The exhibition Historical Rural Landscapes presents part of the results of a research project funded by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry Policies, that has selected 123 rural landscapes in all Italian regions, relying on their historical origins, their integrity and their vulnerability. The results of the project have convinced the Ministry of the need to establish a national inventory of historical landscapes and traditional practices. In this research the rural landscape is considered as the result of the integration in space and in time of economic, social and environmental issues, a complex resource, of which farmers were the main architects. The increasing attention to the rural landscape is linked to a profound evolution of society and policies, which today interpret it as a reference paradigm more effective than relying solely on production or environmental instances, providing a reference point close to the real values expressed by our territory. From the economic point of view, the concept of production has left space to the concept of “quality”, not just the quality of the products, but a complete quality, which associates each product to its landscape, producing an added value that can’t be reproduced outside the places of origin. Biodiversity associated with the landscape can be maintained only through the active management of natural resources, in which the techniques and farming practices developed over thousands of years of history are extraordinary examples of adaptation to difficult and changing environmental conditions.
The exhibition was presented both in Italy and abroad, in various European and non-European countries.
Download here the flyer of the exibition
Map of the places outside Italy where the Historical Rural Landscapes exibition took place.
