The Management of the Po River area on private initiative:

a case study between the Provinces of Alexandria and Pavia

Paolo Cielo*, Alberto Morera*, Maria Consolata Visconti**

*) Doctor of Forestry, ForTeA Associated Study, Turin, Italy

**) Farming entrepreneur, E. Visconti & C. S.a.s. Agricultural Company Visconti

Preface

Recent regulatory and political developments in the territory identify river belts as elements of particular naturalistic value and public interest for the hydraulic government, by imposing restrictions on traditional agricultural and silvicultural practices. The farms that cultivate poplar in floodplains are becoming aware of the particular value of this environment and realize that they have to look for new activities alongside agricultural production, although the environmental and land maintenance services today do not yet offer adequate forms of remuneration for the owners and tenants of the land.

This article presents the case of the Visconti and Torre d’Isola farms, which have undertaken a coordinated set of initiatives aimed at reconstituting and enhancing the natural river environment, collected in a River Environment Management Programme pursuant to art. 32 of the Implementation Rules of the Plan for the Hydrogeological Structure (PAI) of the Po River Basin Authority (AdBPO).

Po river oxbow lake in the municipality of Valmacca, Torre d’Isola (Al) locality.

Legal framework of reference

In the floodplain the relationship between emerged surfaces and water is in continuous evolution: during floods the river, within a dynamic equilibrium, modifies the morphology to varying degrees through erosion and deposition activities. The Civil Code (Articles 941-947) recognised the right to become the owners of the land left free by the river (flood) to the owners of neighbouring land. This right could be exercised subject to the occurrence of specific conditions ascertained by the Public Administration through an administrative procedure, which over time has become increasingly complex and chaotic. In addition to this procedure, the law provided the concession of state land for the use of the coppice or the cultivation of poplars, with the right of pre-emption for the frontists.

The acquisition of the new land, or its use for various purposes, compensated the owners for the land losses caused by the movement of the active riverbed. With the continuous change of the river system, much faster than administrative practices, over time there was a situation of patrimonial indeterminacy and administrative confusion, in which the State was not always able to defend the interests of the community and protect the natural heritage. Over time, agricultural cultivations went as far as the edges of the active riverbed, while forest coenose was replaced by industrial-type poplar groves and many oxbow lakes and wetlands, even if state-owned, were reclaimed to obtain new areas to cultivate.

In this context, a radical change was introduced by Law No 37 of 5/1/1994, entitled ‘Rules for the environmental protection of state owned areas of rivers, streams, lakes and public waters’ and known as the ‘Cutrera Law‘: the plots of land abandoned by the water can no longer be reclaimed by the frontists but remains in the hands of the state. In addition, the concession of state land is subject to the submission of land management programmes that comply with urban and environmental requirements, and in particular with the Basin Plans referred to in Law 18/5/1989, No 183 on soil protection.

Subsequently, certain restrictions on agricultural practices were imposed by the Excerpt Plan for the removal of river strips (PSFF), which prohibits in band A tillage and wood arboriculture for a width of 10 m from the shoreline, and the granting or renewal of concessions on state land for productive uses. The latter, according to the 1999 PAI, became possible in bands A and B only after the presentation of management projects, public and/or private initiative, aimed at reconstituting a traditional river environment and promoting the ecological interconnection of natural areas, in order to gradually recover the complexity and biodiversity of the river region. This concession may also be granted free of charge, if the area concerned falls within state or regional protected natural areas (D. Lgs. 11/5/1999 n. 152) (AA.VV., 2001).

The new legislative body therefore imposes constraints on agricultural practice in floodplains, but also offers incentives for a different management. Above all, it has the merit of making it clear that the public interest is to protect the river environment by ensuring environmentally friendly management, rather than to obtain fees from concessions (whose value, perhaps, did not cover the costs of the bureaucratic apparatus that took care of the collection). Further regulatory measures are being defined (AA.VV., op. cit.).

At present there is a transitional regime in which the administrative practices of the two legislative approaches coexist; since January 2001 the transfer of the competences related to the river state property to the Regions is a further element of change in the system.

