Good news. Gallinara, the only island in western Liguria with Bergeggi, will not become a luxury resort for a select few. The Mibact (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) purchased it, exercising its right of first refusal shortly before it became the property of Russian oligarch Alexandr Boguslayev, who planned to turn it into a paradise for the rich.
The Mibact plans to make it available to the public. The hope is that this is nothing more than the first step toward a new management of Italy’s marine and protected areas, a unique heritage throughout the Mediterranean mostly forbidden to boaters who would like to moor and visit these paradise islands. Environmentally friendly, of course.
The problem is this, protected areas containing such gems as Montecristo, Pianosa, Gorgona (but also of much of Giannutri, Capriaia just to stay in Tuscany) are off-limits. Why? There is no ministry to direct and coordinate the management of protected areas in a uniform way.
Chaos reigns: regions, state bodies, even prison guards rule. Everyone has his or her own personal goals of position rent. No one thinks about making them usable on land and especially at sea, opening them up to recreation, a type of tourism that certainly does not go to the expense of the local ecosystem.
One only has to see the Spanish example of Cabrera in the small island marine reserve of the Balearic Islands and the parks of Corsica and Southern France to realize that it is possible to organize environmentally sustainable nautical tourism. The Mibact would surely be the right reference to radically rethink it by finally opening it up to those who want, with their own boats, to visit and moor in these havens that are still, for the most part, inaccessible.
Nautical tourism, in Italy, is an untapped asset that could become one of the elements of post-pandemic revitalization. All it takes is for someone (we repeat: the Mibact) to take the reins, creating a coordinated plan that takes into account reality and not privilege.
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