Among rewilding mountains: grassland conservation and abandoned settlements in the Northern Apennines

Abstract

Due to agricultural abandonment and the urban preference for ‘wilderness’ over ‘rural’ areas, abandoned settlements and rewilding grasslands are often the last traces of agriculture in today’s protected areas of the Northern Apennines. However, since the late 1990s, an increasing number of policy makers have appreciated these spatial manifestations of the nature/culture gestalt and developed projects to conserve the last grasslands in rewilding protected areas. Does the land cover reflect these changing attitudes? Using the Foreste Casentinesi National Park as our case in point, we aim to (1) detect land cover changes during 1990–2001 and 2001–2010; (2) analyse change trajectories; and (3) reveal potential discrepancies between the conservation of biodiversity and rural built heritage. Our results show that grassland loss dominated 1990–2001, whereas grassland maintenance/restoration can be observed for 2001–2010. However, the decadence of the rural built heritage seems to continue.