THE DILEMMA OF HUMANKIND AND NATURE
Human actions have a significant impact on ecosystems. Sometimes the consequences can be indirect – such as a tropical storm intensified by climate change – but they can also be very direct, such as political decisions that lead to putting down protected species as brown bears.
Unfortunately, the natural environment of Trentino-Alto Adige has suffered both: let’s take a look at these tragic events to understand how they are linked to human activity.
Storm Vaia
Between 27 and 30 October 2018, Storm Vaia, an extreme weather event involving water and wind, devastated the forests of the north-eastern Italian Alps (particularly in the regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia). Although referred to as a storm, the winds actually reached the typical speed of a ‘hurricane’, at around 150 kilometers per hour: a force comparable to that of an extra-tropical cyclone.
Before being hit by Storm Vaia, these regions had suffered a long period of drought and abnormal heat. Temperatures were off the scale, even at higher altitudes: at one thousand meters of altitude temperatures above 10 degrees in the early morning and over 26 degrees in the afternoon have been recorded. The freezing level was stable above four thousand meters.
A combination of different factors made this event so violent and devastating. Initially, between the 27th and the 28th of October 2018, an intense flow of warm, humid air from the south-west collided with the northern Apennines and the Pre-Alps, generating heavy rainfalls and violent thunderstorms.
Then, starting on the morning of the 29th of October, the force of the Scirocco (a warm wind from the south-east) strengthened, causing extremely violent gusts of wind and widespread damage. Forty-two thousand hectares of forest were destroyed, 10 million cubic meters of trees were knocked down and over 16 million plants were uprooted. The estimated economic loss was around €3 billion.
To give a sense of the power of this cyclone, there were a total of around 245,000 lightning strikes and over 600 mm of rain fell in just three days (an amount of water that normally falls in six months).
To make matters worse for this already devastated ecosystem, the following years also saw the proliferation of the bark beetle (Ips typographus), a parasite of the Norway spruce that attacks weakened plants, whose spread was facilitated by the destruction caused by Storm Vaia. Since 2022, another 10 million cubic meters of dead trees have been counted, and the same amount is expected for 2025-2026, when the epidemic is estimated to end.
The delicate balance between man and nature
On the Pradel Plateau, near Lake Molveno in Trentino-Alto Adige, there is a huge sculpture of a brown bear by the artist Martalar, also known as Orsa Vaia.
The 8-metre-long and almost 6-metre-high plantigrade was made from intertwined pieces of wood from larch trees felled during Storm Vaia, which hit these areas fiercely. The installation symbolizes the delicate balance in the coexistence of man and nature and aims to raise awareness among hikers of the impact of human activity on the ecosystems.
Not far from where the sculpture stands, the bear has recently fallen victim to this delicate balance once again: a few weeks ago, in the autonomous province of Trento, the bear named M91 was killed. This is the third killing in a year, and it should make us reflect on the effectiveness and necessity of such tragic choices.
No country for bears: the difficult repopulation of the Alps
In the 1990s, the bear population was practically extinct in the central-eastern Alps. The main causes can be traced back to intensive hunting, together with the fragmentation and loss of their natural habitat, mainly due to road and building development, but also to mineral extraction, thus resulting in the drastic reduction of wild forest areas.
For this reason, the Life Ursus project was launched, and through a series of European funds, made it possible to repopulate the area by transferring a dozen bears from neighboring Slovenia to this area. Following the first births of new bears, the Interregional Action Plan for the Conservation of the Brown Bear in the Central-Eastern Alps (commonly known as PACOBACE) was drawn up. This plan was drafted, signed and formally approved by local and national authorities: the Autonomous Province of Trento, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, the Lombardy Region, the Veneto Region, the Ministry of the Environment and ISPRA.
According to WWF Italy, the area of Trentino is pursuing an anti-scientific policy on bear management, which in recent years has led to a strategy that does not take into account the biological and social aspects related to the (natural) presence of the animal.
According to WWF and other authoritative observers, the Autonomous Province of Trento has been showing difficulty or unwillingness to manage the return of large carnivores. Bears are a protected species at national and European level, and various European policies tell us that coexistence is possible.
In our opinion, the right approach should be based on prevention and information. No culling quota can be more effective than targeted investments in this area, as demonstrated by numerous international examples. Investing more resources in this direction would bring a decrease in conflict, even in the face of a positive demographic trend in the bear population, thus ensuring both the conservation of a species that is still threatened and a reduction in the level of conflict with local populations.
European studies: biophilia versus biophobia
Across Europe, the percentage of wilderness has fallen to alarming levels, especially in the last ten years.
While the natural aspects of rewilding activities, such as the restoration of ecological processes, landscape connectivity and the reintroduction of large carnivore populations, have been widely discussed, the social aspects have always received less attention. However, more and more data show that experiencing the wild can contribute to people’s emotional, social and psychological well-being. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between humans and nature in an increasingly overpopulated and constantly changing world.
Large carnivores, such as bears, are essential components of ecosystems, and their repopulation is crucial to the success of rewilding practices, i.e. ecological restoration.
Many people view these animals positively as symbols of wildness, but others perceive them as problematic or dangerous. This dualism reflects two dichotomous psychological approaches to nature: biophilia, or love of nature, and biophobia, or fear of nature.
But they can also reflect two different points of view, such as eco-centrism, or the appreciation of nature for its own sake, and anthropocentrism, which aims to appreciate nature for the material or physical benefits it can bring to humans.
For this reason, large carnivores can arouse conflicting feelings: positive ones, such as interest and joy, but also negative ones, such as disgust or fear.
Fear plays a key role in attitudes towards these wild animals and the willingness to support or oppose policies for their conservation.
Their recent repopulation has exacerbated this debate throughout Europe, where is becoming increasingly polarized, especially regarding economic damages and the risk to public safety, while completely ignoring the benefits bears can bring.
Understanding the complexity of people’s perceptions is the basis for the success of activities aimed at the conservation of protected species.
For an ecology beyond the human
The natural system is the highest system that dictates the rules, but it is susceptible to change based on the activities of all its components, including humans. Its goal is the conservation of biodiversity and can conflict with the goals of the social system.
However, the consequences are backfiring on us, and extreme weather events are the first direct consequence of this misalignment.
It is necessary to reconsider humans within a complex system where each component is closely linked to the others. Furthermore, it has been proven that the conservation of biodiversity helps to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.
As Eduardo Kohn suggests in his book How Forests Think, ecology must be rethought as the science of the mutual relationship of all living beings. The ecosystem, therefore, is not only a biological balance but an ecology of different selves, human and non-human. We are not only dependent on other living beings from an energetic, physiological and evolutionary point of view, but, as the anthropologist says, ‘our thinking depends on the thinking of dandelions, beech trees, ants, dogs, fish, whales or mushrooms with the same intensity with which our metabolism depends on the lives of the creatures we feed on’.
Article by Lorena Piccinini, volunteer at Italian Climate Network.
Photos: Lorena Piccinini