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#ELBA2035: INTERVIEW WITH UMBERTO MAZZANTINI OF LEGAMBIENTE

#ELBA2035: INTERVIEW WITH UMBERTO MAZZANTINI OF LEGAMBIENTE

#ELBA2035: INTERVIEW WITH UMBERTO MAZZANTINI OF LEGAMBIENTE


Among the Visionaries encountered along our route “straight on course” for #Elba2035 and the 1st of July webinar dedicated to environment and sustainability, surely we could not avoid speaking with the National Head of Minor Islands for Legambiente (a major Italian environmental protection agency), who is also the director of the sea department for the same organisation in Tuscany.
Umberto Mazzantini started by focussing on the weaknesses he has identified throughout the years on the island: ‘On the one hand, we are surely dealing with an insufficiency of water depuration resources equal to 40%, on the other hand we have an issue with renewable energy sources, because we have them in abundance but we are unable to fully exploit them, whereas other archipelagos and other islands are already doing this, in Europe as well as all around the world’.
Another resource which could indeed be very valuable for the future of the island resides in its youth: ‘Too often’, continues Mazzantini, ‘after their studies they do not return to the island, if not as tourists’. He also has a positive outlook for a resource which is very important indeed to a Head of Legambiente, the environment: ‘We have started to exploit this extremely important resource’, concludes Mazzantini, ‘but we could do this even better. For example, creating a true marine protected area, such as was planned as far back as 1982 and never realised, truly one of the largest environmental scandals at an international level’.
Words which are food for thought, discussion and action: we shall surely do so during the course of the 1st of July webinar: “Sustainable Development: How Much Value Resides in Local Territories? A Shared Vision and Co-creation of Local Initiatives for Italy’s Relaunch”.


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