Spatial Portrait of South Tyrol

Philipp Rier (912792)

Supervisor: Prof. Matteo Motti Master of Urban Planning and Policy Design

School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering Politecnico di Milano A.A 2020/2021

SOUTH TYROL - A SPATIAL PORTRAIT Critical Reflection of a Territory in Between

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL? WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL? WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME?

ACKNOLEDGMENTS

I would like to gratefully acknowledge various people who have supported me throughout the last year. In times where a global pandemic shattered the world that we knew.

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof.

Matteo Motti, for his guidance and inspiration, not just in the process of this thesis but since the first semester of my masters. For the freedom and support he gave me, in elaborating this thesis. Moreover, I would like to thank Prof. Hou Li for her support throughout my stay in China and when working on my master thesis for the Tongji University of Shanghai from remote, which also strongly shaped my perception and perspective refined in my second thesis.

I sincerely thank all the experts that I interviewed, but also others that I held conversations with, that shared their perceptions, experiences, and views about the place they live in and the forces that transform it. Especially Hans Heiss and Benno Simma, for always answering my emails quickly, to lent me books, and inspire me.

Due to the broad inclusion of various topics in my thesis, it was very helpful to explain and discuss my intentions with various friends of different professional backgrounds, that gave me feedback on their specific subject areas that I addressed in my work. That never complained when I called them at strange times, to ask them 6

if my interpretations of certain numbers or topics are right.

Moreover, I would like to thank the many people working in institutions and public associations in South Tyrol, that I tirelessly called and wrote emails to, asked for statistical data, historical maps, and more. As my questions always felt taken seriously and answered in the best possible way.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents, that supported me not just throughout the work on this thesis, but throughout all my life and academic studies. My mother, Barbara Pichler, who helped me to find every book I would wish for about South Tyrol, and my father, Helmuth Rier, who helped me to find any photograph I thought of, who traveled with me through South Tyrol to find the motifs that I hoped would describe best my perspective on my home-region.

I thank my grandparents, for telling me the stories of their life, that helped me receive a better feeling regarding the reality they lived in as well as the reality that I live in.

Last but not least, my brothers Peter and Andreas, who never got tired of all the discussions and arguments I forced them into, who helped me to structure my thoughts and gave me always critical and true feedback.

ABSTRACT

EN Portraying the region of South Tyrol is an attempt to enhance a more critical reflection of the spatial development and public discourse regarding the region’s physical and social realities, that underwent drastic transformations over the last decades and might continue to do so in the future. Until not so long ago, South Tyrol was considered as a “poor” territory, with little economic prosperity, a declining population as well as a conflict-ridden history between its ethnic groups. Yet, in the course of the 20th century, it became one of the wealthiest regions of Europe. Its remarkable process of becoming a global player in several sectors, especially tourism, apple production, Alpine technologies, and renewable energies, enabled broad economic prosperity and the establishment of remarkable livability. While this development can be defined as an extraordinary success, it also brought major upheavals and transformations that call for a deeper reflection. This thesis is an approach to create a communicative and holistic publication in order to provoke and enhance such a reflection. The study comprises three main parts, each of them addressing certain aspects of the existence of South Tyrol by asking three principal questions: Where is South Tyrol? What is South Tyrol? What could South Tyrol become? They are answered by a diverse collection of analytical and interpretative maps, photographs, statistical data, and short textual descriptions in order to make the reader more sensitive regarding the reconfiguration of the territory, its evolution, its current status, and possible futures. This approach portrays a territory that is highly heterogeneous and homogeneous at the same time. Located in between southern and central Europe, between traditionality and modernity, between rurality and urbanity. South Tyrol is not the little, isolated island of nature and Alpine traditions that it might be often portrayed as. It is part of a global continuum of which it profited strongly in the course of its successful development. While along these paths, numerous achievements have been made, a certain sensitivity to the local environment but also its population seems to have been lost. The thesis is motivated by the wish to examine South Tyrol more closely and from new perspectives, at the beginning of a decade that is considered as a defining point of the global but also local future. The questions raised and answers given throughout this thesis, aim to enhance a more critical reflection and sensitive consciousness about the pace and forms of transformations that South Tyrol was, is, and might be undergoing.

On the right: Ortler 3.905 m Highest peak of South Tyrol

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ABSTRACT

IT L’elaborazione di un ritratto territoriale della regione dell’Alto Adige è un tentativo di promuovere una riflessione più critica dello sviluppo spaziale e del dialogo pubblico sulla realtà fisica e sociale della regione. Le trasformazioni avvenute negli ultimi decenni sono state drastiche e potrebbero continuare anche in futuro. Fino a non molto tempo fa, l’Alto Adige era considerato un territorio “povero”, con poca prosperità economica, una popolazione in declino e una storia di conflitti tra i suoi gruppi etnici.

Eppure, nel corso del XX secolo, è diventato una delle regioni più ricche d’Europa. Il suo straordinario processo nel diventare un attore globale in diversi settori, in particolare il turismo, la produzione di mele, le tecnologie Alpine e le energie rinnovabili, ha permesso un’ampia prosperità economica e la creazione di una notevole vivibilità. Se questo sviluppo può essere definito come un successo eccezionale, ha anche portato grandi sconvolgimenti e trasformazioni che richiedono una riflessione più profonda. Questa tesi è un approccio per creare una pubblicazione comunicativa e olistica al fine di provocare e migliorare tale riflessione. Lo studio consiste di tre parti principali, ognuna delle quali affronta alcuni aspetti dell’esistenza dell’Alto Adige ponendosi le tre domande principali: Dov’è l’Alto Adige? Cos’è l’Alto Adige? Cosa potrebbe diventare l’Alto Adige? A tali domande e possibile dare un risposta attraverso una raccolta diversificata di mappe analitiche e interpretative, fotografie, dati statistici e brevi descrizioni testuali per rendere il lettore più sensibile alla riconfigurazione del territorio, alla sua evoluzione, al suo stato attuale e ai possibili sviluppi futuri. Questo approccio ritrae un territorio altamente eterogeneo e omogeneo allo stesso tempo. Caratterizzato dalla sua posizione tra il sud e il centro Europa, tra tradizionalità e modernità, tra ruralità e urbanità. L’Alto Adige non è la piccola realtà isolata consistente di natura e tradizioni Alpine come viene spesso dipinta. È parte di un continuum globale di cui ha approfittato fortemente nel corso del suo sviluppo. Mentre lungo questi percorsi sono state fatte numerose conquiste, una certa sensibilità per l’ambiente locale ma anche per la sua popolazione sembra essersi persa. La tesi è motivata dal desiderio di esaminare l’Alto Adige più da vicino e da nuove prospettive, all’inizio di un decennio che viene considerato come un punto di definizione del futuro globale ma anche locale. Le domande sollevate e le risposte date nel corso di questa tesi mirano a promuovere una riflessione più critica e una coscienza più sensibile sul ritmo e le forme delle trasformazioni che l’Alto Adige ha subito, sta subendo e che potrebbe subire.

On the right: Potato harvest in the Pustertal valley

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INDEX

ABSTRACT FOREWORD

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INTRO Framework

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Research Objectives

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Research Methodology

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Research Hypothesis

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WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

12

Geographical Context

48

Socio-cultural Context

92

Economical Context

110

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL? Introducing Five Portraits

128

South Tyrol is an Alpine Belt City

130

South Tyrol is a Fun Park

148

South Tyrol is Apples and Cows

172

South Tyrol is an Ecological Reservoir

192

South Tyrol is a Political Monoculture

210

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME? Point of Departure

230

The Future We Choose

232

OUTRO What We can Do Now

280

Raising Questions

282

Critical Reflection

284

REFERENCES

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The Schlern - The Dolomites View from South Tyrol to Belluno and Trentino

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Peat extraction in the apple fields. When the trees are replaced, farmers sell the rights to extract peat. After the few meters thick peat is removed, the soil is filled again.

Schnalstaler glacier ski-resort. Increasing difficulties of snow guarantee due to raising temperatures.

In between the apple fields, big facilities of apple cooperatives are located in order to store and process the vast amounts of apples.

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Peat extraction in the apple fields. When the trees are replaced, farmers sell the rights to extract peat. After the few meters thick peat is removed, the soil is filled again.

In between the apple fields, big facilities of apple cooperatives are located in order to store and process the vast amounts of apples.

Parking Space at the edge of the Natural Park Puez Geisler

FOREWORD

How are we to become sensitive to the reconfiguration of the territory and the challenges such transformations bring with it? After all, a critical evaluation and open discussion seem like the first step. This work is my contribution to enhance and support such a discussion, by depicting the region of South Tyrol, based on my own reflected perception.

After growing up in South Tyrol I lived for many years in different parts of Europe and the world.

My infrequent visits at home, have allowed me to see the changes and various realities from different perspectives, and I believe, more clearly.

The experiences of living and visiting diverse landscapes and environmental conditions around the world helped me greatly to reflect on the place of my origin. In many countries, I met people that knew South Tyrol, even my home village, Kastelruth. Sometimes I passed by a big screen or commercial wall in a city and suddenly saw an advertisement for the Dolomites. Beautiful mountains, vast grasslands with a few cows running on them, men with beards, women with dreads, dressed in traditional clothing and eating local food. Such images I also found in many foreign newspapers. These are the images that most people have in their mind, when they think about South Tyrol, nostalgic dream images, of a natural rural environment in the Alps, hospitably, and happy locals. The longer I didn’t return home, the more I myself had a very romanticized 34

perception about my home region. While these images are all partly true, they simply depict a romanticized image of the past, but just a small margin of the reality today. Every time I returned home for a visit or a short summer job, I had the feeling that exactly these romanticized and nostalgic dream images, that have been mainly designed to position South Tyrol on a global market and feed the perception of foreigners, are one reason why the reflection about our living environment and the way we transform it, seems to be so difficult for the local population.

Within the scope of my Double-Degree exchange, I have studied and lived in Shanghai, before I had to return back home due to the Covid-19 outbreak. During my research expeditions in China, especially in rural, mountainous regions, after visiting the “Asian Dolomites”, I felt the many parallels of other rural mountainous, well accessible areas with South Tyrol, especially regarding their services for their urban surroundings. Even if at first sight they might seem very different, they actually share many past, present and future characteristics. This motivated me to write my thesis in Shanghai about the infrastructural roles that the global countryside takes for the global urban sphere, describing them on the example of a comparison between South Tyrol and Deqing, a region at the beginning of the Tianmu mountain range and the edge of the Yangtze River Delta.

All the similarities and the current undergoing development in both regions made me realize that while in the past, these environments might have been unique, today, they are highly commercialized territories, turned into a consumer good, trying to answer the demand of a global, urbanized, capitalistic market. As their current status was achieved by a romanticized past, which was a very harsh reality but is seen through an nostalgic memory today, this history is quickly replaced by a “tissue urbaine” laid over the mountainous areas. As mountainous societies are historically relatively poor, but capably to adopt economic possibilities, they had little objections of such development and still

don’t have today. I often thought how we could counteract to the one-sided commercialization of the past, the landscapes and traditions it produced. In Shanghai as well as in Milan, I tried to describe these processes in order to create informative papers, as I believe that a process of consciousness is the most powerful tool we have.

While the thesis in Shanghai was very scientific and complicated, I aimed at creating a more readable, attractive publication for the submission of my thesis in Milan, in order to share my view of these so romanticized territories, and warn about their current still undergoing development.

Which language to use in a region with three official languages?

An important notice for the reading of this thesis is to clarify the use of names for places and locations, as this is a relatively sensible topic in a region with three official languages. While I fully support multilingualism as well as the utilization of two or three languages at the same time, for example on roadsigns, I think this form of solution can distract the readability of an informative text. In most publications that talk about South Tyrol and are written in English, names of locations, etc. are simply used in Italian. In a region where such practice is, due to its suffering history during fascism, still a sensitive topic, I applied a very simple but pragmatic solution for this. Every town or village is named in the language that the majority of its citizens defined as their mother tongue. For example Bolzano (ca.

70% use Italian as their first language), Kastelruth (ca. 80% use a German dialect as their first language), and Badia (ca. 94% use Ladin as their first language). Names of mountains, valleys, and rivers instead, are named in the most common language of the region, German (also called South Tyrolian, a specific dialect) language. The only exception is the Etsch/Adige, the main river of the region, as it emerges and runs through the province, but also passes other Italian regions on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, the Italian name of the region Alto Adige, derives from the Italian name of the river.

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INTRO

36

FRAMEWORK RESEARCH OBJECTIVES METHODOLOGY

INTRO

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

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FRAMEWORK

This work is an approach of portraying the region of South Tyrol, between south and central Europe, between the mountain peaks of the Alps and the Po Plain of north Italy. South Tyrol covers 7.400 square kilometers that are divided in 116 municipalities with a total population of 530,000. In 2019 7,7 million tourists visited the region and accounted for 33 million overnight stays (IDM, 2020). All seven cities of the region are situated along the three main valleys, Vinschgau, Etsch/Adige and Eisacktal and more than two thirds of the territories surface are above 1.500 m sea level.

integrated economy, the costumes and alphorns bear less and less witness to a rural closeness to nature. Rather, they underline the fact that the image of a natural rural environment is increasingly becoming an idealization of the past, that has little similarities with the actual place. At present, despite largely accepting the principles of sustainable development, there still seem to be a sort of reluctance in accepting and reflecting the deep imprints that the intensive development of the last decades left in the physical as well as social landscape of the region.

At first sight South Tyrol seems to be a region free of problems. It projects an image of wealth, security and comfort. It does not have drastic waste or pollution problems. Its roads are clean, and the cars driving on them new and shiny.

It has a beautiful natural environment, lovely cities and picturesque villages. It also has one of the lowest unemployment rates and one of the highest GDP per capita of Europe. So why is a study on the spatial condition of South Tyrol meaningful? Is such a study likely to result in “self-confirmation” and a continuation of the past approach towards the transformation of the region? The self-confirmation of its successful socio-economic model led to a certain neglect of the necessity for a critical reflection. A neglect of positioning the region within a wider context other than economical transactions. In a globally

It is certainly presumptuous to create an honest portrait of the region on the basis of a few chapters, individual topics and selectively chosen content. The translation of key facts and important developments into quantitative info-graphics and interpretative “portraits” is intended to encourage a more diversified reflection on the present and future shaping of our living space with perhaps “new” insights.

South Tyrol is a tense land, a mental landscape that seems shifting between origin and future, between tradition and modernity. It often seems repellent and then again communicative, pragmatically determined and visionary, blessed with an almost “kitsch” landscape and embedded in global developments that do not stop at the edge of its mountains. South Tyrol is an Alpine region like many others in Europe, but

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Until not so long ago, as most Alpine regions, South Tyrol was actually a “poor” land with precarious living conditions, a sociotopographical and climatic challenging living environment, which was mainly perceived as a transit space between Northern and Southern Europe. Countless children were sent far away for lack of a future in their own country, called the Schwabenkinder. A land from that almost three quarters of its own population decided to migrate in order to finally leave behind its Italian nationality. As my grandmother said: “Well, also my father decided that our family will leave South Tyrol. They offered us a new farm, in a flat territory, with vast fields. Here everything is steep and rocky, life was harsh. It is easier to be old today than it was being young then.” It was not until the end of the 20th century that South Tyrol gradually developed into a region that positioned itself on the economic map and is now one of the “big players” in several sectors, especially tourism, apple industry, snow-making facilities, cable way construction and more. The formerly worthless capital of the mountains became shares, snow and stone became money, poor farmers became hotel owners,

chefs, tourist guides, craftsmen and much more.

On the one hand, this remarkable process can be seen as a success story; on the other hand, it brought major upheavals and social conflict potential to the surface, triggering economic dynamics and social friction. One has the feeling that the question of who owns the “land” and how it should be used in the future is coming up more and more often. Who makes decisions and on what basis? Between private interests and strategies for the common good, between ecological arguments and purely economic considerations, between the call for an end to growth and the concept that South Tyrol must continue in order to remain viable. Recent studies have shown how strongly our environment was transformed over the last decades. Some might be a product of global processes, but many actually are a result of local dynamics. While the development of the past enabled an economic prosperity for the majority of the population, a continuation of the commercialization of our environment on the level of today might mainly augment the outcome of certain areas and certain stakeholders. The consequences of such development instead will be felt by the whole population of today as well as future generations.

INTRO

at the same time it always was endowed with very specific preconditions, that act in and on the social and physical environment, determine current behavior and will continue to shape its future development.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this thesis is to create a communicative attractive and holistic publication that aims to enhance a thoughtprovoking reflection on the most important spatial processes of South Tyrol. Processes that the wealth and the livability of the region's population are based on and therefore are often little reflected or criticized in the public discourse. Over the last years, certain discussions, like a limit of the further extension of touristic accommodations, the use of pesticides in agriculture, the utilization of natural resources, or the further extension of settlement areas seemed to appear repeatedly. Yet, an open, purposeful, public discussion never started.

The formerly relatively clearly defined course of history, the associated attitudes and effective forces that formed the “land”, are increasingly coming up against internal and external moments of resistance, against spatial, economic, societal, social, legal, political, or simply “ecological” limits. This reality motivated me to conceive a work that deals with developments, tensions, realities, the repressed, the unknown, and the uniqueness of South Tyrol, to gain more understanding of its context and history, the present situation as well as its possible futures. There is no other choice than to address the hypocrisy of our actions of today and reflect on the challenges we might meet because of it.

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After years of preparation, several objections, and modifications by powerful stakeholders, in 2020, a new regional planning law came into force and replaced the former planning legislations that were based on concepts from the 1970s. Still many parts of the new law are not complete yet and need to be further developed, for example, the touristic development concept, which is directly linked to the overall planning legislation. Within the framework of four legislative reforms, over 400 amendments were made or proposed to the little over 100 articles.

Nevertheless, has the enactment of the new regulations slowly pushed a confrontation with the diverse spatial realities that South Tyrol is composed of. Every municipality needs to create a development program for the next 10 to 15 years. The guidelines for the restrictions of future urban sprawl as well as for public participation are relatively strict. Compared to its neighboring regions in Austria and Switzerland, South Tyrol has very little experience and public consciousness in the implementation of such planning instruments. Over the next years, we will witness how much of the high aims, that many people have in this new legislation, will be met.

In my personal view, to enhance a long-lasting change, to enable the new law to have a strong impact on the way we produce space, the most important element is a closer societal

reflection and consciousness about the effects of our actions and economic development.

Therefore, in the scope of this work, I aim to disclose and summarize the most challenging developments of the region, based on my own perception. Trying to collect the relationship between diverse processes or facets of activities and the spatial patterns created by them. If we enhance a discussion of these relationships, we might be able to evolve a unity of thought and action between the physical and socio-cultural components of the region.

consciousness. About the world, South Tyrol is a part of, about its past, about the present, and about the possible futures. This work hopefully can inspire the local discourse regarding space and its consumption. The main goal is the create a “readable” instrument that should support a public discussion and imagination of possible futures.

The “Spatial Portrait” is motivated by the wish to examine South Tyrol from a different perspective. While the current global but also regional happenings regarding climate change as well as the growing disparities and conflicts regarding the future development of our environment make it impossible to not reflect more critically on the contemporary appropriation of space. In this sense, the thesis aims to raise more questions rather than to provide clear answers.

INTRO

The questions raised and answers given throughout this thesis may be seen as critical, as provocative, as incomplete. Well, that's what they are. Perhaps they can help to adapt the region better towards a more complex, competitive, and fragile world. They are designed to enhance collective and individual 41

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To gain a holistic understanding of the main space shaping processes of the region, a variety of research methodologies were implemented.

The thesis is based on a combination of literature research, intensive fieldwork, expert interviews, countless informal discussions with various citizens, and tourists, cartographic research, and interpretative mapping. All of them are aimed at gathering information, interpreting information and reflecting and evaluating information.

The approach of translating key facts and important developments into info-graphics should enhance the readability of the work, to encourage people to reflect on the future design of our living space.

Graphical analysis, such as mapping and statistical diagrams, plays a protagonist role in this thesis, as it aims to argue reality and confront the past, present, and future of spatial realities. These graphics are based on objective information, but are never neutral, on the contrary, they are often intentionally interpretative and provocative.

Expert interviews made it possible to gain a diversified and at the same time more detailed insight on the main topics discussed throughout the thesis. As I personally found the expert's inputs very inspiring and believe it is important to gather different perspectives on such complex and diverse topics. The experts are composed of researchers, politicians, a farmer, and a former hotel manager. Each of them can be considered as an expert on the specific topic discussed in that chapter.

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“(...) Mapping is never neutral, passive or without consequence; on the contrary, mapping is perhaps the most formative and creative act of any design process, first disclosing and then staging the conditions for the emergence of new realities.”

James Corner, 2014, p. 200

Structure of the work The study comprises three main parts, each of them aims at addressing certain aspects of the existence of South Tyrol.

Where is South Tyrol? provides an illustration of South Tyrol's highly diverse preconditions embedded in a broader context, divided into geographical, socio-cultural, and economic contexts.

What is South Tyrol? evokes thought-provoking impulses based on interpretative chapters defining the character of the region and its inhabitants.

INTRO

What could South Tyrol become? opens the broad spectrum of possible future scenarios, focusing on the worst and best possible futures, stressing the power of imagination. Both scenarios are linked to the topics analyzed and elaborated in the previous chapters.

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RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The current “golden state” of the region of South Tyrol is the result of policies and economic developments enabled by its autonomous status and the strong urge to create social peace, wealth and existential security in the post-war era. Due to the regions conflict-ridden history of external repression, the power of space remained a well guarded domain. In the second part of the 20th century, the region witnessed an exponential growth in almost all sectors of its economy, parallel to the growing consumption of its resources. Throughout this paper, several graphs of various topics will depict this exponential growth. After becoming one of the most wealthy regions of Europe and the world, it seems as all goals that people could imagine in the after war period were achieved.

It seems increasingly difficult to find a new purpose for the still strongly material-economic driven development.

The research hypothesis questions the absence of a spatial discourse and the current regional development. The approach of the past helped to reach the “golden state” of today, but it won’t suffice to solve and face current and future problems. As the challenges of today and tomorrow are entirely different from the problems of the post-war era, other questions need to be raised, new goals set and new solutions found. Loudly and publicly.

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“A false hypothesis is better than none at all; for that it is false is no pity at all, but if it becomes fixed, becomes a kind of creed which no one may doubt, which no one may investigate, this is really the calamity from which centuries suffer”.

“Eine falsche Hypothese ist besser als gar keine; denn dass sie falsch ist, ist gar kein Schade, aber wenn sie sich befestigt, zu einer Art von Glaubensbekenntnis wird, woran niemand zweifeln, welches niemand untersuchen darf, dies ist eigentlich das Unheil, woran Jahrhunderte leiden".

“Un’ipotesi falsa è meglio che nessuna; perché che sia falsa non è affatto un peccato, ma se diventa fissa, diventa una specie di credo che nessuno può dubitare, che nessuno può indagare, questa è davvero la calamità di cui soffrono i secoli”.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Writings about natural sciences, p.510

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WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

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GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT ECONOMIC CONTEXT

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT

The geographical location of South Tyrol is probably the most unique precondition of the region. It is the northernmost province of Italy, based in the middle of the Alps, between Switzerland, and Austria, close to Innsbruck, Munich, Milan, and Venice. Along the most important Alpine transit route over the Brenner mountain pass. South Tyrol thus functions as a bridge between Italy and Central Europe. It has always been a land of passage and encounter between the populations belonging to the two great cultural areas in the north and south of the Alps. Throughout history, the uniqueness of the geographical context brought also many negative impacts on the region and its citizens, like pervading armies, harsh environmental conditions, the isolation of certain areas, etc.

The Alps themselves embody a unique cultural and natural landscape, not just in Europe, but in the whole world. The biggest mountain chain of the continent lies in between very densely populated areas and therefore records a very specific development, precisely for this reason. All other high mountain areas of similar size are situated at a great distance from very populated areas. High mountain areas usually are considered as a synonym for peripheral regions, in the case of the Alps, one can say that they are a periphery but in the center of Europe (Bätzing, 2015).

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The mountains have opened up South Tyrol (passes), but at the same time also limited its cultural development. South Tyrol's borders and its national affiliation have shifted throughout history. Interestingly, it was the first border between two nations in the world that applied the concept of “moving borders”.

Instead of the mountain ridge and peaks, the border between Italy and Austria is defined by the watershed line of the rivers, which are in constant movement. This was mostly a reaction to the continuing transformation of the border-line as the glaciers are melting.

As Bruno Labour wrote in the foreword of the publication A moving Border: “The New Climatic Regime forces us to rethink the conception of the space we inhabit and therefore asks a new question to geography.” (p. 14) While South Tyrol and the Alps are certainly unique environments, they share many characteristics as well as challenges and potentials with areas very distant from Europe. Their infrastructural role shows many similarities to various other mountainous regions all over the world. Mountains are always utilized, if they are not the places of settlement, they are important for the settlement areas close by or even far away.

49 WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Northern hemisphere

Europe

The Alps

South Tyrol

Satellite image

Where is South Tyrol?

Bare Rocks

Where is South Tyrol?

Glaciers

Where is South Tyrol?

Water

Where is South Tyrol?

Forest

Where is South Tyrol?

