Economics 315

Cinque Terre National Park

Afternoon landscape exploration in the park – 2 hours, and tour of the National Park’s Cooperative production facility for Ligurian sauces, pesto, olive oil, and licquers.

Laura Gates on the Italian National Park System

Laura Soulliere Gates, superintendent of the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, recently fell in love with the Italians when she participated in an international symposium, “Protected Areas and Local Communities Working Together for a Sustainable Future,” May 5-12 in Italy.

Gates—along with seven other National Park superintendents, management staff, and cooperators—joined their counterparts from Italian national parks to exchange ideas on ways to promote tourism that will protect and preserve landscapes and cultures at the same time.  The Italian government, through a cooperative agreement with the U. S. National Park Service sponsored and financed the event.

This was Gates’s first international assignment with the Park Service, and she termed it “the experience of a lifetime.”  She found Italy to be a beautiful country with “amazing hospitality.”  The symposium was a moveable feast as the group progressed from Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre National Park to Rome to Tevere Farfa Regional Nature Reserve to Appia Antica Regional Park near Rome.

According to Gates, the Italian system differs from the U. S. National Park system.  Italian parks are largely composed of privately owned land and occupied by living communities, so they are more comparable to the U. S. National Heritage Areas.  With such a system the Italians are concerned with not only sustaining the environment and landscapes, but cultures and traditions as well.

Excerpt from "Cane River Cachet," by Ada D. Jarred, Cane River Heritage website, CaneRiverHeritage.org