Creating a biodistrict in the lake area!
2016
This is one of the first projects of our association, proposed by our president Angelo Bertea, biodynamic agronomist, when, back in 2016, we were still a committee. In the autumn of that year we define the idea and propose it to organic farmers around the lake. Among the answers comes this beautiful encouragement from Laura: “It is the dream that has been with us since we started our agricultural business: that all the companies in the valley become organic! A great support for the environment, for tourism, for all of us.”
At the end of the year, Angelo Bertea and Georg Wallner meet the director of Coldiretti Viterbo to discuss the biodistrict. The idea arouses some interest but subsequent contacts are discouraging.
2017
At the beginning of the year we publish the first programmatic and summary document of the biodistrict, draw up a list of organic farms, make contacts and propose the first project for the organising committee. We organise various meetings and exchanges of views with farmers, administrators and trade associations. In June, the public presentation of the project takes place during “Environment Days – a lake to love”.
During the years of defining the project various facts intervene that threaten the health of the ecosystem of Lake Bolsena and territory. Our commitment to dealing with them absorbs many of our energies, distracting us from promoting the biodistrict project. However, it is these same emergencies that will favour its realisation because, with the common intention of facing them constructively, a solid network is created between all the forces of the territory, civil and political.
The first of these threats is the progressive deterioration of the health of the lake caused by the catastrophic state of the circumlacual sewer system. Initially denied by the administrations (some attack the associations that denounce it by accusing them of being “environmental terrorists”), it gradually comes to an open collaboration.
Already at the end of 2016 the danger of the spread of intensive and polluting hazelnut groves had arisen. The fight against the large-scale spread of monocultures awakens the public’s awareness of the eco-sustainability of agriculture and strengthens exchanges and interactions in the territory. However, this issue also entails a temporary setting aside of the biodistrict project.
2018
On March 8 in Marta, at the L’Orto delle Fate farmhouse, the first of a series of meetings takes place, with the participation of local organic farms and agritourisms, fishermen and agronomists. Shortly after, we publish the news “Bio-district, first steps”.
During “Environment Days – a lake to love 2018” we organise two meetings dedicated to the presentation of the project. In the summer, the biodistrict project is included as part of the school project promoted by the Lake Bolsena Association, with presentation in classes and a competition among pupils to design a logo. These activities support the project with new energy and help bring environmental issues to the attention of the pupils’ families.
In 2018, however, the imminent threat of the geothermal industry is announced with the construction of the pilot plants of Castel Giorgio and Torre Alfina. We focus mainly on the battle, on several fronts, against the construction of these plants.
2019
At the end of the year, with the organisational and scientific support of our team Manuela Cimini, Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo and Georg Wallner the “Geothermal Committee” was formed, made up of thirty mayors of the area united against the construction of these plants. The municipalities adhere to the appeals to the Regional Administrative Court against the projects and ask for the intervention of the National Civil Protection, informing it of the serious risk of seismic triggering in the Siena-Radicofani-Cimino fault.
Even more than what has already happened in the fight against polluting monocultures, the opposition to geothermic energy alerts and unites citizens and leads to a more profitable and profound collaboration between citizens and local administrations. This solidarity in support of the territory, both cross-party and unprecedented, also gives a solid basis to the district project.
During the 2019 Environment Days, on the occasion of the final event of the school project, the logo of the biodistrict is presented. Two other events bring the project to the fore: the conference in San Lorenzo Nuovo on “the cultivation of organic potatoes” and the round table in Bolsena entitled “Lake Bolsena towards the future: eco-sustainable agriculture, new economy”.
On 26 June 2019 the law on biodistricts in the Lazio Region was approved, commented on by the regional councillor Enrico Panunzi: “… great satisfaction for the first law in Italy on this issue, a law that allows us to see the relationship between production and consumption in a different way.”
2020
In the summer, strengthened by the network of support created in the territory, it was finally decided, along with representatives of other associations, to move towards the realisation of the project by forming the Startup Group, which in the course of multiple and regular meetings creates solid foundations for the formation of the Organising Committee.
2021
In February, the regulation of the law on biodistricts was finally approved, leaving the way free towards the “Lake Bolsena biodistrict”.
In March, the Organising Committee il constituted. Election of the members of its Directive Counsel.
On 23 March 2021, the Organising Committee’s Directive Counsel elects the social charges assigning that of president to Paola Adami. Seat of the Committee is Palazzo Farnese in Gradoli.
The Scientific Committee of the CP begins to elaborate the proposal for the identification and constitution of the biodistrict to be submitted to the Lazio Region.
On 29 June 2021, the proposal for the identification and constitution of the biodistrict is submitted.
On 9 September, positive opinion of the technical evaluation commission.
On 5 October, the Regional Council resolves on the identification and constitution of the Biodistrict of Lake Bolsena.
On October 23, constitution of the Biodistrict of Lake Bolsena.
On 25 October, the Administrative Council of the Biodistrict elects the social charges. Gabriele Antoniella is appointed president.
This article is updated regularly.