Grassland

Where is South Tyrol?

Fruit and wine cultivation

Where is South Tyrol?

Urban Fabric

Where is South Tyrol?

NUTS-3 Regions

Where is South Tyrol?

IN BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH

South Tyrol has always been a crucial stepping stone for migrating tribes, trade, travelers, pilgrims, and even armies to cross the Alps and reach Italy, as one of the centers of European history and culture, or Germany and Austria, which have also played a crucial role in the continents past and present. Today, the Brenner route is especially crucial for the freight traffic between Germany and Italy, two of the biggest national economies of the world (number 1 and number 3 in the EU). In 2032,

one of the longest underground tunnels in the world, the Brenner Basis Tunnel, should further enhance the connectivity between Italy, Austria, and Germany. While the location along such a highly frequented transit route can bring many advantages, such as connectivity and economical relations, it also has some negative side effects, such as high traffic emissions.

Freight traffic Brenner1 1964 - 2016

50 mio. t

30 mio. t

10 mio. t

1960 68

1980

2000

2020

Frankfurt

DE

Munich

AT Tauern

9,7 mio. t 15,1 mio. t

CH Brenner

Zurich

FR

Reschenpass

Bern

34,2 mio. t 13,7 mio. t

0,9 mio. t

Geneva

Gotthard 8,4 mio. t 15,3 mio. t

Simplon

SI

13,4 mio. t 1,1 mio. t

Lyon

Zagreb Milan

Frèjus / Mt Cenis

2,9 mio. t 10,6 mio. t

Turin

Venice

HR

IT Bologna

Ventimiglia

0,3 mio. t 19,3 mio. t

Marseille

Soberpass

Freight traffic through the Alps 2016 Road Rail

Florence

Data Source: Observation and analysis of transAlpine freight traffic flows Key figures 2016, European Comoission, Swiss Confederation - Federal Office of Transport

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North Tyrol

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AUSTRIA 2.6 79

GERMANY

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Longitudinal section

Main Alpine Ridge

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3.1 92 m

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.56

se

Ke s

rn 2

Sc hle

99

2.7

m

m

South Tyrol

Trento

Bolzano

ITALY Trentino

Po-Plain

71

IN BETWEEN BELOW AND ABOVE

Another crucial “genetic” precondition of South Tyrol is its high topographical diversity, and the resulting small scale territorial fragmentation.

Almost 85% of the whole surface lie above 1.000 m. The contrast between valley floors, steep slopes and rocky mountainous areas shaped the region, its inhabitants and their economic activities. The rising terrain acted efficiently as natural boundary, limiting or at least “filtering” the extending urban fabric. Topography is always defined by a certain permeability and it can be increased by infrastructural projects.

The density and scope of such infrastructural networks throughout the region varies strongly and stimulates/enables a certain development of decentralized spaces. The density of urban networks is of a far higher density in the lower situated areas. These areas are located in the main valleys, the Etsch, Eisack, Pustertal and Vinschgau valley. From these main streams of urban forms, networks of various types penetrate the terrain into narrow side valleys or higher altitudes to reach settlements, natural resources and recreational spaces.

Altitudes in South Tyrol2

altitude

surface cover

> 2.000 m

37 %

2.000 m - 1.000 m

49 %

< 1.000 m

14 %

72

drei höhen in karte integrieren

73

Piz

Bruneck Italian Alps

.69 e2 aT ür m

.15 2 Po e3

2.9 er Gö lbn

Lienz Austrian Alps 74

Se ll

South Tyrol

Brixen

East Tyrol

m

ITALY

43 m

AUSTRIA

6m

Cross section

m

sp itz e

62

3.4

5m

m

r 3 .90

tle

Tu ck ett

Or

.43 9

tts pit ze 3

Zu f ri

66

1. 8

St. Moritz

fel

nt ko

Ga

Bolzano

Meran

4m

.00

l3

lko ge

se

Ke s

m

SWITZERLAND

Graubünden

10 km

Swiss Alps 75

Zones of Transit

PAST

Iron Age trade routes

Roman Streets 76

TODAY

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Highway

Railways 77

For a long time, the importance of South Tyrol was strongly defined by its function as a transit space. Coming from the south, the broad Etsch/ Adige valley led migratory groups, initially mainly from the south, through the Vischgau and Eisack valleys to the main Alpine ridge and over the passes at Reschen and Brenner (partly also through the Pustertal valley). While in the Stone Age and up to the Bronze Age the migrating groups were still very small and carried few goods, the travelers often chose shortcuts that led from the main valleys straight across the mountain ranges. Ötzi, probably one of the most famous mummy finds in Europe, was found in 1991 on the Tisenjoch north of the Vinschgau valley at about 3,200 m. He probably died trying to cross the Ötztaler Alps. From the Iron Age onwards, trade routes were established along the valleys and passes, on the traces of which the Roman roads were later built. Along with the Roman roads came military bases, rest stops, and administrative settlements.

The strategic location as a transit space is also still important today. But moreover, its climatic condition is considered pleasant and many people want to remain instead of just passing through. The region is defined as South Tyrol in the German-speaking world, referring to the most southern and warmest region of Tyrol, its Italian name is Alto Adige, which implies its location at the northernmost part of Italy, with 78

a comparatively harsh climate and the place of origin of the Etsch/Adige river. The region is a meeting point between north and south. While it still lies amid the Alps, its orientation south of the Alpine ridge characterizes its relatively mild climate. As a result, the region, unlike its more northerly neighbors, is known for its high sunshine duration, lower precipitation, and longer growing season. Already during the historical settlement of the Alps, initially only in the inner Alpine dry zones in deep valleys on the areas of alluvial cones, on the southern side of the Alps, which reach very far into the interior of the mountain range, such as the Adige Valley (Merano is one of the most central cities of the Alps with a distance of 140 km from the edge of the Alps), came into question. Despite the favorable climate, however, the exploitation remained very modest. Also today, many touristic associations in the region try to attract tourists by claiming that South Tyrol has more than 300 “sunny days” a year. Its high climatic diversity is a very important characteristic for the region and its population.

46.4949° N, 11.3403° E 3.905 m Ortler = highest elevation 224 m Salorno = lowest elevation 410 km the Etsch/Adige is the second longest river in Italy after the Po Meran lies 140 km from the edge of the Alps at an

altitude of 320 m

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

“The inhabitants of a land tirelessly erase and rewrite the ancient scrawls of the soil. As a result of the systematic exploitation of the land, (…) all regions have little by little been placed under increasing control. Even the highest mountain ranges, which the Middle Ages thought to be a sort of earthly hell, have been colonized (…).”

Corboz, A., 1983, p. 17

79

Road over the Brenner

Throughout history, the Alps have been perceived as terrible and frightening mountains, as “montes horribles” where one cannot live or where only “barbarians” live in a primitive way. This image was already implemented in literature by Roman writers 2000 years ago and dominated the European cultural history until the end of the 18th century. Also later, it was based on the perception of educated urban citizens that feared the dangers of crossing the Alps (Bätzing, 2015). At the end of the 18th century, this perception suddenly changed and the Alps became a nostalgic, romanticized landscape. This change in perspective was also influenced by Albrecht von Hallers Poem The Alps. The emergence of modern natural science and the rational world view in the form of enlightenment and the industrial revolution.

Nature lost its character as a threat, and started to believe in its “control”.

“Ye students of Nature! still with you abide Those goodly days; for 'mid your barren soil, Estrang'd from tinsel vanity and pride, Want is your happiness, your pleasure toil: Such fair effects to man does virtue bring; And though in frozen clouds your thirst you slake; Though tedious winters nip the tardy spring, And chilling snows your valley's ne'er forsake; Yet does the savage clime your bliss increase, While manners pure from guilt mark all your days with peace.”

The Alps from Albrecht von Haller, 1729 (translated by Edward Hamley) 80

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Road over the Brenner, 1801

81

Veduta d’ Italia

The map Veduta d'Italia, published in 1853 by F. Corbetta in Milano, was a rather unusual publication, showing the whole country upside down. From a perspective as standing on the top of the Alps, looking towards the south, where the territories of Italy spread out on the feet of the Alpine mountain chain. This panoramic view stands symbolically for the first impression that countless travelers and pilgrims had when crossing the main ridge of the Alps and reaching the southern side, where temperatures became warmer. The crossing of the Alps was an important step to finally reach Italy, one of the birthplaces of western civilization. The most important destination of most travelers was Rome, which for centuries was understood as the center of the world by many societies. Ancient streets, built by the Romans, functioned as basic infrastructure until long after the Roman empire was gone. The Via Claudia Augusta, linking the Po Plain with the territories north of the Alps led directly through South Tyrol and the Brenner. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Intellectuals and artists all over Europe took a long journey to visit its cultural as well as natural sites. South Tyrol was strongly influenced by this continuous flow of trade and visitors.

82

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Veduta d`Italia, Corbetta F., 1853

83

Land Use

84

OTHERS

1.500

ROCK AREAS

3.400

AGRICULTURAL AREAS

3,9

ALPS AND PASTURE GRASSLAND

TOURISTIC FACILITY AREAS

46 19

FOREST

INDUSTRIAL AREAS

Advantages or disadvantages of an elevated terrain for human use changed throughout history, depending on the societal need and economic possibilities. Yet, as it is strongly visible in the land use map shown on the right page, that the possibility for extensive human appropriation is strongly restricted and concentrated due to such elevation. While the mountainous areas limited extensive economic production, from agriculture to industry, it enabled since the rice of tourism an often highly diversified but also concentrated and intensive economic prosperity.

Categories of regional urban land use plan in km2 2020 (calculated from urban plan)

RESIDENTIAL HOUSING

In the strongly mountainous region, the resource soil is strongly limited and precious due to the little space available. Only 5,5% of the total surface of the region is permanently inhabitable, the rest is mountains, glaciers, forests, water, and protected areas. Around half of this surface is already used (ISPRA, 2017). Unlike for air and water, there is no EU legislation or policy to protect soil (EC, 2020).

920

1.400

111

Rocks

Mixe forests

Agricultural grassland

Rocks with sparce vegetation

Deciduous forests

Fruit and Berry cultivation

Glaciers

Natural mountainous grassland

Wine cultivation

Water surfaces

Forestral shrub transition

Urban centres

Coniferous forests

Agricultural grassland with forest

Industrial areas

85

Fragmented Territory

The high number of municipalities (116) and their corresponding census tracts to the territory, divided by different features, like neighborhoods, structural or spatially defined (ca. 5.500) are also strongly linked to the topographic diversity.

Every valley, municipality or hamlet, has its own history, its own social, environmental, and financial capital. Generally, the edges towards the surrounding, can enhance and strengthen these resources or qualities as well as hinder their networking.

The fragmentation of administrative areas into many small hamlets and settlement clusters is strongly visible in South Tyrol. Rural characteristics can be so specific or divided that even within a municipality, different hamlets can be strongly divided due to historical rivalry.

The high fluctuation of labor, its specialization, and other market forces are increasing the common interest of good cooperation between diverse administrative areas. As the smallest autonomous body, the municipality represents the local community, looks after its interests, and promotes its development. In addition, each community gives itself its own statutes, which contain the basic provisions for its activities and structure. Surrounding administrative units can have positive as well as negative impacts on a commune, town, or city. Village and smaller towns can profit from closely located urban units. Yet their disproportional possibilities to 86

influence certain processes can lead to a practical “colonization” of outside units, with little to no scope of action of the “appropriated” entity.

But the many administrative units can also hinder qualitative development. Environmental policies are an example that struggles often on the local level.

While municipalities and hamlets have been strongly concentric units in the past, producing almost everything that its inhabitants needed to consume, over the last decades we have witnessed a strong “Implosion” and “Explosion”.

These terms were defined by the French sociologist Henri Lefebvre. They describe the process that the world underwent since the industrial revolution. Implosion stands for the concentration and centrality of power, capital, and culture. At the same time, the urban fabric, or the “tissue urbaine” how he calls it, exploded and colonized the surroundings, the hinterland, the periphery (Brenner, 2014; Lefebvre, 1970/2003). In the course of this process, the formerly relatively autonomous and often rural cells lost their status as discrete units.

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Municipalities

Census Tracts 87

SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT

South Tyrol is not just situated in between a highly diverse geographical context, but moreover between a highly diversified socio-cultural context. The Alps have always formed a space in between different cultural preconditions. Which to some extend divided the central European cultures from Italian cultures, but at the same time also merged them together as well as became a concentration of a high variety of cultures themselves, as the mountainous region always has been a place of refuge, a hideout or also a left over, partly forgotten space. Many traces of different cultures left their imprints on the region. Multiple German, Scandinavian, and even Asian tribes crossed its territories.

While some areas, especially the main valleys, were strongly influenced by such migratory movements, other more remote areas instead remained isolated from the happenings of the world. Its long history of conquerors and its role as a territory of intercontinental communication and encounter form the basis of its ecological, cultural and political landscapes. The battles of the past between different cultural societies left imprints in the physical and social environment.

While the regions socio-cultural diversity led to conflicts even till the 20th century, today we can say that they play a very little importance in the everyday life of the regions population.

The autonomous status is still considered a very important element and a broad part of 92

the regional society has accepted the positive effects of a peaceful cohabitation between the ethnic minorities. Today, South Tyrol and its special autonomy of the Italian national state is considered as a worldwide role-model solution for minority regions and the cohabitation of different cultures. Also today there still appear struggles and difficulties between the different ethnicities of German, Italian and Ladin speaking populations and they are partly still segregated in their housing, education, working and leisure activities. There is still a lot of room to improve, but looking back at its history, the region came a long way.

Northern Europe

Central Europe

Eastern Europe

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Western Europe

Southern Europe

93

IMPERIUM ROMANUM

INDIGENOUS TRIBES - HYBRID CULTURES WITH VARIOUS INFLUENCES

94

500 AD

Ostrogoths, Langobards, Huns, and Bajuwars 14 BC

6.000 BC FIRST TRACES OF AGRICULTURE

15.000 BC FIRST HUNTING CAMPS AND SOON VILLAGES

Historical power relations

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

19th century FIRST TRACES OF INDUSTRIALIZATION

1993

1363 AD

1250 AD

900 AD

750 AD

EU

ITALY

HABSBURG, LATER AUSTRIA-HUNGARY EARLDOM TYROL

BISHOPS AND EARLS AS POWER HOUSES

FRANKS

95

Languages

One of the most important features of South Tyrol is the coexistence of three language groups as a product of its diverse history. Around 69% of the 530.000 South Tyroleans speak German as their mother tongue, ca. 26% Italian and 4,5% Ladin. All three are declared as official languages. Their coexistence was not always as smooth as it is today; only a decades-long process of negotiation - at times accompanied by bombs and violence - has established a balance between German-, Italian- and Ladinspeaking South Tyroleans.

farm names, mountains, and settlements. Even German names on tombstones in graveyards were deleted (Lantschner, 2008) The map on the right is part of an unpublished volume titled Venezia Tridentina & Ampezzano, possibly produced by IGM in the immediate aftermath of WW II. The charts seek to demonstrate through economic, geographic, and demographic data that South Tyrol ought to remain part of Italy. In 1910, little less than ten thousand Italians were counted in South Tyrol, but by 1961 the figure had risen to 128,271 (Fuller, 2018).

The German language group makes up the largest share of the population. Historically, it goes back to the Germanic, Alemannic and Bavarian tribes that passed through what is now South Tyrol.

The Ladin language group is considered the oldest in the country. Ladin is a neo-Latin or Roman language. After the conquest of the Alpine regions by the Roman Empire in 15 BC, the local population adopted the vernacular Latin of the officials and soldiers, but without completely abandoning their own language.

Ladin thus developed from the folk Latin that the Raetians, Noricans, and Carnians in this area had adopted from the Romans.

The second-largest language group is Italian. In terms of cultural history, it is also the youngest in the country. As a border trading region, Italian was long before partly practiced by a small part of the population. After the first World War, South Tyrol became part of Italy.

During the fascist period in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Mussolini regime tried to emphasize the “Italian character” of South Tyrol through massive immigration from the south, the Italian language became sort of a tool of colonization, the use of German was suppressed. German names were changed; from peoples names to 96

Language affiliation of the total population today3 german 69%

italian 26%

ladin 4,5%

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Venezia Tridentina & Ampezzano by IGM 1924

97

Diversity

A complex and differentiated legal system, rotation of offices, equal representation and the proportional on committees, representation of all language groups are the guarantees for the peaceful coexistence of Germans, Italians, and Ladins. The balance and power-sharing between the language groups are based on the participation of all ethnic groups in the political decision-making process, on a high degree of autonomy for each language group especially in cultural and educational policy, the so-called proportional representation principle as a basic rule of political representation, the inclusion of personnel in the civil service and the distribution of certain public resources (e.g. funds for culture or social housing) and the minority veto as a last resort to defend fundamental interests of one’s own language group. The Italian constitution, the treaty of Paris, and the second statute of Autonomy are the legal foundations of South Tyrol’s autonomy (Eine Autonomie für drei Sprachgruppen, n.d.).

98

Another fundamental foundation but also product of the diversity of South Tyrols territory and social landscape is the high number of municipalities. The region consists of 116 communities with a strong social and political identity. Many small-scale areas have their very own, very pronounce “dialect of the dialect”. In very short distances that today might take us sometimes just a few minutes by car, many diverse physical but also social characteristics can be recognized. These diversities are also visible in the official representation of the municipalities in forms of emblems. The following pages depict all 116 emblems of the regional municipalities. Each of them portrays a characteristic of the small territories and their population of the past.

"Lifted up in a dialect landscape, bound back to the German language in special proximity to Italianità."

Horst Sitta, 1993, p.25

530.000 inhabitants

2000 - 2020

71,9 inhabitants / km

56% increase in migration

2

3 official languages

city / town

40 different dialects

village

45 % increase in migration Data Source: Eurac Research, Migration report 2020

42,6 years average age

4

2,3 average household size 20,1 % People at risk of poverty and social exclusion (2018)

9,5 % foreigner ratio

dO

a

14,1 %

eri ca

Af ri

18,6 %

Am

As ia

31,4 %

ca

an

Eu ro p U nE no

EU

32,4 %

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

ce a

nia

5

4,1 %

Data Source: Eurac Research, Migration report 2020

99

Emblems of municipalities

Aldein Aldino

Aldein Aldino

Istat 21001 Nr. 3

Barbian Barbiano

Barbian Barbiano

Istat 21007 Nr. 8

Bruneck Brunico

Bruneck Brunico

Istat 21013 Nr. 13

Kastelruth Castelrotto

Kastelruth Castelrotto

Istat 21019 Nr. 33

Kurtinig Cortina

Kurtinig an der Weinstraße Cortina sulla Strada del Vino

100

Istat 21025 Nr. 38

Andrian Andriano

Andrian Andriano

Istat 21002 Nr. 6

Bozen Bolzano

Bozen Bolzano

Istat 21008 Nr. 9

Kuens Caines

Kuens Caines

Istat 21014 Nr. 36

Tscherms Cermes

Tscherms Cermes

Istat 21020 Nr. 103

Corvara Corvara

Altrei Anterivo

Altrei Anterivo

Istat 21003 Nr. 5

Prags Braies

Prags Braies

Istat 21009 Nr. 69

Kaltern Caldaro

Eppan Appiano

Eppan an der Weinstraße Appiano sulla Strada del Vino Istat 21004 Nr. 18

Brenner Brennero

Hafling Avelengo

Abtei Badia Badia

Istat 21005 Nr. 27

Istat 21006 Nr. 1

Brixen Bressanone

Brixen Bressanone

Branzoll Bronzolo

Istat 21010 Nr. 11

Istat 21011 Nr. 12

Istat 21012 Nr. 10

Freienfeld Campo di Trens

Sand in Taufers Campo Tures

Freienfeld Campo di Trens

Sand in Taufers Campo Tures

Istat 21015 Nr. 30

Istat 21016 Nr. 21

Istat 21017 Nr. 78

Kiens Chienes

Istat 21021 Nr. 34

Graun Curon

Branzoll Bronzolo

Brenner Brennero

Kaltern an der Weinstraße Caldaro sulla Strada del Vino

Kiens Chienes

Abtei Badia

Hafling Avelengo

Klausen Chiusa

Klausen Chiusa

Istat 21022 Nr. 35

Toblach Dobbiaco

Karneid Cornedo

Kastelbell-Tschars Kastelbell-Tschars Castelbello-Ciardes Castelbello-Ciardes Istat 21018 Nr. 32

Kurtatsch Cortaccia

Karneid Cornedo all’Isarco

Kurtatsch an der Weinstraße Cortaccia sulla Strada del Vino

Istat 21023 Nr. 31

Istat 21024 Nr. 37

Neumarkt Egna

Pfalzen Falzes

Corvara Corvara in Badia Corvara, Curvea

Graun im Vinschgau Curon Venosta

Toblach Dobbiaco

Neumarkt Egna

Pfalzen Falzes

Istat 21026 Nr. 15

Istat 21027 Nr. 25

Istat 21028 Nr. 100

Istat 21029 Nr. 59

Istat 21030 Nr. 64

Istat 21031 Nr. 110

Latsch Laces

Latsch Laces

Istat 21037 Nr. 42

Laurein Lauregno

Franzenfeste Fortezza

Franzensfeste Fortezza

Istat 21032 Nr. 20

Algund Lagundo

Istat 21038 Nr. 4

Istat 21043 Nr. 43

Istat 21044 Nr. 45

Martell Martello

Istat 21049 Nr. 49

Nals Nalles

Nals Nalles

Istat 21055 Nr. 56

Mölten Meltina

Mölten Meltina

Istat 21050 Nr. 51

Naturns Naturno

Naturns Naturno

Istat 21056 Nr. 57

Lajen Laion

Lajen Laion

Istat 21039 Nr. 40

Lüsen Luson

Lüsen Luson

Martell Martello

Istat 21033 Nr. 108

Algund Lagundo

Laurein Lauregno

Villnöß Funes

Villnöß Funes

Magreid Magrè

Gais Gais Istat 21034 Nr. 22

Leifers Laives

Gais Gais

Leifers Laives

Istat 21040 Nr. 44

Mals Malles Venosta

Gargazon Gargazzone

Glurns Glorenza

Gargazon Gargazzone

Glurns Glorenza

Istat 21035 Nr. 23

Istat 21036 Nr. 24

Lana Lana

Lana Lana

Istat 21041 Nr. 41

Enneberg Marebbe

Laas Lasa

Laas Lasa Istat 21042 Nr. 39

Marling Marlengo

Margreid an der Weinstraße Magrè sulla Strada del Vino

Mals Malles Venosta

Enneberg Marebbe Mareo

Marling Marlengo

Istat 21045 Nr. 47

Istat 21046 Nr. 46

Istat 21047 Nr. 17

Istat 21048 Nr. 48

Meran Merano

Meran Merano

Istat 21051 Nr. 50

Natz-Schabs Naz-Sciaves

Welsberg-Taisten Welsberg-Taisten Monguelfo-Tesido Monguelfo - Tesido Istat 21052 Nr. 113

Welschnofen Nova Levante

Montan Montagna

Moos in Passeier Moso in Passiria

Montan Montagna

Moos in Passeier Moso in Passiria

Istat 21053 Nr. 52

Istat 21054 Nr. 53

Deutschnofen Nova Ponente

Natz-Schabs Naz-Sciaves

Welschnofen Nova Levante

Deutschnofen Nova Ponente

Auer Ora

Istat 21057 Nr. 58

Istat 21058 Nr. 114

Istat 21059 Nr. 16

Istat 21060 Nr. 7

Auer Ora

101

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Völs am Schlern Fiè allo Sciliar

Völs am Schlern Fiè allo Sciliar

St. Ulrich Ortisei - Urtijëi

Partschins Parcines

Percha Perca

St. Ulrich Ortisei Urtijëi

Partschins Parcines

Percha Perca

Istat 21061 Nr. 85

Istat 21062 Nr. 62

Istat 21063 Nr. 63

Prad am Stilfserjoch Prad am Stilfserjoch Prato allo Stelvio Prato allo Stelvio Istat 21067 Nr. 68

Riffian Rifiano

Riffian Rifiano

Istat 21073 Nr. 74

St. Leonhard San Leonardo

Prettau Predoi

Prettau Predoi

Istat 21068 Nr. 70

Mühlbach Rio di Pusteria

Istat 21066 Nr. 14

Ratschings Racines

Rasen-Antholz Rasun-Anterselva

Rasen-Antholz Rasun-Anterselva

Ritten Renon

Istat 21070 Nr. 73

Istat 21071 Nr. 72

Istat 21072 Nr. 75

Salurn Salorno

Innichen San Candido

Innichen San Candido

Istat 21074 Nr. 54

Istat 21075 Nr. 76

Istat 21076 Nr. 77

Istat 21077 Nr. 28

St. Lorenzen San Lorenzo

Istat 21081 Nr. 81

102

Istat 21065 Nr. 112

Salurn an der Weinstraße Salorno sulla Strada del Vino

Istat 21080 Nr. 80

Istat 21086 Nr. 86

Rodeneck Rodengo

Ratschings Racines

Schenna Scena

Schenna Scena

Istat 21087 Nr. 87

St. Martin in Thurn St. Martin in Thun San Martino in Badia San Martino in Badia San Martin de Tor Istat 21082 Nr. 83

