The Civil Protection Section of the Apulia Region presented to the students of the Istituto Comprensivo Don Bosco, a middle school in Manduria (TA), the pilot actions carried out in the frame of TO BE READY project for slope protection and risk management.

In fact, the Civil Protection Department, with the collaboration of the Department of Agroalimentary and Territorial Sciences of the University of Bari (DISAAT) and with the cooperation of the managing bodies of the Stornara Reserves (State Nature Reserve managed by the Martina Franca Biodiversity Carabinieri Department) and the Eastern Tarantine Coast (Regional Oriented Nature Reserve managed by the Municipality of Manduria), implemented pilot actions with tested naturalistic engineering techniques on the coastal dunes of "Patemisco" (Massafra) and "Torre Colimena" (Manduria), both in the Province of Taranto.

The pilot actions had already been launched with the project 3 WATCH OUT, funded under the INTERREG IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro Programme, and continued with monitoring actions within the project TO BE READY, funded by the same INTERREG Programme.

The pilot action focused on innovative naturalistic engineering systems aimed at preventing and limiting hydrogeological risk and soil surface erosion, in areas that are also affected by forest fires.
The aim of the info-day was to explain to a "younger" audience the role of civil protection and to raise awareness about possible risks and the culture of civil protection. The Civil Protection Department, with the support of the entities and the parties involved, is well aware that teaching children about environmental education is only a first step towards making them understand the importance of defending and protecting the territory. The coastal dunes were shown in person to the young students, explaining the interventions made to preserve them and demonstrating the progress made up to this day in terms of landscape and naturalistic protection and enhancement.

Furthermore, the importance of collaboration between the various actors involved, both in the territorial planning and emergency management phases, was underlined, such as in the above-mentioned projects in which different bodies, with different skills and roles, collaborated.

The Civil Protection Department has always been committed to the protection and safeguard of the environment: the objective is to make the results of the experimentation carried out in the above-mentioned reserves available for potential further interventions to be carried out also in other sites in Apulia and/or in other parts of the countries of the INTERREG Programme area, in order to protect the territory and promote environmental education amongst the population. 

For more information, please contact tobeready[at]regione.puglia.it