Act look in the same direction: to dilute the effects of humanisation, restoring balance to degraded ecosystems. In the name of a compromise between tradition and innovation.
"This law will force us to rethink our activities in relation to the nature that surrounds us. Which is not only that of the 'natural' environment in the broad sense but concerns all ecosystems,' explains Renato Ferretti, vice-president of the National Council of Agronomists and Foresters. "It will be necessary to reason in technical and design terms, not aiming at maximising marginal utility, but at making the most of external benefits".
A change of gear that will bring significant filings in the sectors concerned. "In agriculture, it will not be possible to meet the nutrient needs of crops with mineral fertilisers alone, but it will be necessary to return to agronomic actions useful for maintaining the fertility of the land, from rotations to organic fertilisation," Ferretti emphasises. "Therefore, it will be necessary to recreate a productive complexity in the territories and change the approach to cultivation. No longer just monocultures and to be organised, net of innovations, in a context more linked to natural processes'.
The same applies to watercourses, which, with renaturalisation, will have to sacrifice "some land now used for productive activities" and cities, which, according to Ferretti, "will have to do without unused roads or squares to make what is grey become green as naturally as possible". Up to the forests, for which we will have to 'return to a careful management of resources, with punctual planning and cuts to be programmed over time'.
The effects of the regulation will not only affect habitats and biodiversity. Work will have to be done to shorten the food chain and meet the demands of a market that wants 'sustainable and environmentally friendly production'.