Mühlwald Selva dei Molini

Burgstall Postal

Burgstall Postal

Rodeneck Rodengo

St. Lorenzen San Lorenzo di Sebato

Sarntal Sarentino

Istat 21069 Nr. 71

Istat 21064 Nr. 67

Waidbruck Ponte Gardena

Waidbruck Ponte Gardena

Mühlbach Rio di Pusteria

St. Leonhard in Passeier San Leonardo in Passiria

Sarntal Sarentino

Proveis Proves

Proveis Proves

Plaus Plaus

Plaus Plaus

St. Martin San Martino

St. Martin in Passeier San Martino in Passiria Istat 21083 Nr. 82

Wolkeinstein Selva - Sëlva

St. Pankraz San Pancrazio

St. Pankraz San Pancrazio

Istat 21084 Nr. 84

Schnals Senales

Mühlwald Selva dei Molini

Wolkenstein in Gröden Selva di Val Gardena Sëlva

Schnals Senales

Istat 21088 Nr. 55

Istat 21089 Nr. 116

Istat 21091 Nr. 90

Ritten Renon

Jenesien Jenesien San Genesio Atesino San Genesio Atesino Istat 21079 Nr. 29

St. Christina St.Gröden Christina Santa Cristina Valgardena St.Santa Cristina - St. Crestina Crestina Gherdëina Istat 21085 Nr. 79

Sexten Sesto

Sexten Sesto

Istat 21092 Nr. 91

Schluderns Sluderno

Stilfs Stelvio

Schluderns Sluderno

Stilfs Stelvio

Istat 21093 Nr. 88

Istat 21094 Nr. 89

Istat 21095 Nr. 93

Tisens Tesimo

Tisens Tesimo

Istat 21099 Nr. 99

Pfatten Vadena

Pfatten Vadena

Istat 21105 Nr. 65

Vahrn Varna

Vahrn Varna

Istat 21111 Nr. 106

Wengen La Valle - La Val

Wengen La Valle La Val

Tiers Tires

Tiers Tires Istat 21100 Nr. 97

Olang Valdaora

Olang Valdaora

Istat 21106 Nr. 61

Vöran Verano

Vöran Verano

Istat 21112 Nr. 111

Tirol Tirolo

Tirol Tirolo

Istat 21101 Nr. 98

Pfitsch Val di Vizze

Terenten Terento

Terenten Terento

Istat 21096 Nr. 95

Truden Trodena

Terlan Terlano

Terlan Terlano

Istat 21097 Nr. 96

Taufers Tubre

Tramin Termeno

Tramin an der Weinstraße Termeno sulla Strada del Vino Istat 21098 Nr. 101

Ulten Ultimo

Truden im Naturpark Trodena nel Parco Naturale

Taufers im Münstertal Tubre

Ulten Ultimo

Istat 21102 Nr. 102

Istat 21103 Nr. 94

Istat 21104 Nr. 104

Ahrntal Valle Aurina

Gsies Valles di Casies

Vintl Vandoies

Pfitsch Val di Vizze

Ahrntal Valle Aurina

Gsies Valle di Casies

Vintl Vandoies

Istat 21107 Nr. 66

Istat 21108 Nr. 2

Istat 21109 Nr. 26

Istat 21110 Nr. 109

Niederdorf Villabassa

Villanders Villandro

Sterzing Vipiteno

Niederdorf Villabassa

Villanders Villandro

Sterzing Vipiteno

Istat 21113 Nr. 60

Istat 21114 Nr. 107

Istat 21115 Nr. 92

Unsere Liebe Frau im Walde-St. Felix Senale-San Felice

Istat 21117 Nr. 115

Unsere Liebe Frau im Walde-St. Felix Senale-San Felice

Feldthurns Velturno

Feldthurns Velturno

Istat 21116 Nr. 19

103

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Schlanders Silandro

Schlanders Silandro

Gender - Equality

Regarding the role of women, the South Tyrolean reality largely mirrors the European one. Although efforts to improve equality between men and women in work, education, and everyday life have been stepped up for some time, successes are only slowly becoming visible.

While South Tyrol has the lowest share of the population with tertiary education compared to the neighboring regions of Tyrol and Trentino, the advantage of women compared to men is the highest at almost 6%. Nevertheless, women in South Tyrol receive on average 17% less pay than men, and over 50% of them work just parttime (Franch et. al. 2020). Only 1.4% of all female employees are managers, compared to 4% of men. Just 18% of businesses are women-owned (from 2018 to 2019 it increased 3,6%) (Franch et. al. 2020). The disparity between the genders is also visible in the services supplied by public stakeholders. Just over the last decade, it became increasingly addressed to also increase the childcare services, especially day nurseries, also in villages. Almost 50% of all women in the region actually live in small villages rather than in the small towns and Bolzano. In comparison to Tyrol and Trentino, this share is almost 10% higher (Piffer, Fenyvesi-Kiss, 2019).

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82%

Created by Alice Design from the Noun Project

Created by Alice Design

Population (25-64 years) with tertiary education (%)6 comparison of genders

18%

19,4%

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

Business owners comparison of genders

13,6% 105

Since the annexation of the region to Italy there have always been calls by certain parts of the population for a reunification of South Tyrol to the Austrian regions North and East Tyrol. Today such an initiative has very little support by the population.

The banner says: “Reunification of Tyrol”

The Sacred Heart Fires are a Tyrolian custom still practiced in all parts of the Tyrolian regions today. It evolved in 1796, when french troops under Napoleon invaded the region.

This religious and patriotic event should help calling all man fit to serve to arms. Unexpectedly the troops mostly consisting of farmers defeated the highly trained french forces. Still today it is a patriotic memorial day, partly also

“Here at the border of the fatherland set down the banner. From this point on we educated the barbars (later changed to others) with language, law and culture.” inscription of the victory monument

ECONOMICAL CONTEXT

The economic success of the province of South Tyrol first becomes apparent when looking at the overall economic performance: The gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant in the period under consideration (1995-2016) is continuously above that of Germany and Austria and clearly above the level of Italy as a whole. The gap to Italy as a reference area has widened significantly since the beginning of the financial and sovereign crisis (or euro crisis) in 2009/2010 (see figure on the right).

The Italian economy is characterized by enormous regional disparities, which show up as a clear North-South divide: Although not itself a designated industrial location, the region of Trentino-Alto Adige, which is subordinate to the province, is considered together with other northern and central Italian regions to be part of the so-called “Third Italy”, which is defined as a collection of several now welldeveloped industrial districts in contrast to north-western Italy (including Milan) and the traditionally structurally weak southern Italy (Mezzogiorno) (Bathelt 1998, p. 249, Wieland; Fuchs, 2019). In 2014, the Province of South Tyrol ranked second in Italy in terms of regional economic performance, with a GDP per capita of around €40,500, surpassed only by Milan.

Yet, while Milan is a European urban, economic and financial hub, at the edge of the Po Plain, attracting highly educated young people from 110

all over the World, with a successful creative and manufacturing industry, an international airport and train station, South Tyrol is solely a half a million inhabitants strong rural region in the Alps. Another (success) indicator is that unemployment is consistently low. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the unemployment rate rose to 3,8% but is still the lowest rate of all provinces in Italy and one of the lowest in Europe. Bolzano, as the regional capital, was ranked over the last five years by “Il Sole 24ore” as one of the top 5 most livable cities in Italy.

While the forcibly built industrial settlements during the fascism period, that enabled the migration of thousands of Italian fabric workers, have left their mark, they have not induced a complete structural change as fascist leaders might have hoped. Another political aspect that strongly defines the region's economy and its success is the provincial political and financial autonomy (Gramm and Tappeiner 2009, p.

7; Mertins et al. 2010, p. 302). In 1972, the New Autonomy Statute came into force, which in many respects gave the autonomous province a special political position vis-à-vis the Italian central government. These include primary legislative powers (i.e. areas in which the province has sole legislative authority) in many economically relevant areas, e.g. spatial planning and urban land use planning, crafts, tourism, fairs, and markets, as well as infrastructure.

Comparison of the overall economic development in South Tyrol7 1995-2016

25.000

50.000 South Tyrol

Germany

30.000

20.000

15.000

Italy

20.000

10.000

10.000

5.000

1995

2000

2005

2010

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

40.000

GDP (mio. €)

GDP per capita (€)

Austria

2015

111

relations with the region5

3,8% unemployment rate

9

2016 exported South Tyrol

more to Asian countries than it imported from Asia8

12% of all exported products are apples5 every 4th “Bio” fresh apple in the EU is from South Tyrol10 every 9th fresh apple consumed in the EU is from South Tyrol9

2.984 EUR average household

Data Source: ISTAT / ASTAT, 2019

112

17 %

rs he

40 %

ot

18 %

m o co bili m ty m a un nd ica tio

ho

us in

g

n

consumption per month11

d

South Tyrol can be considered as exportspecialized. While in the mid 20th century, very few goods could be produced in the mountainous region that attracted foreign interest, today its products are widely distributed in Europe and the World. The name South Tyrol became a merchandise mark indicating a highquality product for many consumers.

170 countries hold trading

foo

Secondary regulatory powers (i.e. detail-related formulation of national laws) lie, among other things, in the regulation of trade and the promotion of industry (Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol 2017a: p. 61; Mertins et al. 2010, p. 302). This combination of political and financial autonomy enables the Province of South Tyrol to take comprehensive procedural measures in the sense of promoting regional economic development. The vast majority of taxes levied in South Tyrol are not paid to the Italian central government but remain in the province for the purpose of their autonomous economic freedom (Wieland; Fuchs, 2019). The totality of the regional economic success doesn't include the small-scale territorial disparities in between the province. Such differences are mostly historical induced, like uneven accessibility; also the touristic sector is strongly concentrated on certain hotspots.

25 %

GDP (at purchasing power parity) per capita in Italy according to regions (€)12

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

2015

>40.000 - 45.000 >35.000 - 40.000 >30.000 - 35.000 >25.000 - 30.000 >20.000 - 25.000

EU average: ca. 30.000 €

>15.000 - 20.000

113

Regional Branding

SÜDTIROL is much more than simply the name of the region. Since 2004 it is well known all over Europe as a regional brand.

As a tourist destination and region of origin for diverse products and services, South Tyrol is in intense competition with other regions and countries. The professional development of a regional brand aimed to support existing individual brands and enabled a much stronger external marketing strategy for the region as a whole. The region’s logo is emblazoned on apples and milk, and under the specially developed lettering “Südtirol” (South Tyrol) the silhouette of the Alps is reproduced in bright colors - all in a fresh eco-style. The advertisers’ calculation: if you like a South Tyrolean apple in Germany, you might want to spend your next holiday there, too. The umbrella brand South Tyrol bundles forces and brings about a mutual image transfer, i.e. a transfer of positive associations through the connection with South Tyrol.

Moreover, all kinds of companies, from the industrial to the service sector, are using the logo on their websites, their business cards, or even company cars (Dachmarke Südtirol, 2021).

Regional branding South Tyrol13

114

+

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

=

Design process of the regional logo14

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Economic Sectors

One of the main strengths of the region's economy is its high diversity regarding its different sectors and specializations. While tourism played a crucial role in the economic growth of the region since the 1950s, the local society is not as all-encompassing dependent on it as is often declared in the public discourse.

Less than 12% of the GDP is a direct product of Hotels and Gastronomy. Even though many other sectors also profit from tourism, it is not as crucial as it is often referred to. The agricultural sector employed in the 1940s still almost half of the regions workforces, in 2020 this number is between 5-8%, including the seasonal workers.

While the percentage of the population working in manufacturing industries remained relatively steady since the strong increase during the fascism period, the number of employees working in service industries doubled since 1940.

Yet, there are also several challenges that the region will face in its economical development in the future. In times of global trade disputes and a global pandemic, the strong dependence on export, in tourism, agricultural production of apples and wine, milk and cheese, as well as its highly specialized manufacturing industries, could be dangerous. Another crucial challenge is the little availability of land and the growing conflicts regarding its use.

116

Employment structure15 1940-2016 100% agriculture manufacturing industries 50%

service 0% 1940

1960

1990

2016

Regional account of economic sectors16

energy supply 4,9%

processing industries 11,1%

agriculture 4,9% Public sector 18,8%

others 5,2%

15.000

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

construction industry 5,7%

Transport and Logistics 3,8%

commerce 11,4%

Services 22,9%

Hotels and Gastronomy 11,1% 117

Imports 2016

Imported goods17 #1 Food, beverages, tobacco #2 Metal and metal products #3 Machinery and equipment #4 Means of transportation

DE 44,5% NL 6,4%

CZ 1,3% US 1,0%

FR 3,9% CH 1,0%

ES 1,9%

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AT 23,7%

Exports 2016

Exported goods16 #1 Food (mostly fruit) and beverages #2 Machinery and equipment #3 Agricultural and Forestral products #4 Metal products and means of transport components

SE 2,0%

DE 34,0% NL 2,9%

CZ 1,8% US 4,6%

FR 4,8%

AT 11,1%

CH 5,8%

OTHER 27,3%

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

ES 3,7%

119

INTERIM CONCLUSION

To conclude, South Tyrol can count itself today as a fortunate region regarding its geographical, socio-cultural, and economic context. All of these factors, which actually defined the region's often difficult past, seem today to be an advantage. The geographical location in the mountains has been perceived for centuries as a “leftover”, a place that is feared, that needs to be crossed, that might function as a hideout, but not much more. The Alps were long considered as a very inhuman environment. After thousands of years of human appropriation, they are considered today as one of the most “enjoyable” environments, visited by millions of people from all over the world for especially recreational purposes. Its relative remoteness is considered often an attractive feature. Yet networks of valleys and modern transport technologies pervade the Alpine territories and strongly shape its forms of appropriation.

The socio-cultural context always had certain advantages regarding the various influences and trading possibilities. Yet it also brought continuing conflicts with it, as various powerhouses south and north of the Alps always tried to control South Tyrol due to its importance as a transit route. The forced settling of thousands of Italian citizens by the fascist regime in the first half of the 20th century and the oppression of its local population and traditions implemented deep unrest and conflict between 124

the regional population that is partly still visible today. Yet, since the Schengen agreement, the importance of the national affiliation seemed to be less important. Language diversity became increasingly recognized as an advantage. South Tyrolians have many possibilities regarding working in another country in Europe. By talking already German and Italian, two languages of two of the three biggest economies of the continent, especially young people have much more possibilities regarding their education, jobs, and social setting.

While not long ago, the fragmented and smallscale territory of the region was considered strongly disadvantaged for modern economic development, it proved such prejudices wrong.

The productivity for a supra-regional market was historically weak, the population had partly difficulties sustaining itself. In the course of a few decades, it evolved to a global player in various sectors, from Alpine technologies to renewable energies, the food industry as well as the touristic sector. Moreover, is the region considered an attractive location for the settlement of international branch offices, specialized in the Italian and German-speaking market. Again, the mountainous territory which seemed to be a strong disadvantage with the emergence of the industrial revolution and the concentration of production on few but vast and advantageous territories turned out to

WHERE IS SOUTH TYROL?

enable a highly diverse and attractive economic development contrary to all predictions.

125

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

126

INTRODUCING FIVE PORTRAITS SOUTH TYROL IS AN ALPINE BELT CITY SOUTH TYROL IS A FUN PARK SOUTH TYROL IS APPLES AND COWS SOUTH TYROL IS AN ECOLOGICAL RESERVOIR SOUTH TYROL IS A POLITICAL MONOCULTURE

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INTRODUCING FIVE PORTRAITS

There is not simply one answer to the question “What is South Tyrol?”, but just many different answers. Some are more true than others, some are based on data and facts while others are more defined by personal perceptions and individual everyday life patterns. This work tries to depict five of the most dominant characteristics that define South Tyrol. Both physically and socially. To directly confront these characteristics and answer the difficult question of what South Tyrol is, five bold statements are set that interpretatively describe these processes. The region's past, present, and also future “personality” is strongly defined by these different but at the same time overlapping features: urbanization, tourism, agriculture, ecosystem services, and political power. The five sections don’t analyze every characteristic in detail, but they reveal certain developments and characteristics, that make each of them so important for the future of South Tyrol and call for a more direct confrontation. The reader should be encouraged to ask questions. Each of these five characteristics or developments is as important as it could be harmful to the longterm wellbeing of the region. To answer the challenges that these key developments face, we have to raise questions, loudly and in public, to discuss the possible answers as well as the possible futures.

128

ECOLOGICAL RESERVOIR

FUN PARK

Luis Durnwalder 1989-2014

Arno Kompatscher 2014-today

Karl Erckert 1948-1955

APPLES AND COWS

Alois Pupp 1956-1960

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

BELT CITY

Silvius Magnago 1960-1989

POLITICAL MONOCULTURE 129

SOUTH TYROL IS AN ALPINE BELT CITY

Alpine Belt City is the label for South Tyrol’s hybrid urban concentrations along its main valleys. The Etsch/Adige valley, crossing the region horizontally, and the Pustertal and Vinschgau valleys, forming a horizontal axis. The regional capital, Bolzano, lies in the intersection of these two main streams of settlements and mobility, industrial and intense agricultural production. While other cities and regions evolve ring-like around their main urban core, South Tyrol is increasingly enhancing its linear ribbon form along its main valleys. All seven cities of the province lie along these valleys, all administrative, educational, and economic main centers are situated along this belt. This sustained urban concentration functions simultaneously as the point of origin for all developments in higher elevations or smaller side valleys.

Throughout history, various communities or families migrated in the elevated terrain to hide from the passing tribes, the rulers’ influences, or the troubles from a highly frequented transit route. Hundreds of hamlets and villages spread further into the mountain ranges, to remote valleys and high plateaus. Whenever the centers of power, located in the castles, monasteries, and later cities, had a certain interest in specific resources, products, manpower, or recreational areas, they enhanced the expansion of infrastructures like streets, cable cars, or even 130

rail routes upward the former topographical barriers to access the “hinterland” above. While for centuries, these urban centers were islands in a still natural and agricultural heterogeneous surrounding, today they have colonized the entire valley floors and their influence reaches up to the peaks of the highest mountains. South Tyrol witnessed compared to other similar regions, as for example the Inn valley just north of the Brenner, a relatively controlled urban growth. While it enabled the development of a diversified highly livable Alpine region in the past, it witnessed an intensification that is hindering the possibility of real sustainable growth and economy in the present. Simply the exceedingly specialization and expansion of urban fabric and intensive agriculture came to a point where a new reflection is strongly needed.

Even if not all valley floors of the region are yet built up settlements, the highly intensive use of them for human purposes as well as their outreaches towards the higher surrounding justify the label of a belt city.

“The real city is a system of human settlements covering a much greater area than we usually realize; a system of which the built-up part, which we usually call the city, is only very small in terms of area (…)”

Doxiadis C., 1974, p. 6

all housing-addresses of the region 2016 main mobility network highly cultivated agricultural land

131

Valley Agglomeration

South Tyrol is relatively compact populated because most of the region’s surface is too steep or its altitude too high for permanent settlements. If we take just the permanently populated surface of the region into consideration, over 2.000 inhabitants per square kilometer can be counted (ASTAT, 2020), which would be around twice the density of the metropolitan area of Milano (ca. 1.000 inh/km2).

The population density decreases steadily from the bottom of the valleys to the lower altitudes and towards the mountain ranges. Especially touristic hotspots can grow to temporary cities during the high season. Around 60% of the whole region lies over 1.500 m and is therefore almost uninhabited and just irregularly used.

Bolzano lies in the southern centre, in the basin where the Etsch/Adige, Eisack and Sarntal valley as well as their rivers, Etsch/Adige, Eisack and Talfer meet. Three of the four biggest cities, Bolzano, Merano, and Laives are located close to each other, in the biggest plain of the region, the Etsch/Adige valley. For hundreds of years, the densest form of human life happened in these “streams” in between the hills and mountains.

Cities evolved along the trade routes of the Roman streets through the Alps, like an “urban chain of connection”. South Tyrol’s cities and towns always functioned as infrastructural centralities, especially to support the functions of the region as a trade and transit space.

Spatial and structural forms of the settlements were compact and defined by walls, agricultural 132

fields, and at least one river. Fortifications along the slopes kept view and control over the valleys.

In 1900, Bolzano was a simple, small trading town, the capital of the region, located in the central valley basin counted 14.000 inhabitants of a total population of 220.000 in South Tyrol (“Bozen 1907”; ASTAT 1991). All six cities of this time were similar in structure and size. Meran and Brixen, composing with Bolzano the three biggest urban populations, had just around 7.000 inhabitants. Today Bolzano counts 108.000 and South Tyrol 533.000 inhabitants (ASTAT 2019). The built fabric of the cities “colonized” its surroundings, especially on the valley floors, but spread also to former very remote areas through an extension of transportation infrastructures, public services, branch offices, shops, and other infrastructural elements. The first trigger point of these changes was the annexation of the region to Italy after the First World War. Urbanization was used as a tool, but also as a punishment of the fascist regime to shape and suppress the region’s strongly rural population.

Bolzano, as its capital, was partly redrawn and strongly extended by the planners and direct advisors of Benito Mussolini. The domination of the Italian state over the former foreign region in forms of architecture, industry, and residential sites, its physical space, was also sort of an alert and symbolism to the region as a whole, of the power and the possibilities of the new regime to shape but also destroy the physical as well as social landscapes. This is one reason why the inhabitants of the region were for a long

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Urban centers

Property units 133

time, and even are to a certain extent still today, skeptical against cities, partly the urban itself, because many older generations still link it with a feeling of foreignness and colonization.

Still today, there is visible segregation between the urban and non-urban. Bolzano has still around 75%, Laives 70%, and Meran 50% native Italian-speaking inhabitants, while almost all villages have a dominating German-speaking population.

7.400 km2 total regional surface 106.951 inhb. Bolzano (regional capital) 850 inhb. Glurns (smallest city) 5,5% potential settlement area

18

20.556 km roads

19

Interestingly, the highest increase in construction and expansion of the settlements in the last decades was visible in villages, especially with a strong touristic economy.

Over the last decades, the tourism sector was one of the most driving forces of urbanization.

Even in natural protected sites, the influence of tourism and agricultural lobbies enables further construction and usage of the land to their interest. Urban sprawl due to tourism is not just linked with the construction of new Hotels. In the last decades, the percentage of secondary residences increased exponentially. Many buildings stand widely empty over big parts of the year due to that reason.

290 km railways

20

361 cableways

21

1.660 bridges & 206 tunnels

14

435.041 registered vehicles in 1990

22

1.054.633 registered vehicles in 2018 607.228 property units

23

46% housing

134

33% warehouses, parking spaces

16%

5% others

other economic purposes

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Main street network

WIFI network 135

Protective Structures

While the urbanized area of the region is relatively small compared to its total surface cover, the infrastructures that need to enable and connect such localities are extensive and challenged to overcome the topographical obstacles of the terrain. Streets, buildings, power lines, etc. need to be protected by the often highly movable territory. Especially after extreme weather events, floods, wildfires, falling trees, landslides, mudflows, or avalanches can occur. The demand for protective structures in order to secure infrastructures and settlements is therefore very comprehensive and the effort to maintain such structures very expensive.

While over the last decades, the network of infrastructures, from streets to cable cars and remote tourist accommodations increased steadily, also extreme weather events that can directly harm or destroy such networks, grew in numbers and intensity. It seems increasingly difficult to further extend, sustain and protect the infrastructural networks that connect today the region. Considering that today, around one quarter of the total regional surface is considered as protective forest, sheltering the biggest share of the regional habitat. Especially local tree species are of high importance in maintaining the valley slopes. Due to the increasing dangers of extreme weather events and the destruction of forests, the difficulties of maintaining urban infrastructures will continue to increase.

136

protective forest

Protective forest & structures

main protective structures against rockfall, floods and avalances

137

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Areas of high risk slope slides

Permanent Settlement Area

After decades of strong urban expansion, the consciousness of the limited space available for further development is increasing. Areas suitable for settlement are similarly finite and precious as other resources required for anthropogenic use. In particular in mountainous regions, the possible settlement areas are already limited due to the morphology of the natural area, and therefore compose a comparatively small part of the total area. Moreover, restrictions by politicaladministrative guidelines reduce the possible settlement areas further, in order of protecting natural, near-natural, and certain anthropogenic characterized areas. Conflicts over land use are therefore little surprising, especially under the conditions of continuing economic and demographic growth. Settlement expansions compete with agricultural or touristic land-use patterns. Also the development of transport infrastructures - which also fulfill an economic and social function - plays an essential role. While political and environmental stakeholders are growingly concerned about land consumption and the possible expansion of settlements, the extreme competition of interests regarding land use continuously finds exceptional purposes why growth is needed.

138

The permanent settlement area in South Tyrol is calculated as followed: ca. 7.400 km2 = Total surface of the region24 - Rocks and Glaciers - Lakes - Rivers - Slope gradient (>17°) - Altitude (>1.600m) - Forests (not total area of forests) - Nature conservation areas - Biotope - Landscape conservation areas - Drinking water protection areas - Archaeological areas and nat. monuments - Hydrological hazard zones - Avalanche hazard zones - Accessibility - Extension gradient ca. 408 km2 =Permanent Settlement Area

7.400 km2 total surface

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

ca. 5,5 % possible permanent settlement area

139

INTERVIEW

Werner Bätzing Werner Bätzing is Professor Emeritus of Cultural Geography at the Institute of Geography at the Friedrich Alexander University of ErlangenNürnberg with a focus on “Alpine Space” in teaching and research, is considered one of the most renowned Alpine researchers in Europe.

