The South Tyrol Approach
Italy
The Alpine environment represents one of the most sensitive and meaningful contexts for addressing the challenges of sustainable development. Home to around 13 million people and shared by eight European countries, the Alps are among the largest and most complex territories of the continent from a natural, cultural, and economic perspective. With high biodiversity and landscapes shaped by centuries of human-nature interaction, these territories today face increasing pressures from climate change and intensive land use, calling for forward-looking and integrated strategies.
The Alpine environment represents one of the most sensitive and meaningful contexts for addressing the challenges of sustainable development. Home to around 13 million people and shared by eight European countries, the Alps are among the largest and most complex territories of the continent from a natural, cultural, and economic perspective. With high biodiversity and landscapes shaped by centuries of human-nature interaction, these territories today face increasing pressures from climate change and intensive land use, calling for forward-looking and integrated strategies.
Alpine and pre-Alpine regions are particularly fragile and require careful planning to balance environmental protection, landscape quality, and territorial development. Today, these areas face a growing divide between abandoned mountain zones and overused valley floors, a dynamic that threatens local identity, public spaces, and ecological continuity, calling for a new and more integrated planning approach.
In South Tyrol, LAND has been working to translate this shift into action. The South Tyrol Landscape Strategy has established a shared framework for steering transformation through systemic and participatory processes. Building on this vision, LAND continues to support municipalities such as Lagundo, Val Passiria, Varna, Bressanone, and Tirolo in developing long-term strategies that combine protection, regeneration, and innovation, from the Strategic Masterplan for the Municipalities of Moso, San Leonardo, and San Martino in Passiria to the Green Plan of Bolzano, which also led to the feasibility study for the Ringpromenade. These ongoing projects consolidate a regional model that integrates ecological networks, productive landscapes, and the quality of everyday spaces, turning sustainability into a concrete territorial tool.
Beyond planning, LAND fosters continuous dialogue and exchange. The 2023 international conference “Destinazione Paesaggio”, commissioned by the Department of Territorial Development, Landscape, and Provincial Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, exemplified this commitment, reinforcing South Tyrol’s role as a laboratory of landscape-driven development.
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