We continue our in-depth look at In Valmalenco, the Integrated Territorial Investment (I.T.I.) project involving the municipalities of Chiesa in Valmalenco, Caspoggio, Lanzada and Spriana, which aims for smart and eco-sustainable development of the valley.
What does it mean to make this territory a 4.0 valley? We talk about it with Leonardo La Rocca – Granting & Senior Project Manager in CISA srl.
1. In Valmalenco is the first I.T.I. activated in the Alps, how did you get there?
The Municipalities of Valmalenco over the years have experienced some critical issues typical of mountain areas that are now particularly prevalent in the Alpine area. Surprisingly, also on the basis of contacts and relations they had with parties close to the Administrations, they became acquainted with the European tool of Integrated Territorial Investment of European matrix. In the course of 2021, a number of meetings were held to learn more about the approach and objectives of I.T.I., or the possibility of implementing an I.T.I. in mountainous or rural areas. This resulted in a request by Cisa and Municipia to access data from Municipalities to assess the possibility or rather the feasibility of such an intervention.
The preliminary analysis conducted, assessed the criticalities of the area, the opportunities it offers and the chances of success, led to frame Valmalenco as the possible first experience of Integrated Territorial Investment involving a rural area: innovative the tool and innovative the application.
2. What does it mean, concretely, to make Valmalenco a 4.0 valley?
It means, first of all, imagining innovative solutions, services, infrastructures and development models, collating the most important systemic innovation experiences in the mountain environment at the European level in one place and imagining what effects the application of these experiences in the valley could have: all together in an “open-air laboratory” of territorial innovation. It then means defining the development model on the basis of respect for local identities and in accordance with the goals that local identities have set for themselves, transforming a valley characterized by the flight of young people, a low or very low birth rate and progressive depopulation but at the same time very rich in natural resources human, environmental, and strategic mining resources, into a valley that attracts, that brings its citizens closer to development instead of directing them to flight, that guarantees new services to its citizens and at the same time ensures new services useful for a settled or semi-substantial repopulation, always and in any case sustainable under all keys.
Innovation, systemic digitization, slow mobility and new quality of life, attractiveness are the paradigm of sustainability towards which all communities are oriented, Valmalenco 4.0 is all about that: reaching that paradigm and becoming an example is implementation of that paradigm.
3. So what is the value that a project like this can bring to the Alpine environment?
The experience that is emerging in Valmalenco is a unique but absolutely repeatable and transferable experience. Transferability is one of the fundamental elements of the I.T.I.: repeating the path to continue to innovate and involve more and more territories is in fact the goal that the European standard has set itself since 2014, when the I.T.I. was first defined as the flagship tool for the development of territories. Being the first one, In Valmalenco, it is the reference experience and it is already at this moment when it is in the start-up phase. Major interest and research groups have set their eyes on Valmalenco precisely with a view to being privileged observers. I am thinking of Euromontana, the Action Groups of the Alpine Macro-regional Strategy Eusalp that are observers in a European project of Alpine scope involving Valmalenco (Alpine Space TransTat) as a pilot project at the Italian level.
So the value is the visibility of a valley and its riches, the possibility of having a storytelling of the experience that does not start from Valmalenco but from the stakeholders, being a literature reference. All this implies a strong interest that consequently becomes attractiveness. The observation then also becomes an example and therefore replicability, with the due “customizations” also in other areas in the perspective of revitalizing the alpine area no longer as a vacation place or as a place full of beauty to look at from afar or for a short time, but as a place to live or relive.
4. Thanks to this project will there be the possibility of establishing links, interlocutions, collaborations with other European countries as well?
Absolutely yes and it has already started. I was saying Alpine Space TransTat is a project that brings French, Swiss, German, Austrian and Slovenian partners from the world of research and the world of Academia to Valmalenco as early as this fall. At its debut, Euromontana’s endorsement was crucial. Euromontana represents the largest association, at the community level, of stakeholders and creators of development models for mountains. It was present at the press conference launching the project. Eusalp is the Alpine macroregional strategy and its representatives have been in Valmalenco for months, I am an example of that and I have already involved the Action Group of the Strategy, which is dedicated to Innovation, in the Valmalenco project. But this is just the beginning, the perspective, also thanks to the development model designed for Primolo, is much broader and more interesting.
5. What and how many resources can be activated to make these territorial projects effective in the coming years?
Economic resources really don’t think are the main issue. We have already shown how it is possible in a few months of work to collect more than 20 million resources in the valley simply by thinking about sensible interventions with a positive impact and sustainable over time in a logic of an integrated intervention model. Certainly the public campital is decisive but it cannot be the only one. Net of regional measures, already instructed and won, national (under instruction) and community (also these resources already brought to the valley), private capital becomes decisive. The project company In Valmalenco will do its part with a significant investment in digitization and communication as per the Public Private Partnership rule, but we count on pooling significant resources from private investors in the valley to ground all other projects. And, just over a month after the project launch, the enthusiasm and interest of investors has not been slow to show. Sports sphere, skiing sphere, hotel sphere, energy and digital sphere as well as health are just some of the stakeholders who have already expressed their interest in doing their part.
Human resources are another matter. The Valmalenco is a valley rich in skills that have not infrequently been forced to move away from their mountains to seek employment. These are the resources we are counting on to engage so that they can return home as soon as possible. Creating an I.T.I. means creating development and therefore jobs. There is nothing more beautiful than to see citizens, linked to their territory, as protagonists of a new phase and writers of a new history.
