Few weeks ago the Tuscany Region accepted with a resolution of the council to renew its role as leader of the Mediterranean Model Forest Network, as requested by the Canadian government.
The renewal was prompted by the positive experience Tuscany has had in recent years, which prompted the Canadian government to ask it to continue its activities for another five years (2024-2028).
The occasion to celebrate this achievement was also given by the visit in Italy of Richard Verbisky, General Secretary of the International Model Forest Network. Verbisky met the MMFN Staff in Florence, discussing also with Sandro Pieroni, area manager for forestry, agri-environment, water resources in the agricultural sector and climate change in Tuscany Region.
Tuscany Region, member of the Network through the Montagne Fiorentine Model Forest since 2009, has taken on the role of leader of the Secretariat for the five-year period 2019-2024, now renewed.
"This is an important role," said Vice-President and Councillor for Agriculture and Forestry Stefania Saccardi, "first and foremost in relation to the 13 countries that are members of the Mediterranean Network, but also the assumption of a responsibility in carrying forward the various projects that have been launched, both with the European Community and with other international institutions such as the FAO, in order to focus attention on the issues and challenges that rural and forest territories are facing in the urgency dictated by the climate crisis and the continuous depopulation, from the lack of management and valorisation of the forest heritage to the risks related to this lack of management".
During the recent meeting held in Rome at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Canadian government renewed its commitment to support the Model Forest approach as a best practice in the application of the adopted principles of sustainability, partnership and landscape. The dissemination of this model marks an important moment in international, national, interregional and local dialogue on the issue of forests and the well-being of their host communities.
"We are convinced," Saccardi concluded, "that the Model Forest represents a very useful tool for communities to activate a reversal of negative economic and social trends, safeguarding and enhancing, at the same time, the great environmental heritage of forests, not only in our region, but for all rural communities in the Mediterranean".