He published several books about the Alps and the countryside. Moreover, he published hiking guides of the Grande Traversata delle Alpi, to raise the awareness about the cultural landscapes of the Alps, to protect certain structurally weak regions from emigration and to promote sustainable forms of tourism. (photo above by Jon Duschletta/Engadiner Post) 140

Dear Prof. Bätzing, there are indications that specialization and intensification in the competition of the global market economy continue. In South Tyrol, this is particularly evident in the valley floors, since the monocultures overweight the usage. A very tight pattern of industrial areas, intensive agriculture and residential areas cover almost every square meter. Which type of usage do you think will prevail in the valley floors by midcentury? Do you think that settlement areas of the valley floors will continue to sprawl or decrease due to rising temperatures?

Whether people will leave the valley floors when temperatures rise and settle higher up, where the climate is more pleasant and cooler, does not depend primarily on the people (demand), but on the available settlement or housing space (supply): Currently, only relatively small settlement areas are available above the valley floors (predominantly oriented to the local population of the communities there), which cannot at all satisfy a strong increase in demand for residences by people from the valley floors.

Theoretically, it would be possible to significantly increase the amount of settlement land, but this would encounter the following resistance: local population (they would become strangers in their own community if very large numbers of people settled there), agriculture (expansion of settlement land usually comes at the expense of

agricultural land, and farmers losing land have to give their farm up because they can no longer find replacement land) and environmental protection (urban sprawl is ecologically negative and generates a lot of additional traffic). Since these three aspects are likely to have a strong position in the communities, changes to settlement areas would probably not be politically enforceable there. Moreover, the question arises whether the advantages of the higher location (better climate) outweigh the disadvantages (significantly longer travel distances, possibly poor accessibility in winter with snow and ice, not to mention the price of housing).

In your books, you describe the relationship between man and nature in great detail. The subject of the wolf shows in South Tyrol very well how many different interpretations of this relationship there are. In general, people who have grown up on the Alpine pastures and in nature, recommend that the wolf should be released for shooting. In contrast to this, many people in the valleys and cities, plead for coexistence with large predators. Whose relationship to nature is closer?

poses. This seems to be a mere “substitutediscussion”. Urban environmental protection intends to make a wilderness out of the the rural areas and to push the rural population in the long term into urban areas. The issue of wolves embodies the resulting unease of the rural population. The wolf is to make life more difficult for rural population, in order to urge them to move away. I call this “substitutediscussion” because it carries secretly a profound conflict between city and country out. There is no point in such discussions, one can find neither concrete solutions nor is there a satisfying result. In my opinion, if one would approach the wolf topic very concretely, then one would find tangible solutions to hold the wolf at distance. Wolves are very intelligent creatures who could learn to leave cattle herds in peace. Nevertheless, the wolf would have to be shot, since the stocks in the Alps have recovered sufficiently in my opinion. At present it is not at all looked for concrete solutions to the topic, but it is exploited as a purely subjective populist. Exactly that is the reason that makes this issue so incredibly difficult.

According to me, either one has a meaningful relationship with nature at this time. In my experience, the discussion about the wolf does not stand for the specific problems the wolf 141

What future do you see for the socio-cultural heritage of rural regions when, for example, in South Tyrol 15 times as many tourists visit the region every year as there are locals living there? Valley floors are increasingly urbanized and non-tourist regions are often characterized by emigration.

I think that the socio-cultural heritage of rural areas is very important, that there are great dangers that this heritage is overshadowed by urban cultures. One danger of overprinting is massive tourism, which I described in my book about the Alps. There I explain that mass tourism is one of the elements that urbanizes the Alps.

Especially big tourism centers are actually urban areas and no longer rural areas. In this respect, this development, which you describe with Kastelruth or the Dolomites in general, is in principle an urbanization where a rural tradition is staged to sell an urban area for tourism. And I see a second danger for the socio-cultural heritage, namely the urban marketing of rural areas in the form of rural magazines (Landlust, Landliebe...), which develop urban ideal images of rural areas and in turn destroy rural areas and overprint the traditional socio-cultural heritage with false idylls. For me, these are two different ways in which the socio-cultural heritage is destroyed by urban encroachments.

142

Who could initiate or initiate a social rethink?

The market economy will probably not do this.

I would not ask who should be this actor, that seems too rational to me. I would argue the other way around. This urbanized world is an extremely fragile world that is very unstable in itself. The current Covid-19 crisis shows this very clearly. Immediately, all global contexts were called into question, just as with every major crisis, e.g. the Fukushima crisis or terrorist attacks. I can imagine that our world today, which is extremely dependent on the division of labor and specialization, that this urbanized world is collapsing sooner or later, that our current system should be brought into distress by natural disasters or wars. The disruptions are omnipresent because our current system, in which urbanization plays an important role, is so unstable and we cannot really assess the challenges. Like the Covid-19 crisis, which nobody expected, although experts have been warning of the outbreak of a pandemic for several years.

The same pattern is evident in climate change.

I think our extremely urban, highly specialized society is very fragile for such challenges.

How would you describe the role of rural areas in the century defined as the urban age?

In my opinion, the rural area as a decentralized economic and living space is systematically destroyed by the urban age. The rural area is degraded to a substitute space that is used for all those functions that have no place in the urban areas. To that extent, this urbanized world is negative in relation to rural areas. But this urbanized world is not viable by itself, as a purely urban world - it needs the rural area for important functions (food supply, energy production, water supply, waste disposal, leisure, etc.). The destruction of rural areas through the outsourcing of those functions leads at a certain point to self-destruction.

143

144

145

146

147

SOUTH TYROL IS A FUN PARK

Fun Park describes a commercially operated park with locations and shows for recreation and amusement. Since the origin of Tourism in South Tyrol, around 200 years ago, almost all fields of society are today somehow linked to the touristic development of the region. In order to supply the highly diverse and complex demand of the touristic sector and compete with other touristic regions, an extremely high variety of services and activities have been enabled in order to entertain visitors, similar like a fun park.

South Tyrol has a long history of hosting travelers, from traders to pilgrims and artists. Firstly, the Alpine regions were solely considered as an intermediate stop before continuing south or north. Being on the road was not a pleasure, but tedious and dangerous, the mountains spread fear. Travelers were glad to leave them behind.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the perception of the Alps changed, they became romanticized and a symbol of pure beauty. South Tyrol established itself as a travel destination for the upper classes of Europe. At that time, the enthusiasm for the Alps led to three forms of tourist activities: Admiring the mountains from selected points, long mountain hikes along with farm or newly constructed paths, and alpinism, i.e. climbing tours to conquer the peaks of the Dolomites (Bätzing, 2015). Until the second part of the 20th century, tourism was considered a “luxury product” that could be afforded just by 148

the bourgeois and the upper classes. These were mostly foreign, urban citizens. In the Alps, they came from England and Russia, but also Milan and Munich. Today, we witness very different forms of tourism. The natural landscapes of the Alps are no longer sufficient as an attraction.

The typologies of activities and the demand for various experiences are much more complex. In South Tyrol professional agencies, from public tourism associations to private companies or Hotels themselves, offer a variety of sportive, culinary and wellness activities. From mountain climbing, downhill biking, rafting, skiing, skitouring, helicopter tours, guided hikes, food and wine degustation, and many more. Spectacular observation platforms, hanging bridges, bike parks, climbing parks, party areas, etc. are built, often in the most beautiful natural sites.

Touristic numbers grew steadily. Since 1950 almost every year the number of visitors and overnight stays increased compared to the year before. Today, South Tyrol can be considered as one of the most touristic territories of the Alps and of Europe.

"Over time, our only chance at safety will depend on not turning the mountains into Disneyland."

Messner, M., 2017, p. 4

149

From a Family Industry to a Global Industry

The advantages and positive effects that tourism had on the region as a whole are obvious.

The touristic sector contributed to economic growth, it created jobs and strengthened the construction sector as well as trade and services.

Moreover, it helped the region overcome the financial and economic crisis in 2008. Tourism enabled high economic prosperity, even for remote valleys and small villages. It encouraged the construction of facilities such as ski lifts and roads, which not only benefited guests but also those who live in South Tyrol. While continuing growth and expansion was an understandable goal decades ago, today it seems like the target is lost insight. A continuation of “more” might turn into “less” at the end.

The two figures showed on the right display Compatsch at the Seiser Alm, the largest high-altitude Alpine meadow in Europe. The Seiser Alm is a natural park, partly part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Dolomites, partly protected from the European Natura 2000 network of nature protection areas. The upper picture is from 1958 and depicts the slow beginning of touristic development in the area.

Urban citizens started to buy pastureland from farmers to build small vacation homes. Most touristic stays in the region were opened as homestays in the 60s and 70s, when the tourists were still called “strangers”, but invited to live in the homes of the locals. Such closeness enabled 150

1958

2019

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

touristic accomodations in the year 2000

touristic accomodations in the year 2020 151

often deep contact between guests and locals.

Today, the stranger has long since become a “guest”. The friendlier designation, however, conceals the fact that the distance has actually grown. Tourists are often confronted with an illusory or artificial world, that is simply created for them, but has little to do with the real everyday life in South Tyrol. Foreign workforces need to be attracted in order to serve the foreign visitors. Almost 40% working in the sector are not Italian citizens (Beobachtungsstelle Arbeitsmarkt, 2019) Between 2016 and 2017, an additional 260,000 m3 were built for touristic use. This exceeds the volume of social housing construction from the last 10 years (252,000 m3 for 1.201 flats) (Heiss et. al, 2018).

The trend lies towards “qualitative expansion”, which means hotels are not allowed to build many new beds, but additionally, they create much bigger structures in order to offer additional services and increase the price.

South Tyrol accounts for over 56 overnight stays per year for every local inhabitant. Some areas of the region exceed even 100 overnight stays per local. Moreover, South Tyrol accounts for the highest accommodation (beds) density of the whole Alpine region, with 20 beds per km2 (ASTAT, 2017). Yet, there are still new undergoing projects, from the remotest corners of the region to the piling up in the centers of villages.

Historical accommodations are removed in 152

order to build luxury chalets. Vast wellness oases, infinity pools, petting zoos, fake farmer's gardens, and shops are added as additional offers to many hotel complexes.

For a long time, the touristic sector was considered as a “backup” for the regional economy, by employing thousands of locals, attracting spending power from outside, and creating various synergies with many different sectors. Also during the economic crisis in 2008, it absorbed the global crisis and stabilized the regional economy. Today instead it seems as this often called “dependency” and “bubble” of demand is becoming increasingly dangerous for the stability of the region as a whole.

Infrastructural costs, the high consumption of resources, increasing emissions like traffic and noise, sky-rocketing rents and real estate prices, and the growing income disparity. Because the population of the region owes so much to the development of tourism in the past, it is still considered almost a taboo to speak publicly about a restriction or limits to tourism. The resumption of the airport in Bolzano, to enable tourists to arrive by airplane, for example, is often justified as it would be a basic need for the touristic sector that shouldn’t be questioned but thanked for.

“Although we hope that the remoteness of the Dolomites will continue to be preserved, we will not complain at all if selected and spiritually related persons, through their own journeys, have the pleasure of recognising our reports as true. However, we would like to take a serious stand against the noisy, idle stream of tourists who show little inclination to leave the comforts of the main road.”

The Dolomite Mountains, 1864, by Josiah Gilbert and Georg C. Churchill, p. 15

Local population vs visiting population25 2019

7,7 mio.

Arrivals Tourists per year 1960-2019 2030

2010

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

1990

1970 0,5 mio.

1950 2 mio.

4 mio.

6 mio.

8 mio.

locals

visitors 153

From Postcards to Global Marketing

One of the first advertising leaflets of the region, from the city of Meran, including a lithography: “Coldwater-, Whey and Grapes-Sanatorium by Dr. Mazegger in Obermais by Meran in Tyrol”.

On the inside pages of the leaflet, there is a description of the house in German and French, as well as a table with the temperatures of the individual months. The graphic also shows the surrounding residences in Obermais.

Meran soon became a famous spa and health resort that attracted travelers from all over Europe due to its pleasant climatic conditions and the attractive promenades surrounding beautiful scenery. The terrible dangerous mountainous environment became suddenly a place of recreation and health. Such shifting perceptions didn’t occur without cause since the emergence of the industrial revolution. As cities became the place of industrial production, they also became a much less desirable habitat for wealthy citizens. Cities were overcrowded and polluted, therefore suddenly the remote, relatively untouched place was glorified by the urban population.

154

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Advertising brochure of the City Meran, 1841

Data Source: Sammlung Touriseum - Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus, Meran

155

South Tyrol as a health resort 1924 Advertising brochure, of the health resort Brixen with photographic images of the little town and the surrounding area. Different advertisements were included, “Recreation home for young girls and ladies Castel Rainegg at Bressanone”, “Hotel - Pension Gasser”, “Hotel Excelsior” (with car garage), “Kuranstalt und Kurmittelhaus Dr. v.

Guggenberg”, “Villa Sabiona”, “Sanatorium of the City of Bressanone”, “Institut der engl. Fräulein”, “Hotel Jarolim” (with garage), “Hotel Sonne” (own hotel - car and garage), “Hotel Elefant” (garage). The evolution of cars, individual travel possibilities and the extension of streets were strongly related to the growth and territorial dispersion of the touristic sector.

Data Source: Sammlung Touriseum - Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus, Meran

156

South Tyrol as an “Italian” sport destination 1935

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Poster of the Dolomites designed by Franz Lenhart. With the approval of the “Direz. Gen. del Turismo” no. 141 of 23. 4. XIII (fascist calendar).

It corresponds to the year 1935. South Tyrol`s annexation brought an uncertain future, also for the till then little established touristic sector. Yet, many Italian visitors came to see the “returned” province. The fascist regime founded a new leisure organization called “Dopolavoro” (after work). It supported the mantra “Everything within the state, nothing outside it” (from the exhibition about tourism of the Touriseum in Meran). The growing interests of the film industry in the Alps and sport activities such as climbing and skiing enhanced the enthusiasm for the mountains. But soon, the touristic sector stagnated during the ongoing war and inner social conflicts in the region.

Data Source: Sammlung Touriseum - Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus, Meran

157

Political advertisment of the socialist party 1979 Poster from the Socialist party in Val Gardena in 1979 with a trilingual text about tourism in the resulting problems for the environment. On the back was a comic strip by the artist Egon Rusina from Val Gardena which told the story of how South Tyrolean tourism came into being a “monster”. The comic says: “Once upon a time there was a beautiful valley...

Three vampires came flying into the land and they created... the first day a road!!!! The second a car!! On the third day a hotel, a church and a cemetery... On the fourth a skilift... On the fifth a folk costume... On the sixth, two tourists who multiplied... On the seventh day, the three bloodsuckers rested and enjoyed the fruits of their creation...”

Data Source: Sammlung Touriseum - Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus, Meran

158

Data Source: IDM advertisement in Leipzig, Germany (Kinetic)

159

Touristic Infrastructures

With the exponential growth of the touristic numbers, since the second part of the 20th century, the structural fabric in the forms of streets, cable cars, accommodations, etc. had to keep up with the growing demand. Especially the construction of streets into more remote areas enabled a greater establishing and diffusion of the tourist industries. Firstly, they were strongly welcomed by the local population, making also their life more “easy”. The extensive and widespread touristic development, therefore, promoted the infrastructural development of the region.

But with the never-stopping growth of tourism, also the infrastructural network always needed to keep up. While it is often talked about the positive economic impacts of tourism, the public costs of touristic development are seldom discussed. Hosting almost 8 million visitors a year, entail a lot of additional infrastructural development in order to enable the arrival, stay, and regional mobility of 15 times the number of the local population.

Alone the consumption of water and electricity, waste generation, and the increased mobility volume need a lot of additional infrastructures to handle such additional quantities. Many touristic areas can be defined as temporary cities because the tourism flows are just a temporal extension of the residential population. Some villages can count over 150 overnight stays a year for each local inhabitant (ASTAT, 2015). The 160

number of second-home residences is not even included in this calculation. The infrastructure is obliged to have the capacity of a small city in order to absorb this high demand. Thousands more can arrive in certain areas to visit as day-tourists. When there are no tourists, as we witnessed for some months during the Covid-19 pandemic the settlements become “ghost towns”. The biggest share of the costs for this additional infrastructure is paid by tax money, and therefore the money of the public.

Even tourism taxes as the “local tax” is almost completely reused for touristic marketing, but not for touristic infrastructures.

“At a time when travelers were discovering this country after having read Haller’s poem on The Alps, the paragon of the rural Eden, this passage (...) takes on a prophetic character. What two centuries ago may have been taken for poetic extrapolation has become reality before our eyes. The construction of superhighway networks, new railway and aviation infrastructures, systematic development of the hillside areas most favorable to summer tourism and of mountainous regions unfit for agriculture or for dwellings for the winter trade are all the most visible signs of an essentially urban activity whose goal consists in placing the continents at the disposition of city people” Corboz, A., 1973 p. 16

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Hiking trails

ski-lifts 161

Resource Consumption

Another “public cost” of touristic industries is the consumption of natural resources. The same issue appears as with the cost of other touristic infrastructures. Since 1970, the number of overnight stays grew from 10 million to 33 million a year. The raising quantities were also linked to the “qualitative” development of the sector, in form of wellness facilities, swimming pools, more ski slopes etc. Such developments increased not just the total amount of the resources consumed, but also the demand for resources such as water, but also soil in general, per person. Alone the water used for the production of artificial snow almost tripled in the last 20 years and consumed in the year 2018 over 10 mio. m3 of water(Amt für Wassernutzung Prov. BZ, 2020). Bolzano, by far the most populated city of South Tyrol, hosting a fifth of its population, as well as maintaining the biggest industrial production area, consumed just little less then 8 mio. m3 in 2017. There is little data available about how much water, electricity etc. the touristic sector consumes exactly. Yet, it is already obvious today that even in the mountainous terrain where water scarcity was seldom even thought of, it is increasingly a rare resource. Another resource strongly claimed by the sector is public tax money. For example, the region extended the budget of the regional destination marketing agency from almost 50 mio. in 2019 to 70 mio. in 2022.

162

Water consumption for artificial snow production26 1996-2019/20

3-years budget plan expenses - IDM27 2019-2022 total of 243.000 mio. €

70 mio 61 mio

(m ) 3

10 mio.

64 mio

48 mio

6 mio.

2 mio.

2010

2020

2019

2020

2021

2022

marketing specific agricultural marketing

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

1996

business development

163

INTERVIEW

Dear Mrs. Mussner, you come from one of the most famous tourist hotspots in the Alps. How do you perceive the changes in your home area today? Do you see similarities to a theme park?

Elide Mussner Elide Mussner is a municipal council member in Badia, responsible for the touristic sector.

After studying languages in Verona, she worked for over 10 years as the assistant, advisor, and project manager for Michil Costa at the Hotel La Perla in Corvara, Alta Badia.

Moreover, she is since ten years a responsible manager for the Costa Family Foundation ONLUS, a non-profit organization that supports various international projects all over the world. In 2021 she became well known in the region as she voted (as the responsible of the touristic sector) against the application for hosting the 2029 Ski Worldchampionship.

164

“I ragazzi della via Gluck” by Adriano Celentano, comes to my mind: “là dove c’era l’erba verde ora c’è, una città.” (Where once was green grass, today there is a city) I often feel the same way.

And I find it difficult to give an objective answer to this question. Home is a very personal matter which is strongly related to one’s emotional perception. My home valley has become a tourist destination, a hotspot, as it is defined today. The staging of such is sometimes very borderline.

It’s no longer about living and experiencing the beautiful area, it’s somehow constantly about designing the tourist product. Everything has to be optimized and geared to tourism, everything has to be branded, with logo, slogan and corporate identity, from the butcher to the five-star hotel, from the ski lift to the hiking trail. My professor from Switzerland always taught me that marketing is first and foremost about the form that is conveyed, and only then about the content. It seems to me that we are always concerned with form, with marketing, and very rarely with our real lives. Very often we stop at the form and forget about the content.

Marketing for its own sake. The absurdity that often arises in a tourist stronghold through its

staging could almost be the theme for a play

by Samuel Becket. We organize traditional costume parades and pseudo cultural events for hundreds of tourists who marvel at our staged tradition as if they were in the zoo. We stage our nature as an experience, turn beautiful landscapes into hotspots for social media. For our businesses we use abstract definitions from foreign languages and cultures, the more exotic the better: from chalet to lodge, from charming to boutique and fashion hotel. It has long ceased to be about meaning; it is always and repeatedly about the product. It’s not enough to simply go hiking in the mountains, you have to build themed trails, bike trails and viewing platforms.

Nature, the forest, the summit cross, they are no longer enough. At the mountain stations of the cableways and ski lifts, often at 2,000 meters above sea level, veritable theme parks are being created, with artificial “kneipp” baths, water landscapes, bear caves, etc. Everything should and must be a unique inflated “emotion” that sells well. For decades, we don’t ski anymore on natural snow. Technical snow has replaced natural snow. It often seems we no longer need nature, it should only serve as a basis on which we design our product. We have turned our home region into a leisure product that we transform and market according to trends and necessity. My mother says, “it’s all over the top.”

I very often don’t feel at home in my hometown anymore. I miss the basic sense. I miss the

human encounter. I miss the connection to the authenticity of life. Fiction and staging are not a basis for healthy social development.

In many debates about an upper limit, proponents and opponents cite different studies. Some say the South Tyrolean population has had enough, while others say that the majority of South Tyroleans do not feel disturbed by tourism. How do you assess the mood in South Tyrolean society regarding tourism?

I think the biggest issue for South Tyrolean tourism at the moment, is the clear internal divide. A division that is currently visible quite firmly in our society in general: some don’t want to give up the old way of life, according to the motto “more and more and bigger and bigger”, and others want to finally take concrete steps for a true change towards eco-social and economic sustainability. The patriarchy clings tooth and nail to the outdated capitalist system, trying to talk it up through green slogans and marketing strategies, but ultimately wanting everything to stay the way it is. In this whole debate, people often talk about the importance of “development”: for the proponents of “more and more”, development stands for land consumption, investments, and increasing sales. For the advocates of a finer, slower, more conscious tourism, development stands 165

above all for socio-cultural growth. Economic development should always go hand in hand with social and cultural development, otherwise, we will have the problem we already have in many places: lots of money but little awareness.

Much work but little responsibility. A lot of potentials but little know-how. A lot of courage but little sense. I believe we should finally recognize the incredible social responsibility of tourism: When it comes to tourism, it is ultimately about the whole society, not just the tourism professionals themselves, accordingly, the dialogue about tourism development must be holistic and participatory. Only in this way can and will we find a common path.

The municipal council of Badia recently voted by a majority against hosting the 2029 World Ski Championships, including you, as tourism assessor. A large part of the population and also parts of the hotel industry seemed to support this decision. What motivations led to this decision and to what extent does this indicate a change?

The local council of Abtei did not receive the majority for the proposal of a possible candidacy of Badia, and, thus, triggered a very interesting debate about the future of tourism in South Tyrol. The reason why the members of the Council opposed the event was, above all, the uncertainty about the impact that such a mass 166

event could have on the environment and on the local social development. (...) In Abtei, and in Alta Badia in general, the tourist development of the last decades has been very positive, but now we have reached the limit of what is sustainable, structurally and socially. In the high tourist seasons, the balance between the quality of life of the local population and the extent of tourism, comes to falter. Mobility is a very big problem, especially the transit traffic over the Dolomite passes in summer. In winter you have a monoculture oriented almost exclusively to ski tourism. And in general there is a very high economic dependence on tourism, which could become critical in the long term if one does not start now to promote and include other economic categories. (...) We have to realize that sustainability is not only about the environment, but also about ethical social development. To be sustainable, it is not enough to make a mass event plastic-free.

Currently, the words soft and sustainable tourism are used with pleasure in South Tyrol.

A limit of touristic beds is discussed again and again. The fact is, South Tyrol recorded an annual increase in almost all areas of the sector until the Covid 19 crisis. IDM continues to solicit new visitors throughout Europe. A lot continues to be invested in the expansion of tourism. How do you envision the future of South Tyrolean tourism? Is there still a return

from mass tourism to soft tourism?

Yes, I think so. We have reached a crossroads in South Tyrolean tourism: we now have the opportunity to steer development in a more sustainable direction. The prerequisite is that we now act courageously and not only with nice slogans and marketing strategies, to promote sustainable tourism. This is exactly why I decided against hosting the World Ski Championships; I wanted to send a signal, a message: now we must have the courage to act, even if it means we will face a lot of opposition. Even if it is difficult. We can’t always just talk about change, and then not stand up for change.

Because first of all, change has to happen in our minds. We have to realize that this is also and above all about the future of our economy.

