"It is not possible to imagine a lockdown for areas that are thousands and thousands of hectares in size. But it is certainly not unlikely to think of behavioral measures to adopt for those who enter a contaminated area and then move to one that is not."
There is still no solution to combat the dark evil that is killing the woods and forests of Sardinia, which have gone from green to brown-brown in a matter of weeks, especially in the western sectors. But the regional councilor for the Environment, Rosanna Laconi, is trying to outline a path after the meeting of the technical table called this morning, to address the emergency. And the imposition of rules that can contribute to limiting "the spread of a pathogenic agent, because we are dealing with this too", underlined the councilor, who as a doctor has already fought on the front lines against Covid.
"We are trying to investigate, with an interdisciplinary task force, what the causes are. We need to quantify the hectares affected, from there define the reasons, specifying that we are dealing with two phenomena : on the one hand the deterioration of the cork oak forests, which has been under study for years, and on the other the desiccation. They are similar but different: now we need to clarify the exact cause". For this, the Regional Council will soon allocate one million and one hundred thousand euros.
Phytophthora cinnamomi, which attacks the roots, is certainly the cause of the cork oak disease. "Now we have to understand if it also affects the rest," adds the councilor, "but the drought certainly contributed."
(Enrico Fresu – Video by Lorenzo Piras)