At the Biviere Lake in Gela, under a spring sun, the Convention about the Opening of Life Leopoldia Project has taken place during the UNESCO Week of Education for Sustainable Development 2012, with the title “A Strategy for the Sustainability of the Coastal Areas of the Gulf of Gela: Leopoldia LIFE+ Project 2011”.
Life+ Program is the EU financial instrument co-financing environmental and nature conservation projects throughout the EU, as well as in some candidate, acceding and neighbouring countries.
Leopoldia Project, as underlined by Project’s Manager Mrs. Giovanna Tomaselli from the DiGeSa (Department for Management of Food and Agricultural Industry) of the University of Catania, has the purpose of protecting and implementing the endangered species, called Leopoldia gussonei, and its habitats (dune and inland dune areas), aiming to modify the whole involved area into a new method of sustainable development.
Emilio Giudice, Director of the Biviere Riserve has underlined that the realizing of the opening convention in Gela is an important sign of change for this territory, known as the most ecologically devastated area in Sicily.
Leopoldia Project is a challenge and, at the same time, shows a new way leading to an agriculture that can be competitive in the global markets, maintain primary resources and meet consumers’ demands.
The Project, by now limited to the Gulf of Gela, proposes a development model that could be exported to the whole Southern Coast of Sicily and to other European productive Coastal Areas.