Description of the area and its problems

The area of concern extends on both banks of the river Po between the rivers Sesia and Rotaldo, in the municipalities of Bozzole, Frassineto Po and Valmacca (Al), Breme and Sartirana Lomellina (Pv), for a total area of about 760 ha. The Piedmontese part (80% of the surface area) falls entirely within the Regional System of Protected Areas of the Po River Belt and in particular within the Po and Orba River Park. The land is included in bands A (mainly) and B of the PSFF. The areas are private or of state property.

The terrain is flat, but the morphology is locally uneven due to the presence of deposit ridges, islands, canals (Breme Canal, Mezzano Canal, Rata Canal and other smaller ones) and oxbow lakes. Canals and oxbows form and close at the sides of the main course, which naturally tends to wander and take on a meandering appearance. The floodplain is colonized by forest coenose (Figure 1) of different nature, depending on the proximity to the active riverbed and the interrelationship with flood phenomena. Depending on the nature of the river deposits (more or less fertile) and on the altitude of the land with respect to the average level of the water table, very different environments and vegetation associations (from the hygrophilous alder to the steppe grassland) follow one another, even in a short space, giving the area a particular naturalistic and biodiversity value (Martignani et al., 1998; Ostellino, 1989).

Over time man has profoundly changed the appearance of the floodplain. The forest coenose has been greatly reduced compared to the original extension to make way for crops (mainly poplar groves) and infrastructures. Agricultural reclamation interventions, carried out until the 1970s, have reduced the number of canals and oxbow lakes compared to the past (Figure 2). Along the banks of the canals, inert shore defence works have been carried out that considerably limit the ramblings of the soft, beneficial floods, but nothing can be done towards violent overflows.

Also as a consequence of natural phenomena, the river has generally narrowed and deepened, leading to a general lowering of the water table level, witnessed both by the rapid drying up of the oxbow lakes and by the deterioration of the forest coenose, once in balance with the environment (for example the Salix alba willow groves) and by the reduced vegetative luxuriance of the poplar trees.

In recent years, violent floods have been more frequent, with the submersion of the entire floodplain and very variable destructive effects, but generally more intense in the area near the active riverbed, once occupied by natural vegetation that “absorbed” the destructive effect of the water.

Land use map. Forest coenose develops discontinuously along watercourses, with very limited extensions.

Programme objectives

The objective of the “Programme for the management of the Po River fluvial area between the confluence of the Sesia and Rotaldo rivers aimed at reconstituting and enhancing the traditional river environment” is the reconstitution of an environment with a higher degree of ecological stability in which the natural component of the strip adjacent to the watercourse separates the river ecosystem from the traditional agricultural environment and is a source of biodiversity and landscape improvement. Since in the area it is possible to distinguish between areas with an agricultural vocation and others of naturalistic interest (identified by the Area Plan of the Regional System of Protected Areas of the River Po River Belt), we aim at a zoning according to bands with a decreasing degree of naturalness starting from the banks of the Po river towards the embankment, with the succession from natural woodland (Ruffinoni, and Gazelle, 1997; Chiarabaglio et al, 2000) to medium-long cycle arboreal plants from wood to poplar groves cultivated according to eco-compatible techniques.

Secondly, the aim is to transform farms from producers of goods to suppliers of environmental services, able to combine traditional agricultural techniques with those of environmental management, extending the economic horizon to farm tourism and environmental use activities of considerable potential.

Working method

The work started in 1998 and ended with the drafting of the Programme in 2000. Bibliographic and cadastral, forestry and soil surveys were carried out. Land use was analysed on the basis of aerial photographs (flight following the 1994 flood), with numerous checks on the ground. For forest formations, vegetation and dendrometric surveys were carried out with reference to the classification, methodology and terminology used for the drafting of the Piedmont Region’s Territorial Forest Plans (I.P.L.A. 2004), introducing for the case study specific parameters and indices for alluvial formations (e.g. flooding index, naturalness index, etc.) convenient to the scale of the work and the peculiarity of the environment. The soil surveys were aimed at assessing the suitability of the land to host medium-long cycle arboriculture plants with a dual purpose (productive and environmental). The relative data have been organized and analyzed through GIS. The lines of intervention have been defined in collaboration with the public bodies involved. The Programme, drafted in draft and accompanied by basic cartographies and preliminary projects of the interventions, was submitted for approval.

