THE TASTE OF GOODNESS

Pristine beaches, thriving and protected nature. A naturalistic jewel of southern Italy, the Torre Guaceto reserve is a safe place for animal species and a coveted destination for international tourism. Here nature and man coexist in harmony following the leitmotif of sustainability.

According to the definition of Rocky Malatesta, the President of the Torre Guaceto State Reserve Management Consortium, the place is “the precious stone kept and protected, but not locked up under a glass bell, the result of the abnegation of those who work every day to make it more and more protected and attractive” .

The spearhead of the Italian natural heritage, and more specifically, the deep south of the Puglia region, Torre Guaceto is a particularly special park made up of a marine and land reserve managed by a single institution .

The Marine Protected Area, established in 1991, and the State Nature Reserve, created in 2000, constitute a system of areas subject to protection which extends overall for approximately 3,300 hectares and involves an 8 km stretch of coast which goes from the capital of the province, Brindisi, to the territory pertaining to the municipality of Carovigno .

The very name of the Park tells its ancient history and the importance it has always had both for the life of animal communities and for human ones since ancient times . The Italian Torre Guaceto derives, in fact, from the Arabic Al Gawsit, "the place of fresh water", a term chosen by an ancient Middle Eastern topographer to indicate the presence of water springs, a source of life .

Its geological and environmental characteristics make the place ideal for everyone .

Crossing Torre Guaceto from a bird's eye view, proceeding from the hinterland towards the open sea, one observes the richness of its perfect ecosystem, the succession of different environments that lend themselves to different harmonies, first the cultivated fields and the olive groves, then the coastal mosaic of Mediterranean maquis, the wetland, the dunes and the coast, and finally the sea with meadows of oceanic posidonia and the coralline in the deep . Different environments, but interconnected, protected and at the same time open to man .

The Torre Guaceto Management Consortium, born in 2000, has the objective of preserving the current ecological systems, restoring places degraded by human impact and climate change, and promoting sustainable territorial development models .

Every action carried out by the park authority is therefore aimed at protecting and promoting the reserve; it also pursues the raising awareness among the local community and involving local actors in its sustainable economy and tourism policies . These are the cornerstones of the action of the Torre Guaceto Management Consortium .

Numerous projects have been implemented to raise the level of sustainability of the protected area .

In fact, there is talk of this protected area even beyond the European context, due to the numerous sustainability models conceived and implemented here and the futuristic projects that are carried out within it . DOING GOOD TO THE SEA AND TO THE FISHERMEN

The sustainable fishing model was born in Torre Guaceto so the Consortium ensures that marine habitats and fish stocks are not damaged and plundered by human activity . At the same time local artisans can do their work better, with minimum effort and maximum profit. Only professionals from the pertinent municipalities can fish here, once a week, subject to authorization from the institution; only in the outermost and least delicate area of the region and with a large mesh net, which allows to avoid the capture of young fish that they have yet to reproduce. Thanks to this model, fish from Torre Guaceto then repopulate a large part of the Salento coast and the fishermen

with just one day of activity earn twice as much as they would elsewhere . Over the years, this archetype has proved to be so much effective for everyone that Slow Food has made it a presidium to be replicated .

If sustainable, tourism is good for environment and for communities . Here fruitful activities are carried out 365 days a year . Snorkeling, trekking, tasting of products from the Park basket, environmental education in schools, meditation, acoustic piano concerts, cultural insights, instawalk . In Torre Guaceto you can find it all, and nobody remains dissatisfied with the experience. Those affected by a physical or mental handicap have the same possibility of expe-

riencing the reserve that everyone else has . In addition to personalized visits, in fact, in the summer, Torre Guaceto offers its disabled visitors the possibility of accessing the sea, guaranteeing free use of the solarium platform which it sets up at the beach club, the only one present in the Park, and also some job .

Torre Guaceto's tourism management and planning policy is certified. Europarc has marked the high quality of the Consortium's governance with the assignment of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourismm . The institution is currently training and supporting local tour operators in order to obtain a quality mark currently assigned only to Torre Guaceto in order to increase the qualification of sustainable destination to the whole pertinent territory . In addition to the CETS certification, the reserve proudly bears some other titles: • ASPIM, protected area of Mediterranean importance, • EMAS, which certifies the involvement of the territory in the management of the Park and the transparency of its procedures, • BLUE PARK, a title assigned by the

Marine Conservation Institute to the best Marine Protected in the world . WHOEVER SAVES A LIFE SAVES THE WHOLE WORLD

There is a red gem that bears the name of the reserve passing through the shelves of supermarkets around the world: the Fiaschetto, tomato of Torre Guaceto . It has been abandoned over time and revived again . The protected area with its vast wetland with brackish water gives this ancient typical cultivar a unique flavor. The Consortium and Slow Food have encouraged its reuse in agriculture, so today its production is an appreciated and well-known garrison even beyond the European borders and, together with EVO oil, wine production and organic honey, it is the flagship of the Torre Guaceto basket.

The hosts of Torre Guaceto are the animals . Here the specimens endangered by the anthropic impact exerted on the sea and on the land come back to life . But protecting them within the confines of the protected area is not enough. For this reason, the Management Consortium has created two specialized "hospitals": the wildlife recovery center and the sea turtle recovery center where creatures rescued in the area can recover before returning into the wild again .

REBUILDING THE PAST TO DESIGN THE FUTURE

Torre Guaceto is the only Italian protected area to have its own archaeological laboratory, which houses archaeological finds discovered in the reserve through numerous excavation campaigns conducted over the years . The impressive research made in collaboration with the University of Salento and the local Superintendency for Cultural Heritage has led to the recent discovery of a cremation necropolis dating back to the late Bronze Age. There are 35 tombs found under the sand of one of the internal coves of the protected area . Even the remains of a woman and her jewels were found in one of the funerary urns .

The Consortium has inspired a project then financed by the reference body (the Puglia Region). With refining the water from the local wastewater treatment plant, nitrogen-laden water will be produced and distributed to farmers in the reserve . So, thanks to the closure of the artesian wells good will be done to the protected area and the agricultural economy will be supported .

In the 1930s, the wetland of Torre Guaceto was almost completely reclaimed, causing the disappearance of a fundamental habitat for the survival of numerous migratory species . The Management Consortium started from the beginning a series of environmental engineering interventions . Today the wetland of the reserve is of international importance, but the Consortium does not stop . New projects are developing, the water clearings of the Park will be further expanded and a center for the repopulation of Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca), a species of conservation interest, will be created .

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION FOR PROTECTION

Stop fishnet. In collaboration with the Blue Marine Foundation, the Consortium will create a system for tearing the nets of poachers. So the fish fauna of the reserve will be protected through the immersion of bollards placed at the sea depth of -40 and -50 meters.

By joining the "Mare Caldo" project, Torre Guaceto has become a station for measuring the sea temperature and collecting as much data as possible about the health of the “blue lung” in climate change .

Torre Guaceto has created Tetide, the network that unites the Apulian Parks in a single operational and online space . The network will allow sharing of good management experiences and will carry out citizen science actions . On the other hand, a brand identity will be created and the slow tourism of the Parks will be jointly promoted .

In the last two years and as part of the My Sea project, many sea turtles healed in Torre Guaceto have been put back into the sea . Equipped with a satellite transmitter they can be monitored, in order to understand better their habits and behavior and increase the international level of protection of the species .

www.riservaditorreguaceto.it

Text & images by Consorzio di Gestione di Torre Guaceto.