Sardinia:nature tourism threatened by energy speculation

At the beginning of July the Sardinian regional council has approved a moratorium that blocks the authorization of new plants for the extraction of renewable energy.A decision, although judged timid and not very decisive in the terms in which it was adopted, which represents the first victory of a vast movement born and grown in recent months which defines itself as "against energy speculation" and against "the assault of multinationals" to the Sardinian territory.A movement that is not satisfied and demands that the already approved projects, which are filling Sardinia with wind and solar plants that will serve not to generate energy for the territory, but to make the region a center for energy exports, also be stopped towards mainland Italy and abroad.Also taking part in the protest are over 60 companies and guides dealing with sustainable and naturalistic tourism, who have sent a letter to explain the reasons for their protest.We have decided to publish it in full, in the belief that it represents a valuable contribution to understanding the reasons of that part of Sardinia that opposes the shovels and to understand how these demonstrations are not at all "for oil" and against the environment as some have written, but in favor of a different ecological transition, serving citizens first and not the economic interests of a few.

“«Welcome and welcome to Sardinia, the land of the electric landscape».This risks being the slogan with which we will welcome groups in the next tourist seasons, at least until the next seasons exist, given that over time, no one will spend their savings on holidays without a landscape.We are guides and tourist companies in the nature and sports sector, some young and others less so, frightened by the policies that are transforming the landscape of Sardinia and which will cause the crisis in the sector.Our work and earnings depend on a particular tourist category, on people interested in Sardinia for the beauty of its nature. So to speak, we rent landscapes, with a positive economic impact on the area, given that we eat, sleep, visit monuments and museums in the area, we travel with local carriers.

Among us there are those who started in the early 2000s, working for more than twenty years to make Sardinia a nature tourism destination of European importance, with territorial promotion, collaboration with local authorities, networking, investments in capital goods, deseasonalization.It could all end, because no one likes walking or cycling among wind turbines, doing yoga among the photovoltaic panels or taking photos on a horizon pierced by a forest of enormous poles, visible for kilometers.

Most of us have never received a single euro of public assistance, we have built a new economy in Sardinia only with our strength and our savings, because the Region, despite all its contradictions, seemed to be marching in the same direction:Sardinia Cycling Network, new parks such as those of Gùturu Mannu and Tepilora, Sardinia Hiking Network, tenders for the construction of bridle paths, International Active Tourism Exchange, conferences, professional training courses for hiking and cycling guides...

Twenty years of work that they want us to throw in the garbage, for example transform Sardinia into a large power plant serving other regions, without even bothering to offer us jobs for male and female workers, as at least they deigned to do in the past in the mining, petrochemical and tourism sectors.Instead of moving forward, they want to make us go back to the nineteenth century, with the destruction of the territory without any compensation:to them our wood to build their railways, to us our territory deserted by their enterprises.

Certainly we need to make the energy transition, but this is only part of the broader ecological transition, which for us is daily bread, given that for example sustainable mobility, by bicycle and on foot, is our very job. Ecological transition also and above all means social sustainability, starting with the European directives for the involvement of communities in decision-making processes and for the principles of proximity and proportionality:energy is produced where it is needed and the quantity needed is produced.Besides, they couldn't be explained European measures to support agriculture and natural habitats in Sardinia, if we then wanted to convert everything to the electric monoculture destined for export, without any benefit for the local population, destroyed in its ties with the territory, as in the worst colonial traditions.

We physically work in nature every day, we know it much more and much better than those who simply cite it in their statements produced with copy and paste. We know nature's suffering and we suffer the consequences of its suffering, not only in our personal lives but also in our work, so we have always been in favor of the energy transition, even when it was not fashionable in ministries and departments.This is why we know how to do it:with participatory processes and community networks. It is necessary to finance and create community networks first of all, until at least one exists for each town in Sardinia.Afterwards, perhaps, if they are not enough, we can think of some power plants, but always respecting the participatory process.

In conclusion, we do not take lessons on energy and ecological transition from the political class.Right and left have shown that they cannot give us, rather they should do the job for which they are handsomely paid:bring together the different social and economic interests, so that the development of one does not come to the detriment of another.Respecting the principles that the European political class itself has given itself, without distorting them in concrete application as the Italian and Sardinian political class is doing. Once again we are proactive and purposeful, ready and willing to do our part: they will find us in the streets and in the countryside, to work and to support our people which defends Sardinia from the assault of speculators".

[Sardinia, 24 July 2024]