"From the need to defend crops against the nomadic herds of shepherds and from this constant conflict between agriculture and pastoralism, in accordance with mechanisms directly regulated by the vagaries of the climate and the characteristics of the soil, the peculiar system of collective management of the Sardinian land ». The roots of the institute of civic uses in the historical and legal framework of the scholar Laura Di Tucci, who adds: "The description of collective management and its origins allows us to see the current agricultural landscape with new and different eyes".
The seminar
The discipline of civic uses continues to be closely linked to the development processes not only of the rural world but of all areas of Sardinian society. A very old institute, in the DNA of many communities, still capable of having its effectiveness and intrinsic value in the "civitas". The seminar "Earth - Landscape - Environment: Civic Uses in Sardinia over the Pnrr" is dedicated to this theme, associated with the challenges suggested by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which provides for specific measures on environmental protection, ecological transition and sustainability. , scheduled today, at 4.30 pm, in Cagliari in the “Giorgio Pisano” room of L'Unione Sarda. Only 40 people are allowed in attendance due to the limitations imposed by Covid, but there is live streaming on unionesarda.it.
"Central issue"
«The goal», explains the archaeologist Maria Antonietta Mongiu who gave impetus to the initiative, «is to give life to a collective reasoning on a central issue for the growth of Sardinia. We are talking about a legal institution with a strong cultural, identity, environmental, and economic value. It is a system of rules that constitutes the foundation of civil coexistence because it defends the whole community from the prevarications of the individual. Civic uses, a particular form of collective exercise of property rights, are part of the broad dictionary of sustainability and resilience on which the NRP is based. Collective lands, adds Professor Mongiu, «are a landscape asset to be protected in every way. The Galasso decree, in 1985, was a turning point: it recognized civic uses as lasting bonds, essential for preserving the environment and the balance of the territory ».
The debate
In addition to Maria Antonietta Mongiu, architect Fausto Martino, former Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, Michelina Masia, professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Cagliari, participated in the comparison, coordinated by the editor-in-chief of L'Unione Sarda Maria Francesca Chiappe, the sociologist Nicolò Migheli, the former president of the Sardinian Tar Paolo Numerico, the coordinator of the Sardinia Study Center on the Civic Lands Francesco Nuvoli, the magistrate of the Court of Cagliari Cristina Ornano, the historian Giuseppe Seche, the director of the State Archives Enrico Trogu and the mayor of Nuoro and president of the Council of Local Autonomies Andrea Soddu.
The affected areas
According to the research work of the Argea regional agency, the area with civic uses on the island is approximately 305,326 hectares, equal to 12.69%. "Sore keys remain", reads the website gruppodinterventogiuridicoweb, "some serious management shortcomings: out of the 347 Sardinian municipalities with collective land, only 46 are equipped with the municipal regulation for the management of civic uses and only 24 are equipped with an enhancement and recovery plan, while thousands of hectares illegally occupied await recovery for collective use ». The insularity also contributed to making the configuration of the civic lands in Sardinia original. But there is another aspect highlighted by Fernand Braudel: «Insularity is a permanent and decisive force of the Sardinian past. At its side, no less powerful, there is the mountain, responsible, if not more than the sea, for the isolation of the populations ».
Massimiliano Rais
