Sustainable Agricolture In Italy: Discover The Project

Projects

The part of Italy that resists climate change

We work with agricultural cooperatives throughout Italy by practicing and educating about sustainable agriculture to improve the resilience of soils and crops and support local communities.

WHERE

All regions in Italy

GOAL

Job placement, social inclusion and environmental education

TREES PLANTED

Maple, Chestnut, Fig, Lemon, Apple, Tilia and 88 more

PARTNER

More than 50 social agricultural cooperatives across all regions

Discover the platform

Italy

Fallen trees on the Asiago plateau hit by Vaia storm • Michele Lapini

CONTEXT

Italian forests grow and so does the climate crisis.

Did you know that Italy is the second largest country in Europe in terms of forest cover? Our forest heritage is growing at a high rate, and we are the richest European country in terms of biodiversity, second only to Spain for number of forests and woodlands. However, the climate crisis is threatening our forests and the resilience of our territories.

According to the FAO’s 2020 report, in the years from 2015 to 2020 Italy has seen an expansion of its forests by more than 270,000 hectares, an increase of 2.9 percent in the last 30 years; in the last 80 this growth reached as much as 75 percent. Today, forests in Italy occupy 40 percent of the national surface area. Forests are growing because of the progressive abandonment of mountain and rural areas, where nature has “returned” to occupy its original habitat. However, the uncontrolled expansion of forests in Italy is subject to the impacts of climate change, such as the appearance of numerous phenomena such as heat waves and drought, which cause fires and severe consequences on our ecosystems year after year. These consequences are also beginning to affect crops, increasing farmers’ instability.

We create value for the territory.

In collaboration with local social-agricultural cooperatives and farms, we promote agroforestry projects throughout Italy based on sustainable agricultural practices that encourage social impact.

The social agriculture projects we support deal with sociotherapy, rehabilitation, sheltering and labor inclusion. Our goal is to promote social agriculture at the local level, generating well-being for territorial communities. In the region of Basilicata in Southern Italy, for example, our trees support the fight against caporalato; in the region of Liguria, we work on the redevelopment of terraces to combat hydrological instability; in the region of Lombardy, we work at the creation of new aggregative green spaces within the city of Milan; in Sicily, we do permaculture on lands confiscated from the Mafia; and in the region of Lazio, we educate migrants and people with disabilities on sustainable fruit and vegetable production to help them find a stable and secure job.

We support social cooperatives.

By collaborating with local agricultural-social cooperatives and farms, we provide reintegration opportunities for diverse people in socially disadvantaged situations.

This means creating an inclusive work environment and giving vocational training to foster personal and labor development. In addition, we support social agriculture projects that promote self-financing through direct sales or processing the fruits of the trees we plant. We promote social agriculture to carry out activities that have their own local relevance and generate well-being for both territorial communities and Italian society in general.

We fight the climate crisis everywhere, included Italy.

The effects of climate change are beginning to be clearly seen everywhere, including in Italy. We promote the sustainable management of Italian lands and forests to preserve the existing ecosystems and mitigate the crisis.

Our trees improve soil quality, absorb CO2 and create natural and rich habitats for the local wildlife. In different parts of Italy, we collaborate with local agricultural cooperatives to improve the adaptation of our trees to the climate crisis, by implementing solutions to combat desertification, drought or hydrological disruption. We promote sustainable agriculture practices with low environmental impact to help conserve biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change. We don’t do reforestation, but we support projects that can make the lands more resilient and the local communities more involved and valued.

"We can create a better future by planting trees, but more importantly, by fighting the injustices of our society”.

Andrea Pesce, co-founder of zeroCO2.

WHAT WE ALREADY DID

Trees planted

14 k

Cooperatives engaged

50 +

Hectares reforested

15,5

Species planted

90 +

Start of the project

2021

There’s a part of Italy that wants to resist.

Why would you keep watching? Get active to address climate change in Italy with a sustainable agriculture project together with the most committed agricultural cooperatives on the territory.

Join this project

Projects

Browse all our projects