Living Lab — Pollica (SA)

Embracing Integral Ecological Regeneration: the power of the “Vision”

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” — Henry David Thoreau

Worry, anxiety, eating and mental disorders, malnutrition, isolation, depression, difficulty in interacting, stress, fear of missing out: this is the picture of our society today.

A society that has dangerously distanced itself from natural spaces to shut itself up in large cities.

A society that has forgotten the power of conviviality and self-care because it is always in a hurry.

A society that frantically consumes resources that are not even available.

What I see instead is a society that, especially after the pandemic, has begun to understand the healing power of nature, which feels the need to return to real human relationships (rather than virtual), which longs to re-learn the art of waiting and patience, such as Mother Nature teaches. I see a society that finally understands that we are all more interconnected than we could ever imagine.

Living Lab are one crucial answer to these current needs of People, Planet, and Prosperity.

They facilitate real life connections, they foster societal relationships, and they build unity and resilience because they start from the grassroots of our society: our cities.

It is cities that are traditionally structured and conceived to be the major centers for production and consumption, but they are still the places most affected by climate change, sea-level rise, and desertification, which, in turn, hinder food security and access to other basic resources. Cities are where decarbonization strategies for energy, transport, buildings, and even industry and agriculture can coexist and intersect. For this reason, we cannot solve the current challenges without starting from the cities. Just as we can’t solve them without involving citizens, who are not only political actors in a governance structure, but also users, producers, consumers, and owners.

Achieving 100 climate-neutral and climate-smart cities by 2030 is the goal identified by the European Commission. It is within this framework that the CITIES 2030 EU project was launched: a project involving 41 pan-European partners committed to transforming and restructuring the way systems produce, transport and supply, recycle and reuse food to accelerate our ecological transition.

This goal can only be achieved by connecting all local stakeholders: industry, civil society, start-ups, farms, innovators, universities and research centers, local authorities, and regional policymakers. The project supports, promotes, and showcases 100 European cities in their systematic transformation towards climate neutrality by 2030 and will make these cities hubs for experimentation and innovation for all cities. Through a multi-level and co-creative process formalized in a Climate City Contract, adapted to the realities of each city, the Mission is fully anchored in the European Green Deal strategy to make Europe climate neutral by 2050.

We cannot be more proud of being part of this incredible project with our Paideia Campus in Pollica as a Living Lab and strategic node of the network, the first one featured during the “Vision” Seminar, together with other 15 Living Labs across Europe

STARTING FROM THE WHY: WHY POLLICA?

Pollica, the heart of the Mediterranean Basin, is the legacy of hundreds of years of respect, care, and protection of the land.

POLLICA LIVING LAB represents the HISTORY: The crossroads of different cultures, such as ancient Greek, Latin, and Arab, Pollica has hosted and welcomed thinkers, poets, and philosophers, such as Parmenides, the famous philosopher and doctor of ancient Greece, whose traces can still be found in the Archaeological Park of Velia.

POLLICA LIVING LAB represents the SCIENCE: From the first modern western school of Medicine, the Salernitana Medical School, which originated in these places in the IX Century, becoming the most important source of medical knowledge in Western Europe, until the American scientists Margaret and Ancel Keys, who moved in Pollica after the war to study the local lifestyle, the village has always attracted prestigious minds of science.

POLLICA LIVING LAB represents the BIODIVERSITY: Immersed in the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano where there are 28 Sites of Community Interest (SCI), and 8 Special Protection Areas, Pollica is part of the network of Biosphere Reserves of the UNESCO MAB program since 1997, of the UNESCO GeoPark Network since 2010, and of the exclusive UNESCO World Heritage List, as a “cultural landscape” of world importance.

POLLICA LIVING LAB represents CONVIVIALITY: In the Mediterranean basin, commensality and conviviality have become aspects of cultural heritage to be preserved and enhanced. Pollica, named of the seven emblematic communities of the Mediterranean Diet by UNESCO, is the undisputed representative of this lifestyle.

POLLICA LIVING LAB represents CULTURE: Pollica, a melting pot of cultures, has made cultural confluence, a strong point of diversity, the basis for inclusion and a natural and cultural landscape worthy of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Living Museum of the Mediterranean Diet, together with the Living Museum of the Sea, and the Virtual Museum of the Mediterranean Diet, perfectly embody this principle.

POLLICA LIVING LAB represents INTEGRAL ECOLOGY: Over time and thanks to the work of former Mayor Angelo Vassallo, Pollica has become a virtuous example for what concerns the enhancement of the territory and environmental protection. For over ten years, the Cilento coast has gone from being anonymous to becoming a source of luster and local pride: following the expansion of water purifiers in the seaside villages of Acciaroli and Pioppi, Legambiente, the prominent Italian environmentalist association, recognizes it as one of the pearls of the Italian sea.

But, despite its many virtues, Pollica is equally facing several challenges that are impeding this unique natural and cultural heritage of mankind.

