Chapter 1

Introduction

Mauro Varotto, Luca Bonardi and Paolo Tarolli

Abstract This volume collects the best scientific contribution presented in the 3rd World Conference on Terraced Landscapes held in Italy from October 6–15, 2016, offering a deep and multifaceted insight into the remarkable heritage of terraced landscapes in Italy, in Europe, and in the world (America, Asia, Australia). It consists of two parts: a geographical overview on some of the most important terraced systems in the world (first part) and a multidisciplinary approach that aims to promote a multifunctional vision of terraces, underlining how these landscapes meet different needs: cultural and historical values, environmental and hydrogeological functions, quality and variety of food, community empowerment, and sustainable development (second part). The volume offers a great overview on strengths, weaknesses, functions, and strategies for terraced landscapes all over the world, summarizing in a final manifest the guidelines to provide a future for these landscapes as natural and cultural heritage.

Since ancient times, terraces have been among the most evident human modifications to Earth’s landscapes. They cover large areas from East Asia, to Europe, Africa, and the center-south of the Americas. Agricultural terraced landscapes are important anthropological signatures, and, in certain areas (e.g., China, Italy, Peru), they are considered an important cultural heritage. The main purpose of this agri-

M. Varotto (&)

Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

e-mail: mauro.varotto@unipd.it

L. Bonardi

Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

e-mail: luca.bonardi@unimi.it

P. Tarolli

Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy

e-mail: paolo.tarolli@unipd.it

M. Varotto et al. (eds.), World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life, Environmental History 9, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96815-5_1

cultural practice was to cultivate land in high, steep-slope areas, retaining more water and soil, reducing soil erosion, promoting irrigation, and allowing machinery and plows to work in better conditions.

In Europe, the cultivation of the vine and the olive tree was a powerful push toward terracing, while Asia, Africa, and the Americas widely used terraces for cereal crops (corn, rice, sorghum, millet, etc., depending on the area). The resulting systems assume diverse shapes and sizes—from micro-adjustments to deep morphological changes of the slopes, from terracing small, isolated areas of a few thousand square meters to interventions brought, homogeneously and sometimes planned, to slopes of thousands of hectares. For centuries—especially under the impetus of population growth in the Modern Age—the areas occupied by terraces worldwide have been growing. However, during the twentieth century, this trend changed. Several terraced landscapes were abandoned, particularly the narrowest terraces that were impossible to work with machinery and those that could only be cultivated with cereals or left as meadows. This occurred in several areas of Europe, both mountainous and coastal, but other world regions were similarly affected. People started migrating toward cities, where the socioeconomic opportunities were higher than on farmlands. The abandoned terraced landscapes coincided with progressive land degradation. Several regions (e.g., Liguria in Italy) were characterized by increased surface erosion or small landslides. Almost everywhere, these processes happened under substantial political and cultural indifference, without even an atmosphere of open support for the societies affected. Only since the end of the twentieth century has this posture given way to the maturation of a different sensitivity, attentive, above all, to the cultural and environmental consequences of abandonment processes. This new perspective has progressively involved the most diverse fields—from the political-administrative to the academic, from the world of environmental and social voluntary workers to that of various agricultural organizations. This involvement has, admittedly, been more or less profound, depending on the region. However, recognizing the historical, geographical, environmental, ecological, and economic meanings terraced landscapes carry, and the frequent inertial maintenance of the anti-erosive component, has led to developing social and regulatory frameworks potentially oriented to terrace protection, recovery, and enhancement. In a growing number of cases, this has translated into positive refurbishment interventions, thanks also to implementing specific action programs.

At the same time, on a strictly productive level, terrace products are being reintegrated into commercial circuits, although the disadvantages inherent in an activity based on burdensome and unprofitable manual labor continue to prevail. Still, this trend is supported by growing demand for niche products strongly characterized on a qualitative basis. Experimenting with new cultural destinations and researching innovative materials, tools, and technical means frequently accompany this reintegration. However, the places of rebirth are flanked by many terraced areas that reached the twenty-first century in a profitable state, due to their marked specialization.

To understand the multiple issues these developments generate, in 2010 and 2014 the first and second International Conferences on Territorial Landscapes took place, respectively, in Mengzi in the People’s Republic of China (Peters and

The multifunctionality of terraces can only be matched by a plurality of scientific skills, drawn on to understand problems and search for the most appropriate solutions. The marked diversity characterizing the disciplinary origins of this volume’s authors is the fruit of a precise choice and of a bond deriving from the multifaceted nature of the object investigated. It also reflects the composite character of the participants in the third meeting of the International Terraced Landscapes Alliance in 2016. The meeting was an occasion of debate among over 250 people with different experiences, skills, and backgrounds: farmers, administrators, environmental and cultural associations, universities and the research world, drystone professionals and artisans, non-governmental organizations, and simple enthusiasts or terrace lovers. For this reason, the present volume can also be read as a broad and indispensable theoretical premise to the Proceedings (Alberti et al. 2018) and to the Manifesto “Choosing the Future for Terraced Landscapes” shared by the participants in the Congress and included at the end of this book. They are referred to for a more detailed view of the terracing problem on local and regional scales, as well as for an analysis of the prospects and directions for future action.

References

Alberti F, Dal Pozzo A, Murtas D, Salas MA, Tillmann T (eds) (2018) Terraced landscapes: choosing the future, Regione del Veneto

Peters HA, Junchao S (eds) (2012) First terraced landscape conference (Honghe, China). Paper collection. Kunming-Yunnan People Publishing

Tillmann T, Bueno de Mesquita M (eds) (2015) II Congreso Internacional de Terrazas. Encuentro de culturas y saberes de terrazas del mundo. JICA-CBC

Part I

Terraced Landscapes in the World:

A General Overview