Old and New Conservation Strategies: From Parks to Land Stewardship

The role of Nature Parks today is not only linked to biodiversity protection, but they are also territories where to experience a sustainable economy. A culture, which combines nature conservation and local sustainable development, led to the growth of protected territories in Italy (from 3 % to 11 % over 20 years). Now we have to make a step further: while we need to improve the quality of protected areas management, we also have to increase awareness among people that nature conservation requires our active participation. People themselves, in fact, are the most important custodians of the land and its naturalness. The Land Stewardship project has been a successful way to make owners directly involved in nature conservation and enhancement of biodiversity. Becoming a real worldwide movement, Land Stewardship is a tool to stop building extension in green spaces, thus protecting the most important resource for every country.