Socrates field trip to Maremma Park in Italy

Discotheques, tourist resort villages or fun parks are nowhere to be seen! This is not a classical tourist resort. Indeed the entertainment is offered by the hordes of sunflowers swaying in the soothing summer breeze; the incessant chirping of the cicadas and the promise of encountering creatures such as foxes, boars, deer or even the odd viper.

This is what the Parco Regionale della Maremma is all about, the story of a land marked by a close link between people and the environment. The varied terrain of the Maremma Park is the expression of this relationship of mutual respect.

Established in 1975, it was the second regional park in Italy and the first of its kind in Tuscany. Parco della Maremma was such a successful venture in the conservation of both natural and historical concerns that in 1992 it was conferred the status of Parco Europeo, making it one of only five natural parks within the Italian peninsula to share such a prestigious designation. The park is renowned as an area offering an outstanding number of diverse habitats with related plant and animal communities.

It was for the park's plethora of habitats - ranging from dense maquis, forest and cliff to salt marshes, freshwater wetlands and dune habitats - that a group of students, reading for an M.Sc. in Environmental Planning and Management at the University of Malta, spent almost two weeks immersed in a timeless natural setting.

They had the opportunity of rediscovering nature and rhythms of life alien to contemporary urban living, while researching and evaluating models and strategies of balancing conservation and development.

Trekking through the Maremma Park's diverse topography the team definitely rediscovered the sensations of a very basic rhythm quite latent in urban man - walking!

The group of ten postgraduate students were accompanied by group leader Louis F. Cassar, and two other tutors - Sandro Lanfranco and Rachel Portelli. The organisation of the trip (academic programme and logistics) was taken care of by the International Environment Institute while the University's Socrates Office provided the funding.

Every day of the stay in Italy was packed with intensive hands-on experience in the field of establishing, presenting and, most importantly, analysing and interpreting baseline data with regards to the natural and historical environment.

Working within the confines of the park, the group of students practised techniques of how to collect raw data, analyse and interpret the findings, and finally present the information for assessment.

All important components comprising the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure used for development control within the planning regime. At the same time the group had the opportunity to experience agritourism and consider the potential for such an endeavour in the Maltese context.

One of the group's first tasks was to try to get accustomed to the agritourist's way of life. Living on an authentic farmstead, namely San Mamiliano, in the Trappola marshland estate situated at the southern periphery of the province of Grosseto, was like being in the middle of nowhere.

There were no phone lines, no traffic racket, and no neighbours! Trying to identify the many calls of the diverse and abundant bird species, feeding the horse in a paddock nearby and making out cinghiale (wild boar) tracks in mud pools around the farm became the routine of time spent around the farmstead.

One other significant requisite of the agritourist at San Mamiliano would be his capacity to direct the relentless battle that needs to be waged against the myriad mosquitoes hounding the place. The Trappola estate has definitely not been dubbed zona palustra (swamp) in vain.

The visit was action-packed and challenged the team's imaginative, creative and lateral thinking abilities in order to present their work effectively.

Getting hold of baseline data meant hours of trekking through diverse habitats, assessing the associated vegetation and animal communities whilst noting the various land-uses and man-made intrusions on the landscape (and applying copious amounts of sun block).

The dune ecosystem proved to be the team's favourite habitat and many hours were spent trudging across deep sand along sunny beaches, flanked further inland by the splendid pine woods of Leopold II, in order to survey dune formation processes and map foredune and consolidated dune floral communities.

Apart from working on dunes, students also trailed up paths of forest, dense maquis and garrigue in the uplands of Talamone at the southernmost tip of the Maremma Park up the slopes of Monti dell'Ucellina in the central and more sensitive part of the park.

Many exemplars of wild boar and deer could be observed from a vantage point between Torre Castelmarino and Torre Collelungo. Past attempts to reclaim the marshlands at the foot of the Monti dell'Ucellina have left a network of man-made canals the remnants of which favour freshwater assemblages.

The typical riparian environment was discussed in detail closer to the team's base camp at San Mamiliano, where the Ombrone cuts across the fields to the south of the property. One of the field trips was directed on the bank of the river once a way through the thick Phragmites (reed beds) and dense bramble bushes was negotiated.

Freshwater wetlands and salt marshes were also observed near the Marina d'Alberese beach, flanking the route leading to the mouth of the River Ombrone.

On one occasion two hinghiali (the Tuscan way of pronouncing cinghiali) calmly crossed the path in the blazing two o'clock sun, within metres of several of the team members without as much as the bat of a tail (so much for the reassurance of their being reputedly shy animals that would prefer to keep out of the way of any contact with humans!).

Some team members opted to rise really early on the last day of their stay at San Mamiliano to go mammal-watching. Venturing groggily through some rarely trod paths at Marina d'Alberese the group was rewarded with two close encounters with wild boar.

During their stay, the students were also lectured by local specialists, including Professor Felicita Scapini and Professor Arrigoni, the latter being one of the founders of the park. Professor Arrigoni explained that the park supports examples of a great number of habitat types found within the Italian peninsula.

In 1998 the park management team embarked on a project entitled Gestione degli habitat palustri e dunali in order to comply with the European Union Habitat Directive 92/43/ CEE and protect these two habitats from further erosion.

The city of Florence, famous for its cultural heritage, was our base during the last two days of the field trip. The International Environment Institute and the University's Socrates Office merit the gratitude of all those concerned for a most successful field trip.

One last thought could be spared to the concept of agritourism, launched in Italy a decade or two ago. All over the peninsula agritourism has brought about the return of people to the country injecting new life into small villages and dispersed farmsteads.

The agritourist in the meantime has been offered genuine traditional hospitality such as cuisine in the form of organically grown foods and hand made products within a space in strict contact with nature, and the opportunity to savour the local way of life away from it all.

Apart from the TV aerials on the roofs, this concept has substantially contributed to the recovery and diffusion of an authentic Italian way of living and being.

Perhaps agritourism could be the possible way forward in the reconciliation of tourist-related development and the protection of local cultural traditions and environmental richness within the Maltese context.

After all it is the tourists' increasing demand for 'nature' and the enhancement of his journey balanced with the local inhabitants' economic growth exigencies that should maintain the protection of local heritage in all its forms: from the proverbs of the country folk to the great frescoed palaces.