29 Jul 2020 The new edition of the School of Common Goods successfully ended!

From the 16^th to the 24^th October 2020, a new edition of the School of Common Goods took place in the municipalities of Santorso and Marano Vicentino – Altovicentino area -as part of the LIFE BEWARE project. During two weekends, the event involved many interesting good practices related to the management of common goods, and, despite the pandemic in progress, it had a successful participation and raised the interest of several people, even beyond the Altovicentino area.

The inauguration of the event took place on Friday 16^th of October at the Youth Theater of the Municipality of Santorso (VI), with the show “Water on Trial”, an ironic and funny dialogue in which “the water” defends itself from the claim of being the cause of environmental disasters, performed by the Dalla Via Brothers and the Valincantà band. On Saturday 17^th of October the conference “Common goods today” hosted several experts as: Alessandra Quarta, researcher of the Department of Law of the University of Turin; Paolo Pileri, professor of urban planning and design at the Politecnico di Milano; and Paolo Carsetti, secretary of the “Italian Forum of Water Movements”.

The jurist Alessandra Quarta introduced the category of common goods, describing the evolution of the legal thinking on this issue. The concept of Common goods is not new, and it has come back in the public debate, emerging in an original way in the legal debate. It is an edgy issue, since the law is dominated by the category of private property: communities have been pushed to the margins.

A very interesting starting point for the future comes from the regulation for the management of urban commons (http://partecipa.comune.bologna.it/beni-comuni), which has now been replicated by 200 Italian municipalities.

Professor Paolo Pileri gave a speech on the topic of soil consumption, recalling that from 2018 to 2019, 16 hectares per day have been consumed permanently (they were 14.7 in 2016), equal to 2 square meters per second, mainly due to construction. Veneto is the region that is draining most of the soil, with 785 hectares consumed. And the soil is not renewable: land consumption is forever. Here you can find a book by Paolo Pileri to learn more on the issue: https://altrigianato.it/prodotto/100-parole-salvare-suolo/.

Finally, Paolo Carsetti shared the experience of the Acqua Common Good Forum, a movement born 15 years ago for the promotion of a law to make public again the integrated water service, and he showed the effects of climate change on the water resource and how the management models of the integrated water service relate to these effects.

The last conference “Good Practices for Common Goods” has been held online on the 24^th of October, due to the new restrictions to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. The event, streamed online, involved different speakers: Marco Boschini, national coordinator of the Association of Virtuous Municipalities; Matteo Francesconi, Deputy Mayor and Councilor of the Municipality of Capannori (LU); Marco Iamiceli, president of the cultural association “Paese dell’Acqua” and member of the national secretariat of the People’s Committee for the Defense of Common, Social and Sovereign Goods “Stefano Rodotà”.

Marco Boschini from the “Virtuous Municipalities” Association – a network of 130 municipalities which has been working for 15 years and combines different experiences- opened the floor by emphasizing how the theme of common goods is a central issue especially today, within the climate, health and economic crisis that we are experiencing and which forces us to take up our responsibilities. He shared some virtuous examples about the management of common goods, such as the one of the Municipality of Cerignale (Piacenza), whose Mayor has reforested all the surrounding territory. “I am the Mayor of 120 people, but also 1 million trees”, he says. In the Municipality of Omegna (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola) (15.000 inhabitants), a group of families has activated a swapping system, an evolution of the bank of time In the Municipality of Biccari (Foggia, 2.700 inhabitants), which is part of the Virtuous Municipalities Association, the Mayor has activated the “PerDopo” project, with the town’s community cooperative: 10-20-50 euro vouchers were sold online, in order to immediately support the shops that had to shut down due to the pandemic, giving a strong signal of support. In Berceto (Parma, 2,000 inhabitants), the Mayor led a battle, supported by the citizens, and today the water is managed directly by the Municipality.

Matteo Francesconi shared his experience in waste management in Capannori (Lucca), which in 2007 was the first municipality to join the “Zero Waste” strategy in Italy, since then becoming a landmark nationally and internationally. Recycling has gone from 30% in 2005 to 88% today. Nevertheless, the interesting data is that, if in 2005 the production of daily waste per capita was 1.91 kg while today is 1.25 kg. The charging is precise, with an economic incentive for those who produce less waste.

Marco Iamiceli closed the session talking about the experience of Sassinoro Paese dell’Acqua and the Rodotà Committee (https://generazionifuture.org/). Sassinoro Paese dell’Acqua was born in 2008 to combine a cultural transformation with the protection of Water as a common good. It is an event that has grown over time, starting from the places that make water a fundamental resource. During the last two years the event has established synergies with many other national realities. The experience of Paese dell’Acqua has also created connections with the Altovicentino region, with the experiences of Santorso Paese dell’Acqua in 2017 (https://www.equistiamo.org/vaghe-stelle/edizione-2017/santorso-paese-dell-acqua.html) and Acque Comuni (https://www.facebook.com/acquecomuni/).

The recording of the conference “Common Goods Today” is available at the following link:https://www.facebook.com/347057725885333/videos/383876745978246

The recording of the conference “Good Practices for Common Goods” is available at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/347057725885333/videos/866978350707914.