Administrative procedure of the Programme

Administrative procedures

First of all, the Programme was presented to the Management Body of the “Protected Areas of the Po River Basin – Vercelli/Alexandrine stretch and the Orba torrent”, which expressed a favourable opinion considering it compliant with the rules of the Area Plan, subject to the acceptance of certain technical prescriptions aimed at ensuring greater attention to natural elements in the planned maintenance and reconstitution interventions.

The Programme, accompanied by the aforementioned opinion, was then submitted to the Po River Magistrate (now the Po River Interregional Agency – AIPO), who expressed a favourable opinion on hydraulic compatibility, and was finally sent to the AdBPO for the consent required by the PAI. The latter has examined the documents and expressed a favourable opinion, also in this case subject to the acceptance of certain requirements (Figure 3).

The Programme was then drawn up in a definitive form, divided into a general part, two Discontinuation Plans, for the management of natural areas and for the conversion of agricultural crops to wood tree cultivation, and preliminary programmes for other interventions (Figure 4); the implementation phase immediately began, starting from private property, immediately available. At the same time, applications for the concession of the state owned areas were submitted to the competent offices of the Piedmont Region and the Lombardy Region. The concession was requested for 30 years, considered a minimum period necessary for the conclusion of the cultivation cycles of the woody plantations, but was issued for 19 years, which may be extended if necessary.

Interventions and sources of funding

The actions of the Programme are grouped in 3 axes of intervention. Axis 1 includes the actions of reconfiguration and land management:

• arrangement of strips of wood tree cultivation with the function of a filter between the natural areas and those with a greater productive vocation, concentrating the latter in the more inland area less subject to flooding (about 100 ha of medium-long cycle wood tree cultivation plants with valuable broad-leaved trees on former poplar groves or former arable land);
• conservation of areas with a naturalistic value (woods, shrubs and grasslands) improving their physical and ecological stability and enhancing their naturalistic functions through woodland improvement interventions (phytosanitary cuttings, thinning out, cleaning up of invading allochthonous vegetation, forest reconstitution with autochthonous tree species for about 150 ha);
• environmental restoration of neglected sites through naturalistic engineering techniques (removal of landfill materials, rewilding of excavation sites, reopening of oxbow lakes, consolidation of internal canal banks).

The measures under Axis 2 are aimed at giving value to the agro-forestry economy:

• adoption of environmentally friendly cultivation techniques and models for poplar cultivation as part of a voluntary eco-certification process;
• initiatives on energy issues such as the study for the planting of woodchip thermal power plants using waste wood from poplar cultivation;
• use for environmental purposes of the fishing concession on the Po river.

The actions under Axis 3 are aimed at the enhancement of the area through its cultivation:

• dissemination and naturalistic support;
• creation of nature trails, restoration and maintenance of rural roads;
• restoration and renovation of rural buildings for temporary or permanent exhibitions;
• agritourism activities.

Currently, 20 ha of woodland improvement (Figure 5) has already been carried out on 20 ha and the conversion of poplar groves and arable land (Figure 6) on about 40 ha. In order to carry out the interventions the farms have made use of public contributions and own resources; up to now the provisions provided for by EEC 2080/92 and EC 1257/99 (measures F, H and I) have been used.

Problems and perspectives

The Programme appears to be a suitable tool for the recovery of the floodplain allowing the carrying out of agricultural activities compatible with a correct management of the environment. It has met with interest and participation from all the bodies involved during the bureaucratic process, as it is a coordinated set of interventions of a pilot nature and above all of private initiative.

With the recourse to the above mentioned forms of financing the direct costs of the interventions have been covered for about 80-90%, without, however, having margins to cover the general costs, depreciation and return on invested capital. In spite of the effective collaboration offered by the competent Sectors of the Province of Pavia and the Piedmont Region, considerable difficulties derive from the use of annual call for proposals financing for activities that must have ten-year planning and horizons. In the absence of specific forms of financing, the initiative may not find widespread diffusion among companies in the sector.