1. Depopulation: Pollica and the Cilento area have been defined as an ultra-peripheral area: the limited professional opportunities and infrastructural difficulties have pushed the majority of families to move to bigger cities. In 2018, Cilento, an area including 99 municipalities, with an average population ranging from 200 to 21,000 inhabitants, lost about 57,000 inhabitants.
2. Inefficient connection and poor infrastructures.
3. Unemployment: Eurostat places territories of Southern Italy in the last 15 places in terms of employment rate in the whole European region. Among the worst 15 in Europe, are Campania (18%) and Sicily (17.9%).
4. Education dropout: Southern Italy registers amongst the highest levels of education dropout: 17.3%. In the province of Salerno, 15 youth out of 100 leave before finishing school.
5. Widespread obesity and overweight: the Campania region has been gradually experiencing poor-to-moderate adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle, explaining why it reaches the highest rate of overweight adults in Italy and the second-highest rate of obesity in Italy.
6. Tourism deseasonalization: One of the major challenges for small villages, like Pollica, is the high rate of seasonal tourism with the consequence of being invaded by tourists in the summer months, completely disrupting the rhythms and nature of the villages, followed by prolonged months of almost total abandonment. In Campania, the gross bed utilization was 0.9% in April 2020 to a high of 43.9% in August 2020 and even 71.2% in August 2019!
7. Climate Change: The Mediterranean Basin is defined as a climate change hotspot, with advanced risks of hydrogeological instability and soil erosion, accelerating agricultural changes and posing serious risks in terms of survival of iconic Mediterranean foods and land abandonment. Coldiretti, the largest association representing Italian agriculture, foresees serious risks of -46% of olive oil Made in Italy due to climate alterations.

We have chosen Pollica as a Living Lab not by chance. We chose to start from the cradle of the Mediterranean Diet, from the place where human health and environmental protection were first conceived, from one of the most iconic Italian sources of pride, to make this unique heritage adapt and survive despite the local and global challenges.

THE VISION OF THE PAIDEIA CAMPUS

The Vision is the first stage when Living Labs assess the why. It is a process in which flexibility is required because it is anything but linear. Vision gives direction to root the lab into the local needs and to connect all the local stakeholders.

The Paideia Campus, the Pollica Living Lab, inaugurated on occasion of the International Biodiversity Day, is rooted into a single vision, supported by five main sub-areas: to restore the ancient principle of integral ecological regeneration.

Paideia Campus as a tool of social inclusion

Social inclusion passes through the cities, its squares, farmer markets, and its food. The Mediterranean Regeneration Academy, born within the Paideia Campus, is not only aimed at training existing farmers and young people in regenerative agriculture techniques, but also socially disadvantaged people, migrants, and refugees who are looking for a qualification to fill a job position in a sector that needs skilled labor. Regenerative agriculture can deliver needed labor on one side, and social inclusion and dignity on the other. In this way, it is possible to both counteract early school leaving and create new entrepreneurship capable of enhancing the knowledge and values ​​of the territory.

Paideia Campus as a tool for sustainable living

The individual, social, and environmental dimensions are the three pillars at the basis of sustainable living, each of which cannot be separated from the other. For this reason, the Paideia Campus has been working to maximize all three dimensions simultaneously: individual well-being (through research on vital parameters and quality of life to support strategic decisions of local government), societal well-being (by prototyping services to facilitate the use of the territory and increasing social cohesion through the establishment of a Community Cooperative) and environmental well-being (through projects of upcycling of agricultural byproducts, plastic upcycling, recycling, and Poseidonia valorization).

Paideia Campus as a tool of a stronger identity

Identity is tightly embedded in the territory and local foods. The Paideia Campus is on a mission to valorize the living UNESCO heritage present in Pollica by enhancing, promoting, and disseminating the food heritage of Southern Italy and encouraging cultural exchanges on food and wine of different countries in the Mediterranean area. An action of research and engagement that is realized through the collaboration with MedEatResearch, the Center for Social Research on the Mediterranean Diet of the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa — directed by anthropologists Professor Marino Niola and Professor Elisabetta Moro — , together with the Mediterranean Communication Lab, aimed at researching the processes of action and institutionalization behind food behavior, and the interconnected aggregate dynamics of food supply and demand, with the aim of crystalizing models of understanding these.

Paideia Campus as a tool for climate adaptation and resilience

From regenerative agriculture to sustainable water management, from biodiversity to blue economy, the Laboratories within the Paideia Campus are designed for combining innovation (climate-smart solutions) and traditions (traditional ecological knowledge) together to prototype and test new solutions for the regeneration of soils and ecosystems, and to develop resilience and adaptability to climate change in the Mediterranean food value webs. Networks of local farmers, trade associations, private sectors and the Mediterranean supply chain are woven together, thanks in part to the recent Food Coalition for the Mediterranean, launched in collaboration with Future Food Institute, FAO, and UNIDO ITPO Italy.

Paideia Campus as a lever of common prosperity

Local prosperity, especially in a rural / sea village such as Pollica, passes through hospitality, sustainable tourism, and entrepreneurship. The Agri-Culture Youth Welfare was born with this idea: to train youth from Pollica, through innovative methodologies of coaching and Design Thinking, to discover and enhance hidden values, creating new opportunities and distributing the beauty for collective wellbeing.

The Paideia Campus — Pollica Living Lab is our possibility to restart from the present moment. From the strength of solid relationships, that originate from its citizens and their land. It is our chance for returning to the One Health Approach.

The Future Food Institute is an international ecosystem that believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of its global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth through transformation of global food systems.

By training the next generation of changemakers, empowering communities, and engaging government and industry in actionable innovation, FFI catalyzes progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!