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Congress “Quality green areas as strategic resource”

Cervia, Friday February 23rd 2007

The Congress Quality green areas as strategic resource met with great success and attracted over 100 people to the Hotel Aurelia on February 23rd .
The Congress focussed on the theme of the development of urban green areas as an instrument of growth and re-qualification of cities and closed the first phase of the Project INFIORE in the framework of the Adriatic New Neighbourhood Programme INTERREG/CARDS-PHARE”, organised and coordinated by the Municipality of Cervia, in cooperation with the Province of Ravenna. The project aimed at promoting the social and economic development and the cooperation between the Countries of the Adriatic region. The congress saw the participation of many experts of green areas in the cities, who have been participating for years in the event “Cervia Città Giardino”, as well as the representatives of the cities partners of the Project INFIORE, i.e. the Municipalities of Pula and Dubrovnik (Croatia); Tuzla (Bosnia-Herzegovina); Scutari/ Shkodra and Elbasan (Albania); Pancevo (Serbia), Brindisi and the Province of Ravenna.

The Mayor of Cervia Roberto Zoffoli gave the opening speech, stressing that the project is an opportunity to increase the awareness of the sector on protection, promotion and culture of urban green areas, while making the quality of urban green areas one of the key elements of a sustainable quality tourist offer.

Then Riccardo Todoli, Counsellor for Urban Green Areas of the Municipality of Cervia, and Francesco Giangrandi, President of the Province of Ravenna presented the project INFIORE, stressing that Cervia has always devoted great attention to urban green areas, seen as economic, social and cultural resource. Suffice it to think of the increasing success of the event “Cervia City Garden– May in bloom”, which involves dozens of Municipalities from anywhere in Europe in the setting up of beautiful flowerbeds. This year the annual event will be called “Adriatic in bloom” and will be part of the Project INFIORE.

Then the congress, chaired by Gianpaolo Barbariol, President of the Italian Association of Managers and Technicians of Public Gardens, started with the presentation by Paolo Vernieri, Professor of floriculture in the University Course on Management of Urban Green Areas and Landscape of the University of Pisa. After analysing current issues related to public green areas, Professor Vernieri said that local institutions should commit themselves to guarantee the sustainability of public green areas in economic and environmental terms.
Then Miro Mati, manager of the famous plant nursery with the same name, talked of the importance of trees in the urban context and of the need to have landscape and city gardens in line with the surrounding natural environment, in particular in artistic cities.

Alberto Giangolini, of the Studio Landesign from Pesaro, talked about landscape architecture as the starting point of urban planning, giving valuable examples form Italy and abroad of the need to foresee social and environmental changes in order to plan quality interventions.
Then Andreas Psenner, manager of a plant nursery in Bozen, talked about the importance of the quality of nursery plants, saying that you cannot save on flowers, but rather look at them as an advertising investment for the promotion of the city.
The day was closed by the presentation by Laura Schiff, Senior Official of the Region Emilia-Romagna who, starting from the provoking question “What would our city look like without flowers?” Talked about green areas as an element for the promotion of tourism, saying there is a new form of cultural tourism called Garden Tourism, where tourists travel to visit gardens.