One solution could be to set up specific forms of financing, on a ten-year basis, managed through agreements between farms and public bodies that are responsible for environmental maintenance (municipalities, protected area management bodies, AdBPO, AIPO). The Companies would undertake to carry out the interventions on the basis of an approved programme, while the Bodies could control and direct their execution.

The recognition by the community of the functions of conservation of the ecosystem and the production of environmental services, also provided for by the D.lgt. 18/5/2001 n. 228, must find concrete forms of application if the guidelines for the management of the territory contained in the legislative body and in the planning framework are not to remain a dead letter. In addition to food production, farms can also and above all be required to provide care and environmental protection services, whose benefit for the community seems to be, at least in the case of floodplain areas, a priority and more directly enjoyable by all.

 A tree farm plant of medium-long cycle in the first growing season with the use of native species: English oak, common ash, white poplar and common hornbeam. Shrubby species (hawthorn, elder or bloody dogwood) were also planted in alternate rows.

Bibliography

< – Demanio Fluviale e pertinenze idrauliche demaniali. Il Po – Notiziario dell’Autorità di bacino del Fiume Po, 2, 22-24.

Chiarabaglio P.M., Cristaldi L., Facciotto G., Picco F, 2000 – Realizzazione di un impianto con specie pioniere per il recupero di una cava in area golenale. Sherwood – Foreste ed Alberi Oggi, 62 (11/00), 7-13.

I.P.L.A. – Istituto per le Piante da Legno e l’Ambiente S.p.a., 2004 – Manuale dei rilievi inventariali di campagna pp. 87; Definizione delle destinazioni e degli interventi selvicolturali, pp. 48, in “La pianificazione silvo-pastorale in Piemonte”. I.P.L.A. S.p.A.. Piedmont Region. CD-ROM n° SIAE MP0408.

MARTIGNANI F., BELTRAMI P., MAESTRI E., MONTERMINI A., 1998 – In campo sul Po. Acer, 1/1998, 34-37.

MARTIGNANI F., BELTRAMI P., MAESTRI E., MONTERMINI A., 1998 – In campo sul Po. In: Acer 2/1998, 68-72.

OSTELLINO I., 1989 – Introduzione alla flora ed agli ambienti vegetali della riserva naturale Garzaia di Valenza. Ed. Regione Piemonte Ente Riserve Naturali Garzaia di Valenza e Garzaia di Bosco Marengo, pp. 60.

RUFFINONI C., GAZELLE F., 1997 – Ripisylves et Forêts alluviales. Restauration et gestion des ripisylves. Forêt entreprise, 116/97, 43-49.

Legislation cited

Civil Code, art. 941 “Flood”, art. 942 “Land abandoned by running water”, art. 943 “Lakes and ponds”, art. 944 “Avulsion”, art. 945 “Islands and land unions”, art. 946 “Abandoned riverbed”, art. 947 “Changing of the riverbed resulting from the regulation of its course”.

Law no. 183 of 18 May 1989 “Regulations for the organizational and functional reorganization of soil protection”.

Law no. 37 of 5 January 1994 “Regulations for the environmental protection of state owned areas of rivers, streams, lakes and public waters”.

Legislative Decree No 152 of 11 May 1999 ‘Provisions on the protection of water against pollution and implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment and Directive 91/676/EEC concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources’.

Legislative Decree No 228 of 18 May 2001 ‘Orientation and modernisation of the agricultural sector, pursuant to Article 7 of Law No 57 of 5/3/2001’.

‘Area Plan of the Regional System of Protected Areas of the River band of Po River’, approved by D.C.R. of Regione Piemonte n. 982-4328 of 8 March 1995.

‘Excerpt Plan of river bands, adopted by the Po River Basin Authority with Decision No 26/97 on 11 December 1997.

‘Excerpt plan for the hydrogeological layout of the nationally important drainage basin of Po river’, adopted by the Po River Basin Authority with Decision No 18 of 26 April 2001.