The Garfagnana: Paragon of Biodiversity

At noon on Wednesday 9 April in Florence, Dr Francesca Camilli of the Italian National Research Council will present a paper to the 1st  European UNESCO-SCBD* Conference on ‘Linking Biological and Cultural Diversity in Europe’.  Her paper is entitled: ‘The Garfagnana Model: exploitation of agricultural and cultural biodiversity for sustainable local development’.
​
One of her prime examples will be Cerasa farm, a mountain paradise which is no secret to my clients who have written rapturously about their visits (here, here, here, and here May 2012). Mario, Gemma and their daughter Ombretta are a fundamental part of a project, overseen by the Germplasm Bank set up by the Comunità Montagna della Garfagnana (now the Unione dei Comuni), to preserve the indigenous Garfagnina Bianca sheep.

Thanks for saving us

If you’ve noticed some sheep lurking in the foreground of a nativity scene by Giotto, it could have been this breed, which was once common in the Apennine Mountains.

We've been around since at least the 14th century

Mario and the dogs look after the sheep.

Mario also makes salumi and loves to talk about tradition and the place (photo: Libby Saylor)

He sends the dogs to herd the sheep

Gemma makes pecorino cheese and ricotta from their milk.

Gemma cuts the curd for pecorino (note modern milk cooler at back)

Ombretta dyes their wool with natural dyes and has them knitted and woven into saleable products.

Ombretta dyes in their half-traditional half-modern kitchen

Mario rears rams to sell to other farmers who want to join him in preserving the breed.

Ready to save the breed

Another strand of the Germplasm Bank project is the botanical station at Camporgiano. They have rescued dozens of indigenous varieties of fruit and vegetables. Besides being grown at the station, each variety has been entrusted to a custodian, a local farmer responsible for its propagation and preservation. I visited the station last year where the Director Dr Fabiana Fiorani explained their work.

Repository of indigenous agricultural crops

In 2013 the Garfagnana submitted several apple varieties to the European Pomological Exhibition at Limoges where it gained the distinction of ‘Custodian of Biodiversity’.

Organisers of the exhibition

Garfagnana apple saved for future generations

Watch this space for the announcement that I can take you to the botanical station followed by a visit to one of the custodians and lunch in their home. The next opportunity to visit Cerasa is during the Cheese, Bread & Honey tour in June.

The suspense of waiting for the curd to emerge from the whey

The UNESCO conference lasts for three days, during which dozens of international experts deliver research papers. It could be a big yawn, but judging by some of the titles, I for one would be awake. For example, a paper by J. J. Boersma of Leiden University is intriguingly titled ‘Could the rewilding of Europe be seen as progress?’, with the implication that the answer is ‘yes’. To me the most interesting theme is that biodiversity of domesticated plants and animals appears closely connected to cultural diversity arising from the traditions and identity of a place. Finding the balance between tradition and modernity may be the virtuous path to sustainable rural development.

Traditional (photo: K Barry)

Modern (photo: Barbara Wachter)

The mere fact of an international conference organised by UNESCO on the topic of biodiversity and sustainable development raises hope that the planet will not be entirely subjugated to the interests of agri-business. A more local, but equally important action took place yesterday, also in Florence, when Slow Food organised a demonstration against the introduction of GM corn in Italy. Fingers crossed!

No GM corn in Italy, per favore!

Find out more: Joint Programme Between UNESCO and CBD, Convention on Biological Diversity, Linking Biological and Cultural Diversity in Europe Conference programme, Les Croqueurs de Pomme
​
*Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, based in Montreal, Canada