It goes without saying that mass tourism will sooner or later lead to a short circuit, and at the latest then, we will have a serious problem. Only through a slow but qualitative development, we can achieve long-term and stable success in the tourism industry. Our children will also have to live on it! We must not forget that. So I would like to see more courage for change from the tourism industry, less green-washing and slogans, more coherence and concrete steps. We can’t advertise plastic-free tourism destinations on the one hand, and on the other hand, continue to promote the development of our landscape. Quality does not mean bigger

and newer, quality means investing in the software. Away from the tourism industry and towards the encounter. Away from hyperrealities and towards authenticity. Away from cultural staging and towards lived local community.

Away from artificial experience landscapes on the mountains, and towards more intact nature.

Away from departmental thinking and back to the guesthouse. Less marketing strategies and more awareness-raising. Fewer events and more life. But a vision remains fantasy if you don’t also implement concrete action. Tourism needs a framework. I’m in favor of a bed limit, but more than that, a development limit. We need to limit soil sealing, we need a CO2 tax. We need to promote environmentally conscious businesses without forgetting the social aspect.

In tourism, for example, there is too little talk about the quality of the workplace, the worklife balance, the appreciation of professional workers, etc. Let’s start with that! If we don’t get lost now, we have very good chances for a soft, high quality and economically valuable tourism.

167

SOUTH TYROL IS APPLES AND COWS

For centuries, agriculture was the cornerstone of South Tyrolean society and its landscape. While still, every second inhabitant worked in the agricultural sector in the 1940s, today it is less than every 10th (Beobachtungsstelle Arbeitsmarkt, 2019). Most farms were self-sufficient entities, selling a variety of their overproduction to urban markets. Their differentiation of crops was still adjusted to the variety of needs of a household or a community. Today, the biggest part of regional agriculture is a highly efficient industry, exporting products all over the World. The main part of agricultural production is exported, while at the same time, feed for animals, meat for “Speck” etc. is imported. The main produced goods are apples and milk (dairy products etc.).

Therefore, the title Apples and Cows refers to the strong specialization of the sector towards orchards and dairy farming.

The Etsch/Adige valley, in the middle of the Alps, is the largest continuous apple-growing area in Europe (Dalla Via, Mantinger, 2012), and 80% of the regions exported plant-based goods are apples, with the numbers still increasing (Erschbaumer, Perkman, 2015). There are no precise numbers regarding the export of dairy products, yet more than 90% of the produced milk is processed into yogurt, cheese, etc., (Santandrea, 2021). A large part of it is exported, mainly to the EU, but also to Asia, America, and other countries.

172

While over the last decades, the agricultural practices and overall sector became continuously less involved in the everyday life of the biggest part of the population, its influence and external effects have increased. Agriculture currently accounts for about 62% of South Tyrol’s landscape and therefore makes it one of the most important “designers” or shapers of the social environment. The sector as a whole consumes a majority of the usable surface of the region, it is responsible for 67% of the total water consumption and ca. 17%-30% of the total greenhouse emissions (depending on how meat imports for further processing are calculated) (Tappeiner et al., 2020). At the same time, it is strongly subsidized by the public sector. With around 30.000 employees, many of whom part-time, the agricultural sector received 2018 around 223 million Euro, composed of subsidies by the European Union and the Regional Government (Südtiroler Bauernbund, 2019).

173

From Self-sufficiency to Global Supplier

The shift from an agricultural sector producing primarily for its self-supply and a small supraregional market to the production for a global market is best visible in the changes of crop cultivation and the types of domesticated animals.

Agricultural animals were kept for thousands of years in the mountains to sustain human life. The Tiroler Grauvieh for example is an autochthonous cattle breed, originated in historic Tyrol. Historical references date the breed back to 1.000 B.C. It is a dual-purpose animal, which means it can be used for both milk and meat production. Typical characteristics of the grey cattle are a rustic physique, suitability for grazing in extreme areas, resistance, long life, and uncomplicated keeping. Therefore, they are well suited for transhumance practices and are able to convert the grass of elevated areas to animal protein. One traditional female Tiroler Grauvieh produces approximately 15 kg of milk a day, which is the main reason, why its numbers decreased so strongly and count today just 14.000 animals out of 132.000 held in the region, compared to 44.000 in 1974 (Südtiroler Rinderzuchtverband, 2020). Another traditional Tyrolian breed, similar to the Grauvieh, the Pinzgauer, decreased from 17.000 to 2.000 in the same period. Genetic selection permitted the breeding of specialized milk or meat cattle, by enhancing phenotypical characteristics. Such 174

cattle can produce higher quantities of milk, between 25 and 30 kg (Sennereiverband Südtirol, 2020), or meat, compared to traditional breeds like the Tiroler Grauvieh, but they also need more feed to sustain this higher productivity, are more sensitive to its environment, and have a shorter use phase. For this reason, transhumance is not suitable for such breeds. Cultural highland areas are used as sinks for the manure in order to maximize the amount of hay output, but increasingly also abandoned completely to their relatively difficult accessibility and low harvest.

Both of these practices lead to a decline in biodiversity (Bätzing, 2020). Moreover, the farm animals are kept in stables for most of the year, to control the environmental conditions and permit the maximization of their productivity.

Consequently, local breeds are less competitive in pure economical aspects of production output. Externalities like the increase in manure or the higher demand for external feed and its impacts on the biodiversity of pastureland are not taken into consideration in this calculation.

Still, around 50% more feed energy is consumed by regional life-stock than is produced.

Therefore, feed needs to be imported, from other EU countries but also from South- and North America, Australia, Kasachstan, etc.

(Tappeiner et al., 2018). Precise information on the origin of feed used in South Tyrol is not available. The practice of importing almost half

livestock farms

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

apples and wine cultivation

175

of the feed consumed by local cattle is also the reason why the soil of the “grass scapes” is overacidified and former landscapes known all over Europe for their meadow flowers seem today like a wasteland of biodiversity with just a few grasses left where not even bees can find any sustenance anymore.

Since the 1950s we witness in almost all areas of plant cultivation (wheat, rye, barley, oats, maize, potatoes, and cabbage) a strong decrease in the harvest. In 1970 more than 6.000 ha were used to cultivate grain, just 40 years later, that number shrank to 400 ha (ASTAT, 2018). From over 30 diverse old local varieties of apples, just a few remained. On 95% of apple fields, just 10 different varieties are produced. The most produced type is the “Golden Delicious”, a native cultivar of the United States. Today every second apple in Italy and every 9th in Europe comes from South Tyrol. Moreover, 40% of Europe’s biological certified apples grow in the region (Dalla Via, Mantinger, 2012). With its cooperative system, unique in the world, South Tyrolean apple production has already adapted well to the changes in the market and has developed protective mechanisms for short-term price fluctuations. Through the fusion of many producers, South Tyrol has gained negotiating power. The region`s apple association has vast infrastructures, storing apples in cold rooms with a controlled atmosphere (hardly any 176

oxygen and high humidity), to preserve them fresh for many months. Optimized storage of the products for export also makes it possible to sell them all year round. Goods can always be delivered fresh. It is possible to react to fluctuations in demand and price. Not many other competitors have such possibilities. This is also reflected in a high economic value: in South Tyrol, for example, ca. 60% of agricultural value added is produced on only 11% of agricultural land (Tappeiner et al., 2020). Today only 1,7% of the region`s agricultural land is used for arable farming. Almost 90% of the agricultural land in South Tyrol is grass- and pastureland, feeding the livestock of the farmers, but still doesn’t suffice by far (Lechner, Moroder, 2012).

Of the approximately 600 species of flora in South Tyrol classified as endangered, 41% are endangered by intensification measures in agriculture. This primarily affects plants of humid locations and typical meadow species of locations with low to medium nutrient content (Wilhalm, Hilpold, 2006). The agricultural crops occupy a considerable part of the South Tyrolean cultural landscape. There is less and less space for biodiversity. It is resolutely opposed through too intensive cultivation and the lack of buffer zones between the fields such as ditches, hedges, and wetlands. Moreover, the intensification makes the inter-linkage between agricultural fields close or in between settled areas more difficult.

Agricultural production of apples, potatoes and grain28 1940-2016

(t log10) 1.000.000

10.000

1.000

Apples Potatoes

100

Grain

1960

1980

2000

havest in t

1940

2020

Grain Potatoes Apples

36.600 t 49.130 t 61.470 t

687 t 10.560 t 1.063.700 t

2020

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

1940

177

Another interesting example of the “paradox” of South Tyrolian agriculture and its merchandising is the case of Speck, which is a traditional, cured, lightly smoked ham that dates back to 1.200 A.D. Due to the strongly increasing demand and the decreasing farms keeping pigs, it became soon impossible to produce the good with regional pig meat. In 2019, 7,1 Million “Hammen” (a Hamme is a piece of speck between 4,5 and 5,5 kg) were produced in South Tyrol, with a regional number of pigs of 8.000 animals. Around 40% of the production has a special quality certification, called „Südtiroler Speck g.g.A.“, the g.g.A. stands for “protected geographical indication”. Paradoxically, just 0,02 % of the pig meat was produced in the region, the rest is imported from Germany (70%), the Netherlands (20%), other regions of Italy (7%), and the rest from Austria and Belgium (Stefenelli, 2020).

The first sentence of the consortium’s website is: ”Südtiroler Speck g.g.A owes its typical taste above all to its South Tyrolean origin.”

178

Agricultural machines in South Tyrol29 1950-2017

1950 223 agricultural machines 2017 - 59.379 agricultural machines

Shares of economic output in agricultural sector30 2017 others 4%

animal husbandry 36%

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

orcharding 48%

viticulture 12%

179

As still most of the cultural landscape in South Tyrol is defined by agricultural patterns, the progressive intensification of cultivation forms in recent decades has led to a strong decrease in the diversity of such. In the 1950s the most favorable agricultural areas have been used for arable farming but also fruit and wine cultivation, the areas with inferior soil have been used as meadowland. Since then, the cultivation patterns became more monotonous. In climatic favorable areas like the Etsch/Adige Valley, almost every square meter is intensively used by either settlements, infrastructures, or apple and wine plantations. Very few forested areas are left in between. Arable farming has strongly diminished in all altitudes. While grasslands have increased in lower altitudes, certain areas in higher locations are continuously given up and taken over by the forests. Due to climate change and rising temperatures, we witness already today an increase in the vegetation period as well as a shift of the vegetation zones and cultivation patterns to higher altitudes.

The changing climatic conditions enable the cultivation of wine and apples in higher altitudes, while very low and warmer areas are becoming less favorable. As these cultivation forms increase the financial output per square meter rapidly, many farmers that used their land for decades solely as pasture and grassland, shift to the new possibility of cultivating different crops.

180

Development of new vineyards by vineyard altitude31 1900-2016

2010-2016

1950-1960

0

1900-1910 50

(newly planted area in %) > 1000 m 500-1000 < 500 m

100

Changes in agricultural use32 1865-2010 100 80 60 40 20 0

Alpine 1.800-2.400m

100 80 60 40 20 0 100 80 60 40 20 0 100 80 60 40 20 0

montane - valley floor 800-1600m

hills - slope 0-800 m urbanized areas permanent crops cultivation arable farming grassland

hills - valley floor 0-800 m 1865

1955

1980

forest brownfields agricultural not usable land

2010

181

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

100 80 60 40 20 0

montane - slope 800-1600m

Soil as a Dumping Ground

Even with around 90% of the agricultural land used for feed production, the locally kept lifestock needs can be fed to just 50%. That also means that the balance of the nutrition cycle between animals and soil is overstressed. The grasslands function as liquid manure “sink” is also contributing to the monotonisation of the cultural landscape. Generally speaking, one hectare of natural grassland feeds one cow per year, its excrements function as a natural fertilizer by returning the nutrients to the cycle of the pasture. But today's farming practices are not based anymore on a regional, but a global nutrients cycle. The feed gets enriched with imported protein-rich supplements, from all parts of the world. The supplementary feeding and selected genetically crossbred cattle breeds to enable a higher outcome of milk or meat but also produce more manure. Therefore, the excrements exceed the quantity as well as the natural constituency of the nutrients that are returned to the pasture. With boughtin feed there are no longer closed cycles, in other words, there is an enormous surplus of nutrients in form of manure. Industrialization or modernization of agriculture is not just linked to the use of machinery and intensive cultivation, but to a global network of feed, nutrients, and life stock that has far-reaching impacts on C02 emissions, soil condition, biodiversity, and habitat as well as the quality and quantities of generated products.

182

Feed energy locally produced33 (white=overprod. black=underprod.)

600 ca. 47%

300

100 1910

1960

2010

From a regional nutrient cycle to a global nutrients network 2017

+ nitrogen + phosphor - vegetational diversity

Pasture / Soil

external nutrients

fer ti

on ir ti

cattle

feed

(ca. 50%)

li z a

manure

+ nitrogen + phosphor

production

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

+ production + manure - shorter lifespan

surplus of nutrients

n tio

nu t

Increase of production

Increase of production

On the left: Grassland with dandoline flowers in the natural park Seiser Alm. Due to over-acidified soil, the diversity of grasses is very low.

183

INTERVIEW

Dear Mr. Kaibitsch, agriculture was long considered the cornerstone of South Tyrolean society. Today, only about 6% of the population works in the agricultural sector. Most of the total yield, especially apples and milk, is marketed and distributed by internationally operating companies.

Has agriculture become alienated from the South Tyrolean population?

Heiner Kaibitsch

Heiner Kaibitsch studied history and communication sciences in Vienna as well as food culture and communication in Parma.

Together with his wife Clara he has been running for about 10 years now an organic farm in Völs, at the edge of the Dolomites. They transformed the historical Stanglerfarm into a cultural, culinary, and social hub of interaction and exchange, for locals as well as tourists.

Their approach is an example of how diverse the modern interpretation of a traditional farm can be lived. Linking traditional practices and values with creative and modern concepts.

184

Not alienated perhaps, but rather decoupled.

The low percentage of people working in agriculture also reduces the connection and understanding for this kind of work. More and more people live and work in urban centers or are simply much less confronted with the everyday life and work of a farmer. Self-interest prevails, e.g. when farmers mow on Sundays or spread manure, etc., other citizens can feel disturbed. The sensitivity of the majority of the population increased because they no longer know the practice and the reasons for it. The farmers still have a strong self-image that they represent the basis of society, a self-definition heavily reinforced by well-organized and rather aggressively communicating farmer’s associations. They control much of the land and landscape outside the city. However, they also maintain cultural landscapes that are an important resource for touristic activities and a lot of general infrastructures, such as hiking trails. In addition, their power is very well

organized through the farmers’ union, which also strengthens their self-confidence. All in all, this does not contribute to questioning the current practices. And therefore the likeliness of conflicts is increasing, as self-image and image in the rest of the population are increasingly drifting apart.

The municipality of Mals decided through a citizen’s referendum against the future use of synthetic chemical pesticides. This decision was strongly criticized. Politicians, the Farmers’ Union, and the agricultural industry organized resistance against it. How can this reaction be explained?

This is a very difficult question. In such debates, the regional minister of agriculture is naturally in a difficult position, as this decision was in direct conflict with the general agricultural practices that the farmers union supports. Moreover, the decision was supported by the majority of the population, many of whom are not farmers. If you look at the use of pesticides in South Tyrol carefully, you can see that the trend of pesticide use is decreasing, in contrast to many other regions. The question appears, can a political entity as a small rural municipality forbid practices that are actually allowed and carefully regulated by national and European law? This made the whole debate very complicated, and the farmer’s lobby wanted to set an example.

In addition, one notices more and more that practices that have been carried out by farmers for decades are questioned strongly today, which enhances the feeling of farmers being criticized continuously. In reality, the use of pesticides and herbicides is currently moving towards more and more organic methods, as this is what the majority of the population wants. On the other hand, not using any chemicals to sustain their agricultural practice is no option right now.

South Tyrol has around half a million inhabitants and over 7 million visitors per year.

Its agricultural capacity in terms of cultivation area is strongly limited. Nevertheless, a large part of the agricultural yield is exported. Do you think a concept to attempt “self-sufficiency” in core areas would be theoretically and practically possible?

Such a concept would certainly be theoretically and practically possible, at least to a large extent.

Although, this would require strong public support. I believe that it would be possible to embrace farmers in growing a much higher variety of crops in larger trial areas and to promote the connection between consumers and producers. However, buying habits would also have to change considerably. Besides, in South Tyrol there are still some months of the year when agricultural production is simply impossible because it’s too cold. In the past, 185

livestock farming served as a so-called “energy storage” that could be used in the winter months. However, vegan agriculture would not have sufficient possibilities to feed the entire population throughout the winter, especially not with current consumption patterns. A concrete connection between agriculture, gastronomy, the hotel industry, and the rest of the population would be necessary for this. Nevertheless, I think it would be possible, but it would require a completely new way of thinking. Furthermore, it would require a strong adaption in many sectors, from educational and research institutions, from farmers as well as from the population as a whole. South Tyrolian agriculture, in general, is very well structured and certain institutions could reach and educate most farmers in a very short period of time.

Which positive developments do you see recently in the agricultural sector of South Tyrol?

In general, we can be cautiously optimistic about the situation of the agricultural sector in South Tyrol. As of now, there are still many small active agricultural entities in a very difficult, steep, and mountainous landscape. Villages and their population are rather stable, no big rural exodus is visible. This is as well a result of policies trying to provide rural areas with modern and functioning infrastructure (roads, internet, 186

leisure structures...) as it is due to the money generated through tourism, that in South Tyrol is still in the hands of mostly local companies, enabling a local money circuit. The big challenge lies in reconnecting agriculture with the local population as well as linking tourism much stronger with local agricultural products. As well as keeping small farms attractive enough for their owners to keep production going. Farms that are only tourist attractions do not help anyone.

In a recent survey by the local German-speaking Farmers union, a big majority of farmers have identified organic agriculture as the one main direction local agriculture is moving to. This came as a surprise for many functionaries of the union, rather known for its conservative approach. In my opinion, we need to strengthen this trend through tests and long-term goals defined by local politics, that lead in this direction and help farmers to follow this path. The idea of an organic region South Tyrol would help unleash motivation from farmers and the population as a whole, help to get funding from the EU, and could as well define positively our touristic image for many years, offering a showcase for the rest of Europe.

At the same time, the Farmers Union, which also does important educational and consultancy work in a tight-knit and capillary network,

should adapt its policies to lead farming towards a more product-centered and diverse future.

We luckily have a well-educated and young workforce in many farms, and there are also, even if limited, some investment capacities to adapt farming towards these goals. I am convinced that in the Alpine setting we are living in, with limited arable surface and big parts of the landscape in steep areas, only quality products and a high degree of local processing can offer a future.

187

SOUTH TYROL IS AN ECOLOGICAL RESERVOIR

South Tyrol is the biggest province of Italy and 45% of its total surface area forests (Amt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, 2020). The Etsch/ Adige is the second-longest river in Italy and rises in the region before it flows 410 kilometers south to the Adriatic sea. Almost one-quarter of Italy’s total glacier surface lies within the region (90 km2). Moreover, it counts 440 km2 of permafrost surface (Permaqua, 2019). Almost one-quarter of the region is part of the national park Stelvio or one of the seven natural parks.

South Tyrol can consequently be considered as a reservoir of natural assets, storing water in form of ice, snow, and rivers. Its forests and its soil function as a carbon sink and the high variety of climatic conditions and protected sites can be considered as storage of biodiversity, as a habitat of many diverse autochthonous species of flora and fauna that are adapted to the harsh Alpine conditions. Therefore, the region can be defined as an ecological reservoir.

The Alps have always been an important reservoir of ecological resources throughout history. With the growing transformation of Europe into a densely populated, urbanized continent, its ecological role and importance of supply, support and regulation increased furthermore. South Tyrol always was an extensively used territory. Such extensive appropriation of the land over thousands of years led to a highly diverse cultural landscape 192

and a broad variety of ecosystem services, which were largely maintained till the mid 20th century. The intensification of land use patterns and the exponential increase of various “production” forms led to increasing demand for natural resources such as water, soil, recreational landscape, etc. in the region itself, and therefore decreased the provision of such for other regions linked to the South Tyrolian ecosystem services. The local, national, and continental/global stakeholders and interests are increasingly overlapping and the question of who is entitled to their usage shows already today the conflict-potential of the thematic.

193

Ecosystem Services of the Alps

The Alps are one of the most productive and diverse territories of the continent, which supplies vast parts of the European continent with a variety of ecosystem services that are strongly linked to the well-being of hundreds of millions of Europeans. South Tyrol, as an Alpine Region, is part of this ecological network that played an important role in the development of the continent’s history.

Especially since the turn of the 20th century and the further specialization of land use, many of these functions have faced major challenges due to a variety of natural and human impacts, including population growth (Wittmeyer et al.

2008), infrastructure development (Dupras, Alam, 2015), environmental changes (Hautier et al. 2015 or socio-economic and political transformations (Jespen et al. 2015) (Egarter, 2018). These ecosystem services are not bounded by administrative-territorial boundaries but are part of a supra-regional network of ecosystems.

Not just water but general climate regulation, CO2 sequestration by Alpine forests, recreation opportunities, etc. witnessed diverse transformations with the evolution of the human population of the Alps. As the maps on the right show, the supply of such services changed over time. In the case of the shown study, by Egarter, Tappeiner, and Tasser, these changes were studied based on the land use and land cover, from 1850 to 2005. In the period studied, 194

certain ecosystem services were enhanced in their total output, while others decreased.

The decrease of managed grasslands and the consequential regrowth of forests increased the supply of the climate regulation functions.

Due to the reduction of cultivated crops in large parts of the Alps, the pollination contributing to a variety of natural habitats was continuously reduced (Egarter, 2018).

(Egarter, 2018) Based on Land use/Land cover trend maps (Zimmermann et al. 2010) at 250 m x 250 m resolution; Using land use/land cover trajectories to uncover ecosystem service patterns across the Alps; All maps are standardized to their highest occurrence (either positive or negative) on a scale between -1 and 1. Positive values indicate an increase in ES supply over time, and negative values indicate a decrease

cultivated crops

green biomass

climate regulation

soil erosion control

pollination

aesthetic value WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Spatial pattern of changes in Ecosystem Services supply34 1850-2005

195

Forests and Protected Sites

The importance of forests in our world’s history, present, and future cannot be underestimated.

Forests have been worshiped by many of our ancestors all over the planet. Their role was recognized as crucial in the cycle of nature that humans are a part of. In the political discussion on climate protection, as a result of the Paris Agreement of 2015, forests but also trees in general and their sustainable management play an important role.

The sole quantity of forested areas in South Tyrol accounts for around 50% of the total surface already a high proportion. Forests function as long-term carbon storage. Even if the timber is used as construction material, the carbon remains bound in the built structure. Today’s regional forests store around 3 tons of CO2 per inhabitant, which accounts for ca. 50% of the CO2 per capita produced annually. Up to 70% of the carbon stored in a forest is actually bound in the forest soil (Tappeiner, et al., 2018). Another important service of the vast surface covered by forests is evapotranspiration, the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from soil, plant canopy interception, water bodies and the transpiration of the vegetation. The water regulating forest is important to balance such processes. While South Tyrol’s forests remained relatively spared by wildfires and pests, they have witnessed several extreme weather events 196

in the last years. From snow pressure to storms, vast forested areas were affected strongly.

In 2018 gusts of wind swept with 200 km/h through a part of South Tyrol (and some other north Italian regions) and took millions of trees with them. My grandfather is almost a hundred years old and worked all his life as a lumberjack.

He said he witnessed never anything similar to this. The increasing temperatures have a strong impact on the changing distribution patterns of forests. Tree species that kept the slopes in place for centuries like larch-zirch forests and mountain pine stands can be superseded by faster-growing trees like the spruce and pine, that usually couldn’t grow in these heights (Provincia di Bolzano, n.d.). Their resistance is not as strong and distinct and could endanger the stability of the slopes.

Another important recognized and protected ecological reservoir is natural conservation areas. They function as highly attractive habitats for a high diversity of flora and fauna and restrict urbanization processes and other exploitative uses. At the same time, their strengthened and concentrated attractivity pulls a great variety of interests and potential users towards such protected areas. Overtourism and the creation of Hotel islands as well as modern agricultural forms of production create tensions between natural protection and anthropic uses.

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Forest

Natura 2000 protected areas

Protected areas

UNESCO World heritage site

197

Glacier - River - Sea Continuum

The Alps are part of a glacier-river-sea continuum, which is formed by glaciers to rivers to the Northern Adriatic Sea. All territories along this continuum are consuming the resources it enhances, interfering with the hydrological cycle. Water supply for farming and human consumption, energy production through hydropower, tourism, etc., Support or hinder human wellbeing and economic possibilities.

The water availability in the Alps and South Tyrol is therefore not just important for the region itself but many settlements, agricultural fields, industries, and natural sites in between the mountains and the sea. Even though the glacier surface is limited inside the region, it is part of a vast water network in the middle of the Alps. After a winter with very little snow and a long drought in the summer of 2017, the Italian newspaper La Stampa wrote about “The war for water” (Zancan, 2017). Many provinces between the Adriatic sea and the Alps struggled with their water household. The Po Plain as one of Italy’s most highly productive territories is partly dependent on the water from the river network of South Tyrol. Who owns the water and who controls its course? With more than 1.000 hydropower plants, the water supply of the region is highly regulated. The biggest water reservoir in the region alone holds 116 billion liter water, which would be around 25% of South Tyrol's annual water use. Climate change 198

Comparison of main river basin areas to the total regional surface (scaleless) South Tyrol 7.400 km2 surface

Rienz Etsch/ Adige

Etsch/Adige 415 km long 12.200 km2 river basin

Eisack

Eisack 100km long 5.000 km2 river basin

Adriatic sea

Munich Salzburg Zurich

Milan

Venice PO-PLAIN

glaciers lakes and water courses Mediterranean Sea urban areas permanent crops cultivation

Bologna

non-permanent irrigated arable land Data Source: Corinne land cover Europe

199

Melting Landscapes

showed us that even regions with historically very high water resources will suffer great limitations in the not-so-distant future.

