Farmers safeguard 55% of the national landscape, guaranteeing constant maintenance and protection of the territory, which is however increasingly put at risk by the fact that in the last half century an agricultural area equal to 12 million football pitches has disappeared.
This is what Coldiretti states on the occasion of the National Landscape Day which is celebrated on 14 March to raise citizens' awareness on issues related to the protection of the same, strongly marked by agricultural production, from the rolling hills combed by vineyards to the centuries-old olive trees, from the farmhouses in plain to mountain huts, from pastures to terraces.
The landscape is "an economic, environmental and tourist resource of the country - notes Coldiretti - which is however weighed down by the effects of overbuilding and abandonment which have progressively weakened the presence of farmers in the area. Suffice it to say that in 1970 the total agricultural surface area represented 83% of the national territory".
"To the effects of the erosion of agricultural soil are added the follies of the European Union such as the directive on nature restoration, a law without logic which - Coldiretti denounces - will further decrease agri-food production, placing nature and nature in opposition farmer, who in reality is the true custodian of this environmental heritage".
"On the contrary, it is necessary to accelerate the approval of the law on land consumption which has been pending in Parliament for years and which could provide Italy with a cutting-edge instrument for the protection of its territory", concludes the confederation.
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