Valle dell’Aterno puts Model Forest values into action with Festa Foresta 2025

On Saturday 1 November 2025, the Foresta Modello Valle dell’Aterno (FMVA) held its annual “Festa Foresta 2025” in the charming setting of Goriano Valli, a hamlet of Tione degli Abruzzi in the Province of L’Aquila. The event offered a full-day programme of excursions, educational workshops, a local market and shared conviviality, highlighting the FMVA model of participatory forest and territory management.

Participants gathered early in the morning at the Circolo Vallese ASD for a nature walk led by the cooperatives Ambecó and Echo, through the middle Valle dell’Aterno to discover monumental trees, accompanied by interactive tools such as camera-traps, time-lapse cameras and microscopes. Meanwhile, a botanical workshop led by Dr Giampiero Ciaschetti explored the vascular plant flora of the area and provided instruction in plant collection and cataloguing methods.

Later in the morning, participants were introduced to the “Ex Poa” project - financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests — which highlights how forest management can strengthen wood-value chains and stimulate innovation. A convivial lunch followed at the “Vigna di More” agricultural enterprise, offering an opportunity to share local food and exchange experiences. In the afternoon, a truffle workshop led by Maurizio Ciccone and a forest-bathing session facilitated by Ambecó invited attendees to further explore the natural richness of the valley and deepen their connection with the local landscape.

Throughout the day a market of local craft- and agro-food-producers ran alongside live demonstrations of wood-processing in collaboration with a FabLab and master-craftsmen Tony De Santis and Gabriele Davide, as well as a traditional lock-making workshop from San Benedetto in Perillis, supervised by Elisio Piero Saturni. The musical atmosphere was provided by the band of the Vitivinicola Italo-Abruzzese.

The Festa Foresta 2025 provided a concrete platform to illustrate how shared forest governance and local value-chains for wood and agriculture can be merged with tourism, craftsmanship, environmental education and a new economic logic rooted in mountain and rural territory. The event was co-financed by the Call for Promotion and Dissemination Events of the MMFN Secretariat Grants as a meaningful example of good practice: mobilising community engagement, animating territorial ecosystems with shared governance of forests, and combining education, production, tourism and craftsmanship in mountain settings. FMVA’s success in organising Festa Foresta 2025 attests to the potential of forest-model initiatives in Mediterranean-mountain contexts to support both ecological integrity and socio-economic vitality.