Glaciers are the biggest freshwater storage in the world. They can be defined as large bodies of main ice but also other materials, slowly but constantly moving and also melting. In South Tyrol, they approximately cover 90 km2 surface (24% of the total glacier surface of Italy) (Tappeiner et al., 2018). Compared to other Alpine regions, especially north of the Alpine ridge, this is a very marginal size. Over 80% of South Tyrol’s glaciers are less than 1 km2 big.

Therefore they are particularly vulnerable to ice loss due to climate warming. Between 1993 and 1997 decreased the glacier surface by 19,7%, ten years later by other 11,9%. As the diagram on the right shows, every glacier shrunk in its size over the last 100 years, some by almost 2 km in length. Due to the diminishing snow cover, this process is further fastened. By 2050 very little glacier surface is expected to be leftover, at the end of the century it is probably totally vanished.

Increasing competition for the so crucial resource might help to enhance an overall more sustainable usage of water. If the events of the summer in 2017 show us something, it is that we have no other chance.

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Length changes of all South Tyrolian Glaciers35 1920-2020

-300 -600 -900 -1200 -1500 -1800

1920

1940

1960

1980

2000

2020

(years)

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

(Cumulative length changes in m)

0

201

INTERVIEW

Dear Mr. Tasser, South Tyrol is considered a very nature-related and ecologically rich region. However, the ecological footprint per inhabitant of South Tyrol is about average in Europe, at 5-7.5 tons of CO2 per year. In which areas do you see the most potentials to reduce the ecological footprint? In which fields do you see the greatest need for improvement regarding the management of the resources “nature” and “landscape”?

Erich Tasser

Erich Tasser is a Senior Researcher at the Eurac Institute for Alpine Environment in Bolzano and Lecturer at the University of Innsbruck. Some of his main fields of research are the sustainable development in mountain areas and landscape planning, mountain agriculture, systems and Alpine ecology.

202

Ecologically rich is definitely true. We are fortunate that the region is located in a climatic transitional area between Mediterranean and European continental influences. In addition, there is the advantage that the bedrock consists of acidic and also basic rocks. Therefore, in relation to many other regions of Europe but also of the world, we have on a relatively small area a high diversity in ecological characteristics.

This high diversity also implies a high landscape diversity, species diversity but also genetic diversity in South Tyrol. To what extent South Tyrol is close to nature is difficult to assess.

From a historical point of view, the population of South Tyrol has always had to deal strongly with its environment. In the mountainous and partly agriculturally unfavorable region, people have tried to get the maximum out of it. They still do it today but in a different way. In the Middle Ages, this heavy agricultural use led to an extensively cultivated landscape, while the

natural areas were reduced to a minimum, and the forests were largely cleared. In today’s global and capitalistic market economy, the use of marginal land, e.g. steep land, has retreated, it remains abandoned or is reforested. In contrast to that certain favorable locations are used very intensively for economic purposes. Forests today are also much denser and trees are older than in the past. Thus I would not say that the South Tyroleans are so particularly nature conscious, they have simply lost interest in certain economic uses of some areas. Mountain agriculture has thus been partially displaced by the manufacturing sector and service sector, i.e. tourism. Whether the South Tyrolean population is particularly nature-loving is hard to say, actually rather not.

The statement that South Tyroleans are considered close to nature comes from a survey conducted by the Austrian Future Institute (Südtirol 230), in which 96 % of South Tyroleans answered that they feel very closely connected to nature. Thus, this is a selfassessment.

This really seems to be a self-assessment yes. Close to nature means to me to lead an appropriate lifestyle. I think in South Tyrol nature is used too strongly to call ourselves very close to nature. Factors such as biodiversity do not play an essential role in people’s minds. The use

plays a vital role. That somehow also answers the second question. We don’t have a better ecological footprint because we are not better than the average region in Europe.

For me personally, the greatest leverage to reduce soon the ecological footprint is to change our diet. Less meat, more vegetable products and above all more food produced in the country itself. In South Tyrol, to exaggerate, really mainly apples and milk are produced.

The regional arable land is tiny in relation to the total agricultural area. However, it is known from the past, that much more of today’s grassland areas would be suitable for arable farming. Today, the interest in it is just not there.

Of course, there would be many other fields, from mobility to construction, where one could reduce the eco-footprint. Overall, however, without major changes in our everyday life and standard of living, I think the most could be achieved in a change of diet. Moreover, a key point for improvement in dealing with nature and landscape as a resource is clearly spatial development. A relatively good legislation in the past has saved a large part of our landscape from urban sprawl, as it happened in Northern Tyrol or parts of Switzerland.

203

In the summer of 2017, when water became scarce in the Po Valley, the Italian newspapers “La Stampa” was already writing about the “War for Water”. To what extent are and will southern regions be dependent on South Tyrol’s water supply? How much autonomy will, or should South Tyrol have in the future over the management of its regional resources?

The demands on the resource water will certainly increase, accelerated by climate change but also in general, because our consumption is increasing. This is due to our lifestyle, energy production, etc. It is not only a regional but also a global problem. In South Tyrol are more and more intensive crops in agriculture that need a lot of water. Also, tourism needs a lot of water, a growing industry, etc. It is not a new phenomenon that regions outside the Alps are dependent on the water of the Alps. I think about 2/3 of Europeans are indirectly dependent on the water of Mountains and therefore especially the Alpine region. And of course, the less water we drain in South Tyrol in the Etsch/Adige river, the less reaches the southern regions. So the question is, do these regions have a right to use the water of the Etsch/Adige? After all, South Tyrol is part of the nation-state Italy and also of the European Union, so we have to look within this our fellow citizens to distribute the resources as fairly as possible. From my point of view, other 204

regions also have a claim to our water. We are also dependent on many external resources, e.g. tourist visitors. But yes, we must be more careful with our resources. There are many ways to use less water, e.g. drought-resistant varieties of apples. Besides, it is important that production processes that require large amounts of water also take place in regions that have a lot of water.

In your opinion, which of South Tyrol’s natural resources is the most important in a global context?

Water will be for sure a crucial resource. But I consider in the long-term the resource “landscape” even more important. Not solely for leisure activities, but for various purposes such as agriculture and settlements in general.

The totality of the high diversity of climatic conditions is very dynamic and can be overall a crucial resource for the future. South Tyrol is today importing many goods, food products, and especially feed for animals for example.

Certain studies show, that South Tyrol could relatively easily be self-sufficient and export a high variety of food products, an important resource also for the future.

Many people perceive the European mountain range as an oasis of security for the challenges of the future. Others, however, warn about the particular fragility of the Alpine ecosystems.

How do you see future developments for the Alps as a habitat for men?

major specific Alpine problems that the Alps will witness.

This is a good question. Actually, I believe South Tyrol is very well positioned for the future, it shows great potential in various areas. One of the reasons is that we have such a wide variety and concentration of climatic conditions and different climatic zones. There is also a relatively high level of precipitation. So regionally, I think we have a relatively stable situation for the future in a global comparison. But, South Tyrol is still only a very small part of this world.

There exist some areas, like the Alps, maybe also the Pyrenees and in general, the north of Europe, which have similar advantages and will attract many people in the future. Since a considerable part of the world will suffer strongly from the consequences of climate change, social and economic constraints could bring huge migration disturbances, which would certainly be strongly felt also in South Tyrol. The immense demand for such places could make the existence of their current form impossible. It is even possible that this will turn the advantage into a major disadvantage in the future. Otherwise, the fragility of certain Alpine ecosystems is well known, but I do not see any

We will experience such events more and more often. Such heavy rain events have always existed, yet they will increase in their frequency. A change of the climate and the weather is inevitable. In the next decades, many things will change, because the effects we are experiencing today have their origin already in the past. Globally as well as regionally, some places will be hit harder by such events than others. It is all the more important that we take immediate and drastic actions today to spare future generations even worse.

How do you determine the weather events of the last days? Within two hours, it has rained as much as it usually rains in a month (70 mm).

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SOUTH TYROL IS A POLITICAL MONOCULTURE

The term political monoculture refers to the exceptional low diversity of the political landscape in South Tyrol. Since the foundation of the autonomous region, more than 70 years ago, no other party than the Peoples Party of South Tyrol (SVP) ruled the provincial council.

In all these years, there have been just five provincial governors, all men, no women. For comparison, the Communist Party of China counted in the same time, seven different leaders.

Ulrich Ladurner, a correspondent from the German renowned newspaper Die Zeit held a lecture in my high school of that time (ca.

2011). Right at the beginning he shocked us, saying South Tyrol doesn’t fulfill many basic democratic standards that actually western democracy is based on. South Tyrol has just one party, that (till then) had since decades the absolute majority in the provincial council, just one media group controls almost all channels of information and is also involved in politics, economics as well as various interest groups, and we have several stakeholder unions that are officially politically independent but at the same time support officially various candidates from the SVP (sometimes also from other parties). So even if South Tyrol does have functional democratic institutions, it is obvious that many standards that define the fundamental principles of a democracy 210

are not met. The monotonous power relations in South Tyrol we witness today are a product of a very complex socio-political past. After years of repression by the fascist regime, an exodus of almost a third of the population towards the extended Nazi-Germany was enforced after an agreement between Hitler and Mussolini. They decided the population should be moved to the Third Reich while the land should stay Italian. Even after the war, the societal divide and trauma were still present, as well as the suppression by the Italian state.

The political monoculture initially served to promote strong cohesion within the region and thus to protect itself as best as possible against repression from outside and to have a stronger negotiation power towards the central government in Rome. It was the instrument that enabled the foundation of a stable region, of the autonomous status and laid the establishment of the prosperous development. Yet, more than 70 years later, the solidified monotonous structures that enabled the development of the region as it is today, hinder a future inclusive dynamic and innovative development and is simply an example how little democratic standards and values can be followed, even in a democracy.

Luis Durnwalder 1989-2014

Arno Kompatscher 2014-today

Karl Eckert 1948-1955

Alois Pupp 1956-1960

Silvius Magnago 1960-1989

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Peoples Party Monoculture

From 1948 to 2008 the SVP (Südtiroler Volkspartei) retained an absolute majority in the Provincial Council. Its best result was 67.8% in 1948, its worst 41.9% in 2018. Not just the provincial council, the regional parliament, is dominated by the SVP. From 116 municipalities, 101 have a mayor that is a member of the SVP. The common message is still the same as seventy years ago, the South Tyrolian population needs to be politically united in order to have the strength to maintain the special provincial autonomous rights. Moreover, the SVP is the only party in Italy’s republican history to have been represented in the Italian parliament without interruption since the first elections in 1948. It is very difficult to have a successful political career and achieve an important role in the political landscape without being part of the SVP. Therefore it is very common that various members of other political parties change to the SVP. The SVP had a long-lasting alliance with Christian Democracy (and the Italian Socialist Party) and, since 1994, with some of its successor parties. In the last elections in 2018, the party chose to form a coalition with the local section of Lega Nord / Lega per Salvini Premier. At the European level, the SVP is a member of the European People’s Party (EPP).

212

Share of votes for the SVP in provincial elections36 1948-2018 (%) 70 60 50 40 30 20

2018

2013

2008

1998

1993

1988

1983

1978

1973

(legislative terms) WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

1968

1964

1960

1956

1952

1948

0

2003

10

213

Stakeholder Monoculture

Traditional corporate interest groups are historically strong stakeholders in the region.

Their entanglement with the SVP are an open secret. Many interest groups openly call on their members to vote for certain candidates, often these candidates are all of the same party, the SVP. For example, in 2018, the South Tyrolian farmers union called upon their 42.000 members to choose 4 candidates (of the SVP). Lobbyism is part of modern democracy everywhere, but the way it is used in the South Tyrolean system is more than questionable. The exertion of influence in the political process is strongly recognizable. For example, in the many amendments concerning the Spatial Planning law 2020.

The head of the Athesia group, former parliamentarian in Rome as well as Brussels is also the president of the agency of trade and service providers (since 2008). Even in Rome, several times, concerns were raised about the monopoly position of the South Tyrolian media group. As the journalist Peterlini reflected on the famous saying by Andreas Khol, president of the Austrian National Council from 2002-2006, ““...elsewhere parties have a newspaper, but in South Tyrol the newspaper has a party”(...) South Tyrol is dominated by a powerful party, which in turn is often on the leash of an overpowering newspaper” (Peterlini, 2003, p. 172).

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South Tyrols farmers union (since 1904)

Hotelier- and Restaurant association

- ca. 42.000 members - Politically independent yet strongly involved with several farmers representatives in SVP

- ca. 4.200 members - Politically independent yet strong links to SVP

Peoples party of South Tyrol (since 1945) Team Köllensperger (since 2018) - ca. 90 members - Second highest share of votes at the first approach in the provincial council - Already witnessed a strong decay of supporters in the first three years since its foundation

- ca. 50.000 members - for ca. 60 years absolute majority in provincial council - won every provincial council election since the first election in 1948

Athesia AG (since 1907)

Signa Holding (since 2000) - Austria’s largest privately owned real estate company - Involved in several large development projects in South Tyrol, especially Bolzano

- largest media company in the region, controls a large majority of print and online media (partly also radio) - extended portfolio with hotels, ski resorts, Internet companies etc.

- Historically involved in politics (SVP) - Historically involved in interest groups

Interest groups

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Political Parties

Important Businesses 215

Gender Monoculture

Women are strongly underrepresented in regional and municipal politics. From 116 municipalities, just 13 have a female mayor.

In the provincial council, women occupy just 9 seats compared to 26 seats occupied by men. The Council of Municipalities is an advisory body between the municipalities and the South Tyrolean Parliament or the South Tyrolean Government. It consists of 17 members elected by the assembly of the mayors of the municipalities of the province. Of these 17 politicians, just 2 are women. The president as well as the four vice-presidents are all men.

This inequality is not an isolated case; the neighboring regions of North Tyrol and Trentino also have a similar gender ratio in politics.

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Members of the regional parliament comparison of genders

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

Mayors of municipalities37 comparison of genders

Created by Alice Design from the Noun Project

103

Created by Alice Design

13

26

Created by Alice Design from the Noun Project

Created by Alice Design

9 217

INTERVIEW

Dear Dr. Heiss, you have actively participated in the development of South Tyrol over the last decades. You warn about overtourism, urban sprawl and climate change since a long time. Today these topics seem more actual than ever before. Do you feel frustrated that it took so long and do you think South Tyrol will now work out these challenges in the near future or wait again?

Hans Heiss

Hans Heiss is considered as one of the most influential historians and politicians of South Tyrol. For fifteen years (until 2018) he was part of the regional council as a member of the Green Party. The commemorative poublication published in his honours defines him as an “(...) incessantly enlightening citizen, a generationdefining shaper of cultural and social discourses within and outside the country (...)”. Some of his fields of research and teaching are regional contemporary history, history of tourism in the Alps, history of modern cities and urban spaces.

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South Tyrol, its politics and society, are in large part convinced, that the political and ecological path of the small region is on the right track.

Their affirmation is, that the small region in the heart of the Alps has already made a long and successful way towards a high level of sustainability: The CO-2-consumption with 7-8 tons/pro capita seems to be definitively wide under the European middle range, the impact of tourism is, compared to other Alpine regions, considered less invasive than in North Tyrol, the production of renewable energy holds on a high level. Large part of regional society and politicians are affected by a sort of „mental green washing“, which doesn’t consider the real facts: 1.

South Tyrol suffers under an avalanche of traffic and individual mobility, generated by tourism, heavy transport (2,5 million trucks in 2020) along the Brenner highway and „home made“ individual mobility. Traffic is highly invasive in terms of fossile energy, emissions and

pollution, in consumption of land and nature as a consequence of roads as infrastructures.

2.

Agriculture is emitting a lot of CO2, their „contribution“ is estimated about 18%, but the effects of „grey emissions“ are much more invasive.

3.

Tourism in South Tyrol with 33 millions of overnights in 2019 is a constant factor of negative climate effects and soil consumption and shows in many weeks in the year heavy symptoms of overcrowding and overtourism.

After 15 months of pandemic, the effort to get back to a „normal situation“ is stronger than all good proposals. Only a small proportion of the political elites and economic actors feel the need for the necessary and far-reaching transformation of the regional economy and political action; instead, they want to return to “business as usual” as quickly as possible.

Do you think the term “Political monoculture” fits to South Tyrol?

The SVP is in political power in the province of South Tyrol since 1948 and has expressed dominance and hegemony at will at various levels since the 1970s: In the contacts with the Central Government in Rome, at provincial level and also in most of the 116 comunalities.

Political opposition and parties rarely got above 10 % and were long stigmatized as enemies of South Tyrolean autonomy. They were also made responsible for weakening the strength of SVP which needed to be a strong political force for representing forcefully the interests of South Tyrol in Rome. But in recent years, like most classical parties in Europe, the SVP has lost some of its former strength, falling from around 50 % of the votes below the absolute majority to 42 % in the last elections of Provincial Parliament in 2018. The political monoculture has thus gained diversity, but also fragmentation, with more centers of power and decision-making, but also more contradictions.

South Tyrol is a wonderful part of the Alps, with an astonishing beauty of nature, breathtaking mountains and landscape scorches, yet rich of impressive forms of biodiversity. The political system has also shown a great ability in creating and implementing a large autonomy, but has also build a balance of power in the hands of the Südtiroler Volkspartei, which has long been dominant, hegemonic and often also arrogant.

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Can you imagine that the “old powerhouses” of the region, SVP, Farmers Union, Touristic Sector and the Hotel and Gastronomy association have understood that we live in times that need drastic change? Will they hinder it or support it?

The old powerhouses of corporate interests still keep a central position in the economic and social setting in South Tyrol, but also in the core of the political system. The leading political party, the SVP, the SBB and the HGV as a representation of the touristic sector, along with the HDS, the association of trade and service providers and the Unternehmerverband (the Entrepreneurial Corporation) are very effective in defining their interests and lobbying for the realization of their goals and issues, with the help of the leading newspaper, the „Dolomiten“. They are trying to keep open the access to the internal italian such as to global markets market, try to push the export and are very able to shape regional law to their interests. Part of them has recognised the importance of a valuable reaction to climate change and have the insight that sustainability is an important match for the future, such as the new President of the Unternehmerverband, Heiner Oberrauch, who has expressed a clear position. But most of them want to go along with business as usual, with more digitalisation and a few green concessions.

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What do you believe are the biggest problems of the regional political landscape?

I. The biggest problem in the regional political landscape is the rapidly declining level of the political class: Over the past 20 years, the number of politicians with competence, character and clear goals has steadily declined. Too many compromises, too many lobby interests, too much populism and the loss of far-sighted politics seem to be a real burden for the future.

II. Besides these general remarks, the evolution of autonomy and its adaptation to the profoundly changed European and global context is a major threat, as is the general situation of Italy, whose institutional, economic, social and structural problems are much deeper than they seem from the outside.

III. Another problematic area is the relationship between the two large language groups, the German-speaking majority and the Italians.

They live in a state of cold neighborliness, certainly not as enemies, but in a kind of difficult cohabitation, without any real and convinced need for cooperation. But in a European context of growing nationalism, the South Tyrolean situation is still acceptable.

IV. Another problem area is the growing gap between social groups, the difference between a small, very wealthy group of well-off upper classes, a middle class with constantly growing problems, and a class of working poor, with

low-income families, women with low wages, and fragmented but large precariat groups.

And, of course, immigration is a constant field of conflict in South Tyrol, because migrants from the Balkans, from Africa (Morocco, the sub-Saharan states) and from the Far East (Afghanistan, Bangladesh) are considered a constant problem, although most of them represent an important labor force.

What would you suggest to younger generations who want to have a positive impact in the regional conflicts regarding the future developments?

to engage in citizens’ movements in the environmental and social spheres, which often take up topics that are not very agreeable and accept conflicts. Here, more commitment is needed from younger people, who should face the hardship of the commitment, of course with new modes of organization and communication as made possible by social media. And it is important to be open and to counter the life lies, resistance and power claims that are rampant in South Tyrol with an alert eye for the situation on the ground. Ultimately, this means getting out of the bubble!

Many members of the younger generations, especially Generation Y, prefer to turn their backs on South Tyrol and put their often outstanding qualifications, skills and personal qualities into play abroad (Austria, Switzerland, Germany) and globally. However, the path abroad is not only the result of better job opportunities, but also a consequence of the narrowness and selective structures they encounter in the country. It would be desirable if at least some of these talents could remain in South Tyrol in order to improve conditions here and to strengthen innovation and openness. What is also needed is real commitment to the situation: In South Tyrol there is a lot of voluntary commitment in volunteer organizations, which is laudable and important, but it would also be essential 221

On the left election poster by the SVP "loyal to South Tyrol united with the edelweiss " On the right Mass rally by german speaking citizens, calling for more autonomous rights ("Los von Trient"), in 1957 and a halt of repressive actions

INTERIM CONCLUSION

The answer given in this chapter is, that even if there are many different possible answers regarding the question of what South Tyrol is, it is important to take a closer look at the few fields that are noticeable the main forces of transformation regarding the region's spatial configuration.

Urbanization, tourism, agriculture, the pressure of the distribution of natural resources, and the static monotonous political power, converted South Tyrol over the last decades into a hybrid physical and social landscape, between modernity and traditionality, between urbanity and rurality. Such a profound transformation in such a short time, which enabled an incredible increase of wealth and prosperity, seems difficult to follow in the individual selfperception of one’s own habitat. The reason why these topics are so important is not simply because they strongly influenced the region’s course of history, but because they strongly define the region’s present as well as future.

Each of the characteristics discussed in the five sub-chapters should enhance a closer reflection with these topics and their regarding status and future. In order to continue the successful course of the region’s history, we need to reflect strongly and continuously on these topics in order to proactively shape our possible futures, instead of simply react to the negative outcomes of our actions.

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South Tyrol is an Alpine Belt City, states that the form and intensity that many valley floors are used as today, combine all characteristics of a highly urbanized territory, and can therefore be defined as a valley agglomeration or belt city.

South Tyrol is a Fun Park, makes attentive on the scale that touristic development shaped and also colonized South Tyrol over a relatively short period of time. That all our territory, its people and customs, are somehow subordinate to the attraction of visitors and the coverage of their needs.

South Tyrol is Apples and Cows, reflects on the extreme monetization of the regional agricultural sector, strongly subsidized by the local government, but mainly producing for external markets.

South Tyrol is an Ecological Reservoir, draws attention to the supra-regional importance of the ecological network of the region as a storage of very diverse but comprehensive ecosystem services, as well as the reduction of such storage due to climate change.

South Tyrol is a Political Monoculture, summarizes briefly the monotonous political landscape of the region, with just one powerful party since over 70 years, very few women, and the influence of powerful stakeholder groups.

WHAT IS SOUTH TYROL?

In order to continue the successful course of the region’s history, we need to reflect strongly and continuously on these topics in order to proactively shape our possible futures, instead of simply react to the negative outcomes of our actions. In its totality, all of these topics can be considered as monostructures, as a cause or a result from a concentration of power. While these developments firstly helped a broad part of the population to increase their livability, the increasing development today helps fewer and fewer people and tends to drive the prosperity gap further apart.

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WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME?

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POINT OF DEPARTURE THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE PROTOPIA - DYSTOPIA

POINT OF DEPARTURE

To answer the question of what South Tyrol could become in the future, won’t be possible by solely looking at the region itself, but it requires a broadened, global perspective. The year 2020, was the latest proof of the all-encompassing planetary interrelations in the 21st century.

Globalization, capitalism, and digitalization corrode all physical boundaries on planet earth.

One of the worst pandemics of human history, called the Black Death, took almost fifty years to travel from East Asia to London in Europe in the 14th century. In 2020 it took just a few months for Covid-19 to spread from China to most parts of the world, like the remotest Alpine villages in South Tyrol. This is a clear example of how interconnected but also interdependent our world became. On the other side, also the ongoing transformations and efforts on the local or regional level, are important for the future of the whole.

Since trains, highways, communication networks, and various other infrastructure elements crisscross the planet and enable material and immaterial fluctuation all around the world, the natural limits of time and space set by man and animal power have been blown up (Sieverts, 1997). This “explosion” formed a continuously changing landscape, where there is no clear end or beginning between the urban and the rural, between the manmade and nature, between the developed and 230

the not developed, just a changing degree or concentration of man-made processes. The defused city seems “unplanned”, but it is the output of many, single or individual planning decisions. Sieverts explains this with an example that can be interpreted as exemplary in the case of South Tyrol. A small road is existing. A factory or hotel is being built, either for agricultural purposes, to process natural resources, or because of a specific landscape feature.

Financial and human capital is attracted, new services are needed for the growing population, the spending power attracts new businesses, infrastructural networks, and “the urban” grows step by step, without a real planned growth (Sieverts, 1997).

