(ANSA) – FLORENCE, OCTOBER 22 – “A tragicomic end for a Visitor Center built only ten years ago with public funds, largely Por-CreO community funds aimed at promoting ‘sustainable economic development in the context of protected areas‘” . Thus the WWF Tuscany comments on the reopening of the Visitor Center of the Fucecchio Marshes Natural Reserve (Florence) with the assignment by the Municipality of Larciano (Pistoia) to the local section of Federcaccia, asking for “a clear signal from the Region that rectifies an unsustainable and grotesque choice.”
In a note, the regional delegate of the association Guido Scoccianti recalls how the announcement “generally required participants to have environmental protection and enhancement among their statutory objectives, but not to demonstrate that they have experience and skills in this regard and to actually carry out activities of environmental protection. Based on the results, the spaces of the Visitor Center will be divided between the Intrecci association, which carries out a commendable activity with disabled children, but not strictly environmental protection, and the hunters of Larciano”. Hunters, he adds, “who for decades not only deplete the wildlife of the marsh area with their hunting activity, but are also the first and biggest obstacle to the expansion of the protected area”.
According to WWF Toscana, the municipal administration could have acted differently, while recognizing the urgency of reopening the structure to the public: “It was enough to copy the notice from the Municipality of Altopascio (Lucca) for the management of the Sibolla Visitor Center” which “guaranteed the participation of associations that really deal with environmental protection and biodiversity – underlines Scoccianti – In Larciano, however, it was preferred to grant the premises without asking for projects or guarantees of environmental activities based on rigorous technical-scientific knowledge and programs of visits carried out with authorized personnel”. (HANDLE).