“Good evening to you all,
I am very honored to welcome you in the beautiful Maratea for this important international meeting, on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry of the Basilicata Region.
Please, forgive me for the mistakes that I’ll surely do. Speaking in English must be the first bet for the process of internationalization to be deployed in Basilicata.
First of all, I want to greet the authorities: the President of the Region Marcello Pittella, all the mayors and administrators, the Director of the host LAG “The citadel of Knowledge” Nicola Timpone, the President Franco Muscolino, and all those who contributed to the realization of these days.
We are proud to have for the first time in Maratea, an event of such international importance as the LINC Conference 2015 (Inspired Leaders Network Community).
More than 200 participants of the Local Action Groups across Europe, here with us, ready to discuss and share best practices for local development with LAGs from Basilicata from all the areas of the Region: Lagonegro and Pollino with Maratea, Val d’Agri and Alto Sauro, Basento-Camastra, Vulture and Alto Bradano, Matera Hills, Bradanica, Marmo Melandro, Metaponto etc.
It’s amazing! Cultures and sensibilities that will work together, in these days, discussing on issues related to rural development.
You are going to talk about generational change in agriculture, about the organization of welfare activities and art in the context of natural national parks, about sustainable tourism and public investment as an engine for rural development.
I believe that from the LINC Conference 2015 will begin a new way of cooperation in the name of knowledge sharing.
The Linc Conference motto “Knowledge is sharing” perfectly sums up the new direction we’ve taken with the world of agriculture here in Basilicata.
There is no knowledge without sharing!
Only the exchange of experience, know-how and expertise from different realities can become the real added value for every community and contribute to its development.
Agriculture in Basilicata is an important and strategic field for the economic and social life of the Region. We have over 22% of the territory within protected areas or parks, more than 50 sites of interest with the richest, valuable and different biodiversity among the countries of the EU and the Mediterranean. We have more than 350 thousand hectares of forest area and one of the most important drainage basin in the southern Italy.
We really care about Rural Development!
The LAGs in this region have made and continue to carry out projects for the development of rural tourism, for the multi-functionality of agriculture, for the creation of attractors for tourists, also in cooperation with the LAG of other Regions to promote knowledge and the sale of the product of our tourism.
They have made also project for business improvement in agriculture, for new technologies as promotion of cultural heritage, for the restoration of town centers in order to facilitate the widespread hospitality, for religious tourism, for the conservation and restoration of the rural heritage, for training and information to local actors.
Our LAGs have gained a considerable experience that now it’s enriched by the international meeting of Linc Conference 2015. All this value will continue to be useful for the socioeconomic development of our country.
We expect for the future to have a more intensive work full of responsibilities, we have to give answers to a territory full of potentials.
Basilicata goes toward 2019, when Matera will be Capital of Culture for the whole of Europe: we have a unique opportunity to show to the world the beauty and culture of this area. We want to become a driving force for the whole south of Italy. We have many signals of growth yet, also in the fields of agribusiness and tourism linked to our territory and its products.
The LINC Conference 2015 will give us the opportunity to show you the uniquely beautiful landscape of this area of Basilicata, to discuss the results achieved with the rural development programming being concluded 2007/2013 and to introduce the new rural development programming 2014 / 2020.
We’ll have a new course in Basilicata Region in the next months: the regional planning will support the development of farms.
We will increase the earnings capacity through aggregation of the offer,
we will favor a more strategic and effective relationship with the research and a systemic and effective communication and promotion of the “product” food-territory. We will diversify our activities through the agro-energy and rural tourism,
we want to increase the production capacity and trade in our region, intercepting the needs for change of our people and a willingness to meet and interact with new and ever wider markets.
These are today the strategic priorities for the agricultural and rural world of tomorrow: innovation, environmental sustainability, competitiveness and dynamism of production chains, territorial governance, biodiversity, forestry production, agro-energy, social agriculture, food education.
The Local Action Groups in Basilicata will be sustained, reorganized and strengthened in their governance and will be able to fulfill their main mission of “animating the territory” especially in the aspect of training, information/dissemination, together with the Region. The new cultural approach that we want to have for agriculture must drive Basilicata more and more closer to the parameters required by Europe. In a complementary way with the LAGs, we want to imagine a common work together on themes of great interest for our future.
On one side the theme of the Culture, in our way to Matera European Capital of Culture in 2019, and on the other side the theme of food education.
The Basilicata Region could be the ideal candidate to guide the LAGs of Europe on these two fundamental key issues: Culture and Food Education. I ask you to consider the opportunity to approve a document, at the end of the LINC Conference 2015, in order to give the task to guide future actions in the fields of Culture and Food education to the LAGs network of our region and to the Basilicata Region.
Today we have digital technologies that allow us great things. It could be very profitable and useful to keep on working together on an online platform to share knowledge, starting from now. In this way we should share other projects and keep alive the LINC CONFERENCE 2015 for 365 days a year.
Please help us being the ambassadors of our region and its beauty, once back in your towns and countries!
Our Basilicata continues to demonstrate that resilience and common goals can lead to the redemption of an entire community.
We have to work together to make sustainable all our rural areas with all possible actions and investments.
I wish you all a fruitful work these days.
Have an extraordinary Linc Conference 2015 here in Maratea.”
Luca Braia
Assessore Politiche Agricole e Forestali
Regione Basilicata
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