Today it is a widespread view that nature, especially in mountainous areas, declined and changed just since modern society. But our land was shaped already since the evolution of man itself. Agricultural societies transformed profoundly the natural environment that they lived in. Due to their immediate dependencies on these environments, they treated them with care and tried to avoid any far-reaching interventions (Bätzing, 2015b). Until the industrial revolution, the pace and intensity of vast environmental alteration and destruction remained in a certain balance with the ecosystem as a whole. In more recent history it’s visible that environmental change and

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

Planetary urbanization Planet earth surrounded by orbiting satellites and space junk38

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transformation are not equal to environmental destruction. Not every environmental change leads automatically to ecological destruction, this only applies if the ecological reproduction of man-made nature is not taken into account (Bätzing, 2020).

In their natural state, the Alps were covered up to high altitudes with dense forests which were difficult to penetrate. Valley floors instead were mostly swamps and marshy, prone to flooding and also difficult to pass. Only the areas of Alpine primeval grasslands above the timberline lend themselves to limited use, as it was in form of transhumance by settlers outside the edge of the Alps that brought their life-stock in warmer months to the Alpine grasslands. To permanently settle in the region, humans had to intervene in the existing ecosystems and reshape them to meet their needs. Forests were cleared and later swamps dried. The usage of the land was extensive but with very low intensity.

With the emergence of the industrial revolution, this pattern reversed. Certain areas were left up, but especially the valley floors became used intensively. Today, South Tyrol as a relatively exceptional Alpine region, witness extensive use in most parts of the region, especially due to its highly diversified economy and the high subsidies for the agricultural sector that enables the continuity of farming in hostile altitudes and areas. Yet at the same time, it is also strongly 232

defined by its highly intensified forms of use, like apple and wine fields, industrial sites especially in the Bolzano basin, as well as touristic activities in the Dolomites and other touristic hotspots.

There are many signs that such intensive, as well as extensive use of the land, will bring many challenges for the future, on the global as well as local scale. The main characteristic element of future development might be man-made as well, but not like industrial sites, but climate change on a global scale.

I often have the feeling as if South Tyrolians are very confident about their future. Which is not a bad thing in itself. Yet they have trouble accepting the partly destructive processes that their wealth is built upon. It might be that South Tyrol may look at a relatively stable short-term future compared to the world. But if the global society, composed of infinite small regions as South Tyrol, is not reacting much more drastically, the region and its inhabitants will suffer on a scale that most generations of today have not experienced yet.

“More than ever before, it can be said that the Earth’s entire surface is urbanized to some degree, from the Siberian tundra to the Brazilian rainforest to the icecap of Antarctica, perhaps even to the world’s oceans and the atmosphere that we breathe. Of course, this does not mean that there are dense agglomerations everywhere, but the major features of urbanism as a way of life - from the play of market forces and the effects of administrative regulations, to popular cultural practices and practical geopolitics - are becoming ubiquitous.

To a degree not seen before, no one on Earth is outside the sphere of influence of urban industrial capitalism.”

Soja, E,. and Kanai M., 2007, p. 62

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

“These days, it seems like the world is being stolen from the world, at the very moment it’s becoming “worldwide,” at the very moment of globalization.”

Nancy, Jean-Luc, 2007, p. 530

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Continuum of the Past Towards the Future

“The future is a continuation of the past. We cannot eliminate our biological, social, economic and cultural inheritance. We have, moreover, to look to the past and the future, for they are a continuum and anyone looking in one direction gets confused.”

Doxiadis, Constantinos, 1972, p. 407

NATURE39 234

AGRICULTURE SOCIETY40

“Tradition has broken down. (…) Rural influences neutralise the town. Urban influence neutralises the country. In a few years all will be neutrality. The strong, masculine virility of the town; the softer beauty, the richness, the fruitfulness of that mother of men, the countryside, will be debased into one sterile, hermaphrodite beastliness” Sharp, Thomas, 1932, p. 11

URBAN SOCIETY

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

DIGITAL SOCIETY INFORMATION SOCIETY

?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOCIETY LOST SOCIETY INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY41

SERVICE SOCIETY42 235

Global Trends on a Planetary Scale

GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRATION influences all parts of our life, it doesn’t solely mean an international exchange and market of goods, but it globalizes our societies, our species, our challenges as well as our possible solutions.

URBANIZATION

as an all-encompassing global force as we know it today evolved from the industrial revolution. Yet it overtook it as the main driving force of global change. Today every squaremeter of planet earth as well as its atmosphäre and even space can be considered as urbanized.

From working hours, to CO2 emissions, fashion trends etc. can be linked to the power of urbanization.

CLIMATE CHANGE

can be considered as the main challenge of our time as well as our species. While it is often perceived as a future challenge, already in present times millions of people loose their homes and life due to drastic environmental transformations that destroy their basis of existence. All continents are threatened by these global transformations. The Alps are already today considered as one of the regions with the highest temperature changes over the last century. Till 2100 another increase from minimum 2°C to 3,5°C is expected. While the fight against climate change is often perceived as a fight for animals or nature, it is actually a fight for the human species, as the planet will continue to exist much longer than we humans will.

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE

will further demand a transformation of our present economy, social healthcare and migration policies .In 2100 predictions foresee that more than 50% of the worlds population would be above 65 years old. ASTAT (regional statistical institute) predicts for South Tyrol almost 30% of the population being over 65 years in 2038, similar as the worlds average.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

is one of the driving forces enabling and hindering possible futures. Automatisation, digitalization and artificial intelligences are already today shaping our life in an incredible pace. Every part of our society is influenced by technological developments, from our working world to our ways of communication and education as well as military conflicts.

Innovations of the future can help us to tackle global challenges or they can increase the

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3 trillion tonnes

Human-made mass on the planet43 trillion tonnes

1960

2020

2020

1900

2020

2040 237

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

1900

1 trillion tonnes

2000

antrophogenic mass

0,1 trillion tonnes

520.000 km2

biomass

240.000 km2

Total surface of all cities on the planet44 in km2

Biomass vs Antrophogenic mass in Teratonnes, 1900-2020

Global Trends on a Local Scale

As shown in the first chapter of this work, South Tyrol can be considered as a rural region that is very well integrated into the global market economy. While the region is often perceived as a front-runner regarding sustainable development, especially due to its high percentage of renewable energy production (hydropower) and a high share of forests and green landscapes, it actually witnessed very typical “urban” patterns of growth over the last decades, similar to most urban agglomerations.

With the increasing wealth, the urbanization process accelerated. While the total population number increased little, the number of the settlement area, apartments, streets, registered cars, etc. grew exponentially.

In South Tyrol there is a certain awareness regarding the global challenges we face today.

Yet it often seems astonishing how little the regional discourse of political and economic stakeholders but also the general public, is focused on the extreme development of the region itself in the last decades. And even when the negative aspects of such developments are discussed, they are dismissed as unavoidable.

The increase of touristic facilities, the construction of an airport, the construction of a train line through the heart of the Dolomites (project Dolomitenbahn), etc., are often presented as if they were indispensable for the economic viability of the region. The side effects 238

of such developments are portrayed as very little and unimportant in the global context.

Mega Events like the world championships or Olympic games are held in the region with the argument that they will enhance “Green tourism”. New, vast shopping centers are built, partly on green fields. Still today, on the yearly average, the region seals soil with the surface of one Football field per day, which is compared to the little possible settlement area and the little increase in population in the region still a high number (Atz, 2018). Yet, it is a very widespread approach to consider that the real problems are global, but not local. That we might adjust a bid our economy, that maybe we could start slowing down the developments of the past, that may be in a few years we could stop building more tourist accommodations, that maybe while we extend the airport, we can buy a few new hydrogen buses, etc. Many of these ecological questionable developments are furthermore a sign of a growing social disparity. While touristic investors build new hotels, it is increasingly difficult for the younger local population to pay the high rents for their apartments or buy a home by themselves. While wealthy citizens can fly via expensive airline tickets for a weekend to Sardinia, others can hardly afford the high train prices for their whole family to visit Venice.

Number of appartments46

Registered vehicles in the region21 1970-2018

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435.000

280.590 116.345

3.484 ha 1968

1.055.000

15.710 ha

Populated surface45 in ha

2007

1970

2020

1970

2018 239

Changing Temperatures

The temperature and precipitation models shown here are the product of intensive research related to the climate of the regions of North- East- and South Tyrol as well as Belluno. Since its publication in 2015, it became a standard reference for the four Alpine regions.

It is important to mention that modeling future climatic conditions decades away, has a large margin of uncertainty. Yet, as we see today, the global increase in temperature and especially severe precipitation events already affect the Alpine region under study.

The declining size of all South Tyrolian glaciers might be one of the most visible signs of how and at what pace such changes affect directly our environment. In the following pages, a comparison of pictures taken 100 years apart, represents such changes in a very direct way.

While they represent the changes that already occurred until the present, the climatic models on the right, predict the climatic changes the region will witness in the future. In the first model on the left, the mean annual temperature increases further by about 1.5 °C until the period 2026-2055 and by about 3.8 °C until the end of the century, which is very similar to the global changes expected for the future, gut generally at the upper end of the scale. The reasons, therefore, are very different, for example, the decrease in snow cover in spring.

The temperature changes cause thawing of the 240

permafrost floors, which will lead to a further rise of CO2 and CH4 (methan) emissions, an increase in rockfall processes (Gruber et al. 2004), as well as to an increase in debris flows and landslides, as the permanently frozen ground increasingly thaws, which may affect Alpine infrastructures such as cableway supports, avalanche fences or roads.

Moreover, especially the southern side of the Alps will witness an increase of days on which the thermometer reaches or exceeds the 25°C mark.

Until 2050, this might mainly affect the southern Etsch/Adige valley floor, but towards the end of the century, the number of hot summer days could increase significantly by 50 to 60 days.

Also, the annual vegetation period will increase strongly over the next decades. While this might not mean necessarily a decrease in the habitat quality for flora and fauna, it could strongly change the landscapes we are used to. Forests might grow on the mountain ranges, while the valley floors couldn’t be used for apple and wine cultivation as today. Interactions, such as plantpollinator relationships, could be influenced (Hegland et al. 2009)and the migration of invasive plants and animals enabled. Already in the last decades, various species shifted their habitat to higher altitudes in order to avoid increasing temperatures (Tappeiner et al., 2018).

Change in the modelled average annual number of days with a maximum air temperature of at least 25°C47

Change in the modeled length of the annual vegetation period in days47

1981-2010 vs 2026-2055

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1981-2010 vs 2071-2100

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Changing Precipitation

Precipitation patterns are in general difficult to predict in the mountainous environment of the Alps. Nonetheless, the trends of the last decades show some very clear patterns. While the rainy days decrease, the intensity of precipitation is increasing. These trends are expected to further continue, as the climatic models on the right side depict. Over the last few years, every year, in the summer as well as winter, precipitation events occurred that have been described as very rare events in the form and dimension that they appeared. From almost now snow in the winter 2016-2017, which was followed by a very dry summer, not just for South Tyrol but also its neighboring regions in the south, to meters of snow in the summer of 2019-2020 as well as 2020-2021. When villages remained without power for days and buildings and especially vast forested areas have collapsed under the snow pressure. Many elderly talks about never seeing similar conditions before. Over the last months, in the spring and summer of 2021, these future predictions seem to be already a reality. While it very seldom rained over the last months, if it did, the average rainfall quantity of a whole month poured down in just 1-3 hours (ca. 70 mm). The concentration of precipitation on a few but very intense weather events reduces the infiltration and thus storage capacity of the soil and additionally leads to increased erosion as well as higher quantities of runoff water.

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One of the most crucial changes in the case of South Tyrol will be its decline as functioning water storage. With the decrease of snow and ice bodies, precipitation of the winter will flow fastly to the main rivers and out of the region towards the sea. While later in the summer, with very little rain, rivers might shrink to small streams and hydro-power plants could standstill.

Shortages in the agricultural but also general water availability in South Tyrol and especially in areas in the Po Plain depending on the water of the Etsch/Adige could lead to vast artificial water reservoirs, in order to influence the hydrological cycle. Such interventions would further affect the local ecosystems (Bätzing, 2015).

While it is true that it is impossible to be sure about the future climatic conditions in detail, we should recognize that we can be hundred percent sure that the conditions and stability as we knew in the past won’t be anymore the same.

We know that if we don’t find new solutions, the changes can rapidly become worse.

Changes in the modelled average annual number of rainy days47

Changes in the modelled average precipitation intensity47

1981-2010 vs 2026-2055

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

1981-2010 vs 2071-2100

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Gepatschferner, Langtauferer Ferner and Bärenbartferner, Langtaufers 1922

Data Source: unknown photographer; Kaunertalarchiv

Gepatschferner, Langtauferer Ferner and Bärenbartferner, Langtaufers 2018

Data Source: Image by Luca Messina; Comitato Glaciologico italiano; Agentur für Bevölkerungsschutz

Getpatschferner, Kaunervalley 1910

Data Source: unknown photographer; Österreichischer Alpenverein, Innsbruck

Gepatschferner, Kaunervalley 2018

Data Source: Image by Rudolf Sailer; Institut für Geographie, Universität Innsbruck

Fallen Forest near Karerpass result of a cyclone in 2018

THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE

Today we have access to as much data, knowledge and diverse technologies as never before. Also in South Tyrol, we gather everyday billions of bits of data, from agricultural analysis, meteorological changes, the aging of society, the transmission of Covid-19, emissions from the Brenner Highway, the air quality etc. And even if nobody knows exactly what possible future we will witness, there are certain patterns of developments that scientific models seem very clear about today. Many generations of today grew up with the believe that the future will always develop in something better, that more people will be educated, less people will starve etc. Yet, at present, this development doesn’t look so linear anymore, especially for the younger generations. Fridays for Future have also attracted many students and worried citizens in South Tyrol, many of whom fear the possible futures that might expect us.

At this point in time, scientists all over the world, predict a difficult future, for some parts of our planet earth more than for others, but in its totality for our whole species. And already today, we can be 100% sure, that we cant solve all the problems. We transformed our environment already too much. We, and all our descendants, will live in an environment that is strongly and permanently altered. The best we can do is to keep the changes in a manageable range, preventing the disaster that will result from 250

a continuing development in the pace and scale as we witnessed over the last decades.

This, at least, might enable us to maintain a living environment that is similar to the space we ourselves took over from our predecessors.

It is the bare minimum that we must do. But we can also do much more. The life of our grandparents was often harsh and difficult.

Since mid 20th century, the quality of life grew parallel with the economic prosperity in the region. This exponential economic growth can’t continue in the same pace, but the everyday life of people can still improve in many fields.

Small-scale wealthy mountainous regions like South Tyrol might be very advantageous territories to experiment better solutions for all kind of challenges. One thing seems clear, there is not one future, but there are many possible futures. There is no absolute answer, there are just a lot of choices that we make, as well as a lot of choices we do NOT make, that the future is decided continuously upon. The choices of some countries and some people may weigh more than others. But if we think someone else is designing and deciding the future, if we think future is not happening here, but somewhere else, in Shanghai or in the Silicon valley, than that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is not just the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos that design our futures, but we ourselves.

For glitt'ring pomp and wealth let mortals strive, For all that Nature gave, or Art has found; Direct to Heav'n the tortur'd waters drive, And press with Grecian domes the lab'ring ground; ...

Versuchts, ihr Sterbliche, macht euren Zustand besser, Braucht, was die Kunst erfand und die Natur euch gab; Belebt die Blumen-Flur mit steigendem Gewässer, Theilt nach Korinths Gesetz gehaune Felsen ab; ...

The Alps, from Albrecht von Haller, 1729, beginning of first verse (translated by Edward Hamley)

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

“If the point at which you immerse yourself in the river is the present, I thought, then the past is the water that has flowed past you, that which has gone downstream and where there is nothing left for you; whereas the future is the water that comes down from above, bringing dangers and surprises. The past is in the valley, the future in the mountains. This is how i should have replied to my father. Whatever destiny may be, it resides in the mountains that tower over us.”

Paolo Cognetti, 2016, p. 43

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Utopia - Protopia - Dystopia

Human societies have tried to shape as well as predict the future since their very beginning.

Religions, science fiction writers or professionals as architects, designed whole worlds of imagination. Trying to depict a stage or a moment of time not yet come. In our time, there are three prevailing visions for the future -topia, which stands for an imagined place or state of things. Utopias for example create imagined societies, cities and technologies, that possess highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. Utopia, is simply translated as a fantasy that can’t be reached. Yet the confrontation with such can still be an inspiration and improve our processes of thought. Then there are other topias, imagined realities of the future. Dystopia and Protopia are often defined as possible futures. While Dystopia depicts an imagined future world with great suffering, Protopia would be the realistic and positive opposite of it.

Protopia is also often described as a “state that is better than yesterday”.

This chapter depicts three future scenarios.

Starting with a brief overview over the utopian urban concept of Die Stadtkrone (The City Crown), later extended with the publication Alpine Architektur (Alpine Architecture) from Bruno Taut. An utopian design by the german architect and urban planner. Furthermore, a Protopian as well as a Dystopian future scenario, 252

in the year 2050, elaborated in the scope of this thesis, are shown.

While scientific models are often constrained by the limitation of data to produce 100% realistic and foreseeable representations, the two scenarios chosen here instead are constrained only by the authors imagination of possible futures. One of the reasons for our failure in various important societal global questions is our limitation of a broad cultural imagination, especially in the case of climate change, which can be seen as the mother of all issues, that everything is connected to. The dominant historical narratives based on both entertainment media and education haven’t supported a confrontation with real possible drastic changes, but simply focused on the flawless narrative of predicted progress.

UTOPIA_

stands for an idealized vision of a perfect society, impossible to be reached.

DYSTOPIA_ stands for a failed society or reality in which there is great suffering, a totalitarian and post-apocalyptic world.

PROTOPIA_ is a relatively young term that represents the idea of progress, of a future reality that is simply better than the past.

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

Europe-The Light-Asia-The Light in the Dark of the colourful Night (Sketch by Bruno Taut)

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An Alpine Utopia of the Past

In 1516, Thomas Moore coined the term “Utopia” to describe fictional classless societies that could be one and at peace with nature (Britannica, 2021). As the 16th century was plagued with chaos and wars, a vision of societal perfection and harmony was considered as an unattainable ideal. Since then, the imaginary creation of utopias became widely used, a tool to design a desired place and society, that might help to at least improve the present situation.

As Bruno Taut, an architect and urban planner, living at the turn of the 20th century, who claimed that it was necessary to find an alternative to the war ideology of that time. He urged the need to break away from materialism and rationalism. Taut sought to find a balance between urban and rural landscapes, to create a pacifistic living environment. Throughout his life, he eagerly researched ideas of peaceful coexistence and self-sufficiency. His designs often were composed of glass, as a synonym of the purity and the paradigm of innocence, used to create a dream world inside, a bubble free of the social problems of his time. His most famous publications, Die Stadtkrone, (The City Crown) and Alpine Architektur, were a collection of hundreds of sketches, depicting a peaceful place of imagination, an utopia.

Influenced by the idea of the garden city of Ebenezer Howard, he eagerly researched ideas of peaceful coexistence and self-sufficiency and 254

fostered a desire to shape green societies that integrated economical sustainable systems (Mallgrave, Contandriopolous, 2005). “The City Crown”, situated in the very core, represents the culmination of a community and cultural center. A skyscraper like hall.

While today the word utopia, is often used in contexts that just actually demand radical change, and even maybe could be possible, Bruno Tauts imagined place never existed and very likely will never exist. Even if it often might seem difficult to understand the benefits of the discussion of such states that are impossible to achieve, they might help us to break down the walls and restrictions that limit the status quo.

By injecting a theoretical Utopian vision into his urban planning techniques, Taut influenced the design of comfortable social living practices till today.

WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

The City Crown (Sketch by Bruno Taut)

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“The rock above the vegetation zone is hewn and smoothed into multiple crystalline shapes.”

“The rear snow peaks are covered with glass arch architecture. Above the rounding a bridge lattice made of glass” Bruno Taut, 1970, Description on sketch, translated by the author

Der Kristallberg - The Crystal Mountain (Sketch by Bruno Taut)

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Domstern (Sketch by Bruno Taut)

”This proposal may seem adventurous and even pretentious, but at the risk of being chided as immodest and utopian, it must be made at least once. It should merely clarify in a concrete form the tendencies that encourage one to build high and should not be looked at as an end in itself, but rather as a suggestion that brings us closer to the realization of what was identified previously and to the fulfillment of further aims…

The ultimate is always quiet and empty… The cathedral was the container of all the souls that prayed in this way; and it always remains empty and pure – it is ‘‘dead.’’ The ultimate task of architecture is to be quiet and absolutely turned away from all daily rituals for all time…”

Bruno Taut – Die Statdkrone (The City Crown), 1919.

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WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

The Balls-The Circles-The Wheels (Sketch by Bruno Taut)

Protopia & Dystopia

While Utopian futures are more a tool of provocation or visionary cause for thought, Protopia and Dystopia are actual possible futures.

They might still seem “Utopian” and difficult to imagine for many. Yet that doesn’t mean that they are not possible scenarios. Just looking at the state of the world in 2021, most human beings hundred, fifty and even thirty years ago, wouldn’t have believed in the possibility of this present time. The two scenarios that are depicted in the scope of this thesis, should be seen as a tool, an instrument to broaden the cultural imagination of possible futures, just thirty years from today.

Firstly because in the South Tyrolian context, these scenarios are very little discussed. While there might be an acceptance that the world will change strongly over the next decades, these changes are seldom believed to really influence the local scale. Secondly, because these scenarios are not as unlikely as many people think. The basis transformations of Protopia as well as Dystopia, are based on scientific facts, published by scientific institutions and researchers. Many inspirations regarding the global scale could be gathered by the publication The Future We Choose, from Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, “The Architects of the 2015 Paris agreement”, published in 2020. They present the possible positive as well as the inevitable negative consequences our world will face, depending on our willingness to act today.

Millions of young people went on the streets to 258

demand faster answers and changes by political stakeholders all over Europe and the world, also in South Tyrol. While these mostly young people witnessed a broad support, they also witnessed a broad rejection. Three years have passed since the Fridays for Future movement started. Until today, very little of the demanded change was achieved. While at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, calls for a new economic, more sustainable system became loud, one and a half years later, we have to accept, very little actually changed to the better. Especially in smaller, prosperous rural regions like South Tyrol, the call for drastic changes, is smiled at and labeled as exaggerated.

Young people should have patience. Well, the reason why I choose to depict a Dystopian and Protopian World, is because I sincerely believe that in the future that awaits us, we wont come very far with the “patient” approach we are told to wait for. Pathways to a more secure, prosperous, equal and sustainable future are long known.

Yet, such pathways are valuable only if they are used. Humanity, and also the region of South Tyrol, has procrastinated for far too long on the unsustainable transformation of our natural and social environment. I hope a rough, abstract overview, might help to enhance the reflection of the possible pathways that lay before us.

LD

OR W G

0-

05 A2

PI TO O R SP

D

R WA O T

IN ER V O EC Agroforestry

AR

Green mixed city

Protective Buffer Zones Hydro-power

Agricultural fields in natural parks

Extension of airport

Gated communities in higher altitudes

Fallen forests

DY ST OP IA

Solar Energy

Polyculture

Migration crisis

DS

Hyperloop

Renaturation of valley floors around settlements

Community supported agriculture

Small-scale agriculture Regional self-sufficiency

TO WA R

Brennerbasis tunnel Polyculture

Urban renewal of industrial sites

Greenhouses in lower altitudes

New mobiliy system

Landslides

Monoculture Erosion

20 5

0-

Natural disasters

wildfires

AS

UF

FE

RIN

Declining mobility due to vulnerability of mobility networok

GW OR

LD

Vast artificial water reservoirs

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TERRITORIES OF TODAY

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VINSCHGAU VALLEY

BOLZANO VALLEY BASIN

Current negative developments

Current negative developments

Intensive farming, monocultures, leached soil, vulnerable crops for pests

Increasing number of heat waves due to continuing land sealing and urban expansion

Degraded biodiversity due to usage of pestizides and chemical fertilizers

Increasing conflicts between agricultural practices and settlements

Increasing water scarcity

Increase in traffic (local-, through- and airtraffic)

Migration of younger population due to lack of possibilities Increasing conflicts between agricultural practices and settlements

Intensive farming, monocultures, leached soil, vulnerable crops for pests Degraded biodiversity due to usage of pestizides and chemical fertilizers

Current positive developments

Current positive developments

Increase of biological agricultral practices

Expansion of research capacities for sustainable practices

Socio-cultural landmark projects for local innovation and businesses Modern precision technologies in agriculture Revaluation of old crops and animal races

Increase of biological agricultral practices

Expansion of hydrogen powerd public buses Increase in bottom-up urban green initiatives

SEISER ALM NATURAL PROTECTED SITE Current negative developments Highly overfertilized soil of pasture land and loss of autochthon biodiversity Conflicts between population and returning large predators Increase in sportive activities in remote areas (e-biking, ski-touring etc.)

