“The award for you, so that you take care of me”
Projects selected on line.
Francesca Mansi was a young, twenty-five year old Tourism Studies grad student who, during the fury of water and mud that came down from the Dragone streem, was in the bar Risacca to carry out a seasonal job. On the occasion of the third anniversary of the flood in Atrani that happened on 9 September 2010 and during which Francesca Mansi lost her life, ACARBIO, in collaboration with the Salerno Section of Italia Nostra, the “Mille cuori per un sorriso”-association and thanks to the patronage of the local authorities, will give recognition for environmental protection efforts. This way people, associations, companies, institutions who are doing the most to promote the initiatives and activities focused on the protection and sustainable exploitation of the territory of the Amalfi Coast will be awarded.
In the first edition of the Award, the promoter associations considered it essential to start from the school communities to emphasize the importance of the knowledge and basic training in the protection of the historical landscape of the Coast. Numerous schools received prizes and special recognitions in the competition “For Francesca: historical features, uses and traditional techniques of environmental control in the territory of the Amalfi Coast”: primary school in Maiori (1st price), primary school in Praiano (2nd place), primary schools in Cetara and Minori (3rd place ex aequo), secondary schools in Positano and Tramonti (special recognition). The jury had also the opportunity to appreciate the teachers and professors who, along with their students, worked hard at the territories closest to the schools to promote the value of terraces, villages and gardens by looking for images, interviews and artifacts of the material culture.
This is the starting point for the second edition of the Award which intends to shift the focus on the individuals, associations, businesses and institutions that produce goods and offer services and at the same time and put the active protection of the territory first.
A garden cultivated with love, a food company that introduces innovations while respecting traditions, a good thesis, a new scientific publication, an artifact restored in an exemplary fashion, a renewed naturalistic path, all these and many other initiatives demonstrate that it is necessary and possible to “manipulate” the environment carefully – with respect for the ecosystems and biodiversity, with the appreciation for the traditional knowledge and uses, without renouncing modern scientific and technological methods and without deteriorating the income expectations – all these things we believe deserve a public recognition, or “the prize for you, so that you take care of me”.
The main purpose of the award is to promote a culture of prevention and reduction of the environmental risk factors through the heartfelt memory of Francesca, but this year it is as important to start the construction of a database of significant experiences, that are a concrete manifestation of that same culture.