Increasing conflicts between natural, agricultural and touristic uses Continuing development of touristic infrastructure

EISACK VALLEY Current negative developments Continuing anthropic interventions (riverbeds, topography etc.) in order to permit intensified usage Growing risks of landslides and floods Annual increase in traffic (local and throughtraffic) Development of new industrial sites Attempts to destroy and obstruct the last existing alluvial forest in the valley

Increasing island effect of natural protected areas

Current positive developments

Current positive developments

Increasing sensibility regarding the information about crucial ecoystem services

Intensive investments to enhance technology hub

Increasing demand of ecotourism

Increase of biological agricultral practices

Slow return of large predators

Increase of bottom-up reforestation practices in destructed forests 263

DYSTOPIA 2050 - A SUFFERING WORLD Dying of the woods in lower elevations Water scarcity Depopulation of cities in valley floors

Soil erosion

Airplanes as main supraregional means of transport

Agricultural greenhouses Contaminated former agricultural fields

Wildfires

Refugee camps

Extension of airport

Spread of the forest on higher cultural land diverse cultivation forms

Artificial water reservoirs Gated communities in higher “safe zones” landslides

Growth of settlements in higher altitudes

natural disasters intensified agriculture in higher altitudes

Dystopia 2050 - A Suffering World Its 2050, after failing the 2030 targets by far, no common strategies has been found between the global community. The first tipping points were reached just a few years later. The ice sheets in the Arctic melted, which was a strong accelerator of further global warming. Natural disasters, heat waves, and lack of food and water supply make vast parts of the planet uninhabitable today. Mass migrations from the coasts to the hinterland are occurring all over the world. The Alps are a place of refuge for millions of people. But even there the resources are not infinite and tensions are growing. The stock markets are crashing, currencies are wildly fluctuating and the European Union has disbanded (Figueres, Rivett-Carnac, 2020). Also, South Tyrol is characterized by a great disparity between poor and rich. Increasing migration creates great tensions.

Environment While many regional ecosystems of the world suffered severe destruction and became partly uninhabitable for their inhabitants, the Alps remained relatively stable. Yet, since the 2040s, also in South Tyrol, the number of natural disasters accelerated exponentially. It became extremely expensive and soon impossible to maintain the urban infrastructure of remote areas.

Mudslides are destroying streets, cable-ways, and protective structures. The forests of the Sarner as well as the Eisack valley were wiped away by cyclones.

Less inhabited areas are continuously given up. The conflict regarding water, food, and space to live grew throughout the century. All glaciers and permafrost areas of the region melted. Snow became a rarity, visible just a few times per year on the highest peaks.

The Italian agency of civil protection build with the help of the military vast artificial water reservoirs in order to somehow hold the high precipitation quantities in the winter and feed the Etsch/Adige throughout spring and as long as possible into the winter months. Disputes about who controls the 266

water leaving the region are growing year by year. Especially the Etsch/Adige- and Vinschgau valleys suffer from heatwaves.

During summer times, people remain mainly inside, in air-conditioned rooms. Elderly and children are not allowed to go outside on the hottest days. People are used to checking their phones every morning regarding air quality and possible storms or wildfires.

Water prices increased drastically. On some days of the year, it is suggested not to go outside, as when “storms and heat waves overlap and cluster, the air pollution, and intensified surface ozone levels make it dangerous to go outside without a mask” (Figureres, Rivett-Carnac, 2020, p.11). Public Health reached its lowest point since the end of the second world war. Suicide rates are as high as ever while very few people are still thinking about getting children.

No one knows what the future holds for their family, tipping point after the tipping point is reached.

South Tyrol is calling for independence as national tensions increase, in order to have more control over its remaining resources and greater disputes regarding mass migration from the south.

Agriculture

The Etsch/Adige valley is characterised by a sequence of abandonded industrial sites and former residential areas near the river, migration camps, greenhouses and eroded former apple fields. The number of abandoned villages that need to be evacuated grows steadily. The city Klausen is almost uninhabited now, as the Eisack valley witnessed devastating land slides after a cyclone and floods weakend its protective forests. Other areas are growing fast. Refugees from the Italian costs are moving north. Camps and civil unrest grow in the outskirts of the Bolzano and Merano valley basin.

Also, wealthy Europeans migrate to South Tyrol, protected in gated communities in relatively stable environments, like the Seiser Alm.

The green, monotoneous apple and wine fields in the Etsch/ Adige- and Vinschgau valleys are replaced today by fields o f greenhouses. As the weather conditions are became too unpredictable, this was the only solution to further maintain a high regional agricultural production. When polluters While food supply in many regions of the world, also in parts of Italy, is becoming increasingly difficult, the prices increase strongly.

Vast territories are endangered by drying out and the subsequent erosion. Many pasture fields are left empty today. The recovery of the soil is so slow, that many fields dry totally out. In more elevated areas with more water the forests grow back again. Food stamps are given out in every city and most villages.

Meat can only be afforded by a small wealthy class.

Growing malnutrition is just one consequence.

Mobility Landslides, floods and the extreme weather developments make the maintenance of mobility infrastructure extremely difficult. Hundreds of km of streets a r e abandoned and after several incidents of broken train lines, most connections are stopped. Instead, the airport is expanded and all supra-regional traffic is shifted to the air, which can only be afforded by wealthy citizens. Helicopters and airplanes have grown in numbers, as rich foreigners fly to their gated communities on higher plateaus in the Dolomites. On the contrary, thousands of refugees

from southern regions walk every winter towards north and arrive in the Etsch. Where they are cut off, as no public transport leads further, some escape the refugee camps and hike further up or north. The Alps have again become a difficult territory to pass. They are feared by the people, but Inner regional and local mobility decreased strong, especially during summer. Bicycling and walking is due to heat waves or bad air quality not a very attractive option. In July and August, people try to remain inside and work from home.

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WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

Settlements

Triumphs of the Future in the Present

Social movements, research and agriculture Already today, in South Tyrol we can witness many initiatives that give us hope for the future, which do justice to the role-model South Tyrol as is often referred to. Such positive examples can be found from public to private institutions, agricultural practices, social movements, single entrepreneurs and more.

The Initiative Zukunftspakt für Südtirol (Future Pact for South Tyrol), found in 2020, is an independent alliance of citizens fighting for the transformation to a sustainable, crisis-proof and solidarity-based society to be shaped in participatory processes.

Basis Vinschgau is a social activation hub, situated in the Vinschgau valley, enhancing social collaboration by providing a dynamic cultural and transsectoral hub for economic and social projects.

Bolzanism Museum is a social initiative enhancing the consciousness of urban space and its inhabitants by guiding participants through single events and long-term processes to a reflection on the identity that they give to their surrounding, focusing mainly on neighborhoods in Bolzano.

The Eurac Research Institute is a highly 268

networked research center with almost 400 scientists.

The H2 South Tyrol Hydrogen center in Bolzano isItaly’s first plant for the production, storage and refuelling of green hydrogen, powered exclusively by renewable energy sources, was inaugurated in 2014.

The Stanglerhof and the Hof des Wandels Are two separate exemplary agricultural projects. They redefine the definition of a farm by linking agricultural production based on organic principoles, gastronomy, cultural and educational events, local supply via a farmshop and a “glocal” atmosphere and values based on traditional as well as modern practices.

269 WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

Spatial Planning and Tourism The new Spatial Planning Law that came into force in 2020 is a first attempt to regulate the current spatial development in the region in all sectors. From mobility, to agriculture and tourism. While it is still a long way to go and a strong persistence by public authorities, citizens’ initiatives and professional planners will be needed in order to achieve the high expectations that are put into this new bundle of legislative Instruments. Already today, several positive developments are already undergoing, mostly limited to single communities. Such trends need to be supported and extended. The attempts of various lobbys to influence and weaken the adaption of the law should be strongly limited.

Excerpt from the interview with Elaine Mussner: What positive developments do you already see in South Tyrolean tourism?

I think that the awareness of quality in gastronomy is the result of a very positive development in recent decades. Here we should work even more on local cycles, on cooperation between tourism, crafts and agriculture. This will be the key to sustainable success in the future.

Such a pursuit of quality as in gastronomy, I would also like to see for South Tyrolean hospitality tout-court. And, the nice news here is that an interesting counter-trend is just emerging in South Tyrol, which is on a voyage of 270

rediscovery of our land. Small historic houses and inns are being rediscovered in their incredible charm as trendsetters, the more original the better. The young generation of tour operators seeks, discovers and brings the history to new splendor and fine quality, in which they do not denature the old houses with large conversions, but simply revive them to new splendor with a finishing touch. The personal commitment and the passion, play an important role. In tourism it is not enough to be a good businessman or businesswoman, you have to be personally involved, to be present so that an identity of the place is created. Those who have had the foresight in the last decades not to demolish the old in order to create new big colossi, but to maintain and preserve it, have today an incredible added value in charm and history, but also in potential. And if we want to talk about product in tourism, this is exactly the product that works and will always work, because it is real. In the last decades a lot of building was done and a lot of real things were destroyed.

But you can’t think that you can destroy history and then pretend authenticity as a staging to the guests. Tourism lives from culture, from lived tradition, from society, from daily life, everything else is an illusion that will not last long. (by Elaine Mussner)

271 WHAT COULD SOUTH TYROL BECOME ?

PROTOPIA 2050 - A RECOVERING WORLD Reforestation of slopes

New buildings just out of wood

Renaturation of retention areas

Hydropower

Regional self-sufficiency of agricultural production Polyculture

Mixed city Agroforestry

Natural buffer zones

272

reforestation of slopes

Diverse cultivation forms

Small-scale sustainable agriculture

Slowly recovering soil Regrowing biodiversity

Renaturation of retention areas

What could South Tyrol become?

Solar energy

New small but dense villages

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Protopia 2050 - A Recovering World It is 2050, we are heading for a world that will be no more than 1,5 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100. In 2030, the global society still narrowly missed the 2030 targets of the Paris climate agreement, witnessing a difficult decade. The Covid-19 pandemic lasted more than 5 years and many regions of the earth witnessed serious natural disasters. Suddenly, the international community accepted that comprehensive changes needed to be implemented in all fields of society, in order to escape the dramatic consequences of the already disrupted ecosystem earth.

The global market economy was replaced by a glocal hybrid economy. Even if many dramatic processes, like the extinction of 50% of all natural species worldwide couldn’t be reversed, the drastic transformation, from mobility to agriculture, enabled a slow but stable recovery of the planetary ecosystem.

Environment Protopia 2050 is no perfect world, but a better one, “life creates the conditions conducive to life”. Environmental standards that maintain and sustain the natural ecosystems are enhanced in every field of society. A comprehensive CO2 tax stopped short-term economic gains and enhanced longer and sustainable developments. South Tyrol became a best-practice example for regions all over the world.

Today infrastructures like forests and wetlands are surrounding settlements, instead of apple plantations.

Creating belts of protection against natural disasters and heatwaves as well as treating wastewater before giving it back to the water cycle. Diversified agricultural cultivation based on ancient practices as well as modern technologies enables a highly productive but ecological sustainable provision of food. Various species of plants and animals, that were almost extinct reappeared. Large predators like wolves and bears are reintegrated into the local food chain, regulating the wildlife populations and therefore enhancing the health of the forest vegetation. Modern tracking and defense technologies for phones, as well as visitor 274

flow management and the selective shooting of individual animals, enables life in harmony.

Natural sites are subdivided into two types of areas, one that is aimed for recreational purposes, and one with the main purpose of enabling a relatively little intervened natural ecosystem. The region is still one of the most attractive touristic destinations. But the number of visitors decreased, while the average length of stays doubled from 4 to 8 Days. Solar panel fields in high altitudes, as well as wind and water power plants, enable a diversified and complete supply for the regional energy supply.

One of the main differences today is the awareness of people regarding the importance of coexistence between humans and nature, from animals to plants and diet. A drastic transformation of the educational system, putting the environment and social community in the center of the teaching, as well as a much more regional-based economy and therefore local synergies, was one of the main keys of this sustainable transformation.

Settlements

Agriculture

In 2030, a law passed that strongly limited any future sealing of soil. Existing areas rebuild and renovated with the highest standards. As the population continued to grow due to migration from southern Italian provinces, almost all industrial areas of the region were transformed into mixed cities, hosting green housing, working facilities, urban farms, sanitary services as well as recreational green areas. Formerly almost abandoned villages in higher altitudes are repopulated by migrants. New settlements, dense, village-like neighborhoods are created on specifically protected plateaus of higher altitudes. Social interactions are structurally enabled instead of prevented. Touristic visitors come to the region to experience local sustainability. Diffused accommodation in villages and cities is favored over hotel complexes.

After decades of intensive monoculture practices, most fields but also pastures suffered from over fertilization and very low biodiversity. Since 2030, all public subsidies for farming are linked to ecological services and the high differentiation of crops of the agricultural fields. Ecological corridors of rows and hedges, as well as agroforestry, are implemented region-wide. Water optimization and modern technology monitoring enable a minimal use of water. Moreover, subsidies are linked to the regional demand of food supply, focusing on the local market first and just exporting certain products of high demand to urban centers in Europe via train.

Animal products are produced at a very low rate in order to maintain the output of methane at a low level.

Mobility Since the 2030s, South Tyrol is connected via the Brennerbasis tunnel, with 64 km one of the longest tunnels of the world, to Austria and directly to most of continental Europe. Day and night high-speed trains leave to all capital cities of the European Union. In 2050 constructions for a hyper-loop line, a sealed tube system for transportation purposes, are already undergoing. The regional traffic is strongly reduced.

Most people work close to their homes in co-working spaces. Agreements of community-supported agriculture reduce the need for shopping trips, as

most inhabitants receive their weekly food box composed of mainly local organic food in their neighborhood distributor. With closer services, closer social relations, and an extensive internet connection, many trips are simply redundant. Highspeed suburban trains and connect all main valleys with Bolzano. Bolzano reestablished its historical tram lines.

Villages are connected through hydrogen-powered busses, cable-ways, and bicycle lanes.

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Conclusion

The main message of this third chapter is, that there is no future in singular form, not in time, and also not in space. South Tyrol’s futures depend on the actions taken on a global as well as local scale. Today’s crisis of imagination regarding the future of our planet but also South Tyrol specifically, limits our perception of the possible futures that our society but also we as individuals might witness. Therefore it also limits the possible actions we might take regarding such future scenarios. First, the main challenge of today is to increase our sensitivity to the “New Climatic Regime“ and the reconfiguration of all societal fields it implies. Even at this late hour we still have a choice about our future, we are not doomed to a devastating future, and every action we take from this moment forward counts. Second, while we still have a chance to design Protopia, a state where tomorrow will be better than today, we have to act immediately and comprehensively.

Post-colonial, post-war, and post-industrial landscapes remind us of the deep imprints that human use left over the centuries. They should also teach us the persistence of our actions in the physical and social landscape.

The sensitivity of a site-specific reading, as well as the interpretation of such changes within a global perspective, is a crucial ability of our time.

Our very futures depend on the critical analysis of the territories we transform, as well as the 276

ability to boldly reflect on the possible impacts such transformations could have for the next generations.

The “conflict of scales” seems to be one of the main challenges. While stakeholders on a local scale, enhance the feeling that the responsibility lies on stakeholders of a national and global scale, vice versa, global and national stakeholders argue that everything depends on the actions of the individual and local actors. We need to reclaim the narrative, that every person, every region, no matter how small or big, has to take a certain responsibility.

Especially territories like South Tyrol, which witnessed the continuous growth of wealth based on the economic system of the post-war period. The planetary system that brought our world to the edge of destruction was always very favorable for South Tyrol. So this created wealth also bears a responsibility about committing to find solutions for the problems created. The past regional protopia of South Tyrol was also made possible because it meant at the same time a regional dystopia for another area on the planet. South Tyrol is not the little, isolated island of nature and Alpine traditions that it might be often portrayed as. Its local conditions have never been more part of a global continuum and physical and social processes that do not stop at administrative boundaries or mountain passes.

South Tyrol enjoys itself in a deep state of self-

confirmation. Of being a place as close to nature as possible, as being enjoyed and admired by the world. All of these assumptions might be true, but they don’t reflect the whole truth.

While it is important to know one’s strengths, but it is inevitable to accept one’s weaknesses and failures.

Future generations will most likely look back at this time as one of the most signif icant turning points for action. The path in front of us is not easy and success is not assured.

Exactly that is the reason why we have to act collectively. An important step is to accept the possibility that there are many possible futures for the region of South Tyrol and its inhabitants that are very different from the status quo, and that it is also our responsibility and choice, into what direction such futures go. While our everyday life could become better, it could also drastically worse. The current path we are undertaking is going towards a worsening of our physical and

social environment in the future.

Both of the scenarios drawn in the scope of this paper may seem a bit dramatic to many people. Yet, all of the experts interviewed in the previous chapter, supported similar drastic upheavals in the future. The topics discussed in the scenarios are not new. Steward Brand said already 50 years ago “We are as gods, we might as well get good at it.” Recently he just changed the second part to “we have to get good at it”. This statement was linked to the first picture of our planet earth from space, called “The blue marble”, the perception of people that gods are looking down on us, and suddenly it’s ourselves that can look down from above. This means having powers that could have never been imagined to be held by humans, in good as in bad.

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OUTRO

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WHAT WE CAN DO NOW RAISING QUESTIONS CRITICAL REFLECTION

WHAT WE CAN DO NOW

The question of what we can do about all of the problems we see in our actions often seems impossible to answer. Some believe we are hardwired to react to threats only if they are immediate. Well, one of the messages of this thesis is, that the threads are immediate today. Threats such as climate change that are visible on all scales, from melting polar capes to extreme weather events in South Tyrol to threats such as a further disconnection of our local traditions and environment or even food security. The five interpretative chapters describe five preconditions of our current situation that the threats on a local scale are mostly dependent from. We cannot deny or ignore the extreme pace and scale that we transformed our ecological but also social environments. We now need to let go of half-hearted attempts and methods such as greenwashing to even capitalize on the problems we face. So the first thing we can do now is to act in proportion to the magnitude of the challenges we face.

Avoiding repeating mistakes The most simple approach would be to at least stop repeating mistakes of other regions. For decades, South Tyrol was often referred to as an exceptional positive example for not having simply copied certain global development patterns. South Tyrol was considered as a best practice example for small-scale local businesses, resisting the establishment of shopping centers and branches 280

of big corporations. Moreover, the region was admired for systematically deciding against the establishment of a real commercial airport. In the Alpine tourism industry, it was considered as a best practice example of maintaining touristic smallscale businesses. But suddenly, just in the last few years, we have witnessed a rapid turnaround in all these principles of development that the region was so proud of. Several shopping centers have been built, some on former agricultural land, the airport was privatized and might be extended in the soon future, functioning 95% for touristic purposes. Even though a majority of the population voted against it in a referendum.

Tourist islands are growing bigger and global investors are now increasingly interfering in urban development. Also, agricultural stakeholders favor suppressing a movement that wants to enhance new agricultural practices without chemical pesticides.

This would be the first step, we cannot find solutions for everything immediately, but we can stop making things worse than they are today.

Leading the way A more bold step would be, to actively experiment with what we could do better. Today’s decisions on energy, transportation, land use, etc. Will all have direct and long-term effects on our global and local environment as well as our relation to it. All over the world, national, regional, and local stakeholders are trying to find solutions for partly

similar challenges and threats. One thought I always had when traveling the world was, how can we expect anyone else to solve the problems we are facing as a global species if not from predestined regions such as South Tyrol? Why are we so proud of being the richest province of Italy? Could we not aim to become the first “climate-neutral” or “emission-free” region of Italy and Europe? A status that the whole world should have achieved urgently in 2050. The world strongly needs forerunners of the changes we need to make. It would not just serve the global climate, but also the local economy and population in the long term. To open space for such transformation, we have to fundamentally change how we think and whom we perceive ourselves to be. There is a lot at stake, for every individual, for our region, and especially for our future generations. Technically, we would possess most of the knowledge and technologies needed to enable the necessary transformation and adjustments of our current path taken (Figureres, Rivett-Carnac, 2020). But pathways are valuable only if they are used.

This work is one of the many things I thought I can contribute to the discourse. To illustrate and summarize the challenges South Tyrol is facing and to raise the awareness of all users of this space. As there exists not one solution, but many small actions that might enable a process of real change. Not because we want, but because we have no choice.

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RAISING QUESTIONS

In my personal opinion, one of the features South Tyrol is lacking today is not solely specific answers to the questions of our time. But even more so, the capability or the desire of raising questions that challenge the status quo of our time. As we feel very comfortable and self-confident of the “golden state” that was achieved, there seems to be a feeling of little need to question the processes that enabled this state. South Tyrol has come to this through its own efforts, but largely unintentionally. As we know from the last decades, our futures are changing rapidly and constantly. Status quo wont exist in these futures, neither in a good or bad way. But how we reflect about status quo will decide which futures we will try to achieve. The problem is, by simply not raising and discussing unpleasant questions, the issues that would demand such reflection, won’t simply disappear. Instead, they will grow freely, to a certain point where we can no longer hide from them anymore and have to react to the already advanced consequences.

We have to raise answers in order to act instead of react. As it seems obvious that businesses or even families reflect on their status quo and raise questions about it in order to define its future path. I strongly believe that we have to scale up such processes of reflection to at least a regional scale, in order to have a better control of the possible futures.

282

While there is much more diversity regarding the choice of an individual or collective answer, it seems much more clear what questions we have to raise, in order to proactively and processoriented design our future and not just act to the failures of unintended consequences.

Questions about the genesis and possible evolution of a problem and its terrestrial interpretations.

Questions to determine and justify practical goals.

Questions concerning the development of practical means (technical, social, legal, cultural, etc.)

Questions concerning the modification of existing practices and the introduction of desirable practices.

What constitutes South Tyrol?

What is South Tyrol?

Where is South Tyrol?

How should our landscape look like?

What could South Tyrol become?

When is enough?

How many tourists are enough?

What would our grandparents think of our life today?

How many apples are enough?

What will our grandchildren think of our life today?

What are the conditions for agricultural subsidies?

What is our aim?

How much more and in which direction should South Tyrols settlements grow?

What is nature?

Is it right to increase our marketing budget every year in order to attract more tourists?

How much worth are our traditions?

For whom?

Why?

How much is our nature worth?

How long do we want to focus on attracting more tourists?

Can we focus our agricultural production on self-sufficiency instead of export?

Why not?

Is there a solution for a coexistence of returning large predators and humans?

How do we protect democratic principles?

What is our past?

What defines our multiethnicity?

How can we truly inform ourselves?

What is a village?

What is a villager?

What are the conditions for media subsidies?

283

CRITICAL REFLECTION

The format of this paper is not aiming at the creation of a completely scientifically based analysis. As the title explains, I consider it as a portrait, depicting the region based on a personal selection and abstract interpretation.

Such portrait needs to sometimes relegate scientific paradigms to the background, to enable statements that could never be made simply referring to absolute controllable and evaluable aspects. All of the statements given, I would define as scientifically tested.

A statement such as “South Tyrol is Apples and Cows”, for example, seems very simplified and abstract. Yet, the economic output of the agricultural sector in the region is composed by ca. 85% by the apples and dairy industry, and therefore based on a certain truth.

Nevertheless, can the selection of topics discussed be perceived as one-sided. I often tried to focus on the negative outputs rather the positive outputs of the processes discussed.

I mainly focused on how their evolution changed the regions configuration to the worse, rather to the features that changed to the better. This perception is not based on ungratefulness towards my home-region.

But a feeling of thankfulness the previous generations that worked so hard to enable my generation a worry-free life. All the more I believe today it should be our responsibility to enable such a prosperous future also to the future generations.

284

So I aimed to critically reflect our current process of designing the possible futures. Whenever people look for information about South Tyrol, they are overwhelmed with articles which celebrate the region as a paradise, as a care-free place down to the earth. This is also strongly linked to the touristic specialization of the region, always focusing on the region as a touristic destination rather than as a local habitat.

So this is the reason why I choose this critical format, because I believe that this is what the regional discourse is highly lacking from.

Research Institutions like the Eurac Institute, but also Universities in Bolzano, Innsbruck or Trento analyze the region based very precise and scientific gathered data. The destination and marketing agencies, farmers union, fruit and milk cooperatives as well as touristic associations create an increasing number of informative documents, but which often are strongly unilateral and uncritical, but are more defined by a commercial character. Therefore I wanted to create a counterpoint with my work, a work which is largely based on facts, but which consciously breaks through the boundaries of the scientific way of working, also to focus on topics and aspects which are seldom discussed, and show how they are all connected to some point. South Tyrol has enough papers praising it for what it is, I believe we also need to criticize it for what it can become.

285

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Helmuth Rier Philipp Rier Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier IDM - Kinetic Helmuth Rier Othmar Seehauser Othmar Seehauser Othmar Seehauser Helmuth Rier Othmar Seehauser Othmar Seehauser Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier Philipp Rier Archiv Suedtirolfoto Archiv Suedtirolfoto Othmar Seehauser Philipp Rier Helmuth Rier Helmuth Rier Philipp Rier Helmuth Rier

All the drawings that appear on the following pages are made by the author:47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 82, 83, 85, 91, 92, 93, 103, 109, 116, 117, 127, 129, 131, 133, 137, 147, 149, 159, 171, 173, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 191, 195, 197, 199, 211, 213, 215, 235, 237, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273.

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