The Park » Planning

The long term economic and social development plan

With respect to the Park's scopes, article 14 of Law no. 394/91 provides a list of initiatives to promote the economic and social development of local residents.
These initiatives are organised systematically in the long term economic and social development plan (ESDP)
The Belluno Dolomites National Park ESDP was approved by the Veneto Region on 21 November 2000.
Drafting of the ESDP was heavily influenced by the fact that the Belluno Dolomites National Park is atypical. Its boundaries are drawn far from human presence and it therefore lacks companies and businesses, the parties involved in the plan.
Paragraph 1 of art. 14 of Law no. 394/91 extends the area covered by the ESDP to also include the "adjacent" zones where the social and business communities which enable the Park to function and for which the Park can represent an opportunity for sustainable development live and work. Extension of the area of reference to include these zones enables development of a full plan covering the majority of activities associated with visitor facilities, the support and conversion of businesses present or in some way connected to the Park and aspects relating to the local population, not fully covered by the Park Plan as they live and work outside the boundaries of the Park itself.

Structure of the ESDP
The Plan has a cascade structure based on three basic lines of action (environment, economic and social system, management procedures). For each of these, outline strategic objectives achievable through specific action strategies have been defined. These are divided into concrete actions.

Principles, objectives, lines of action
The principles on which the plan is based, referred to constantly during drafting, are as follows:
· the ESDP is a consultation tool during planning and management;
· collaboration, parity, solidarity and competition between communities;
· the Park is an opportunity to redefine socioeconomic relationships along ecocompatible lines;
· the Park is a production resource in which you can invest, in respect for its values and statutory aims, including outside its boundaries;
· the differences within the community are elements of strength;
· in both analyses and the final summary, the community must be considered as a complex system;
Starting from these principles, the three guidelines referred to above were determined. In functional and hierarchical order, they are:

1 - Conserving the environmental heritage and human landscape.;
The environmental system of the community does not end within the Park boundaries, but in many cases also extends beyond them. The Park's system of functions is closely correlated with the surrounding environment, from important elements such as torrents, woods, quality biotopes and, in general, corridors and accesses to the Park to normal management of the area inhabited by the community. This is even more true in a Park like this.
The network of relationships between environment, society and economy is more extensive and complex than is normally thought and the values of the natural environment must also become a strategic guideline outside the Park, including in areas only apparently not connected with it.
It is fundamentally important to emphasise this as the rural environment of the community has an extraordinarily high index of biological complexity and is home to numerous plant and animal species not present within the Park as they prefer farmland habitats.
The main purpose of this line of action is therefore to protect human-related values such as the rural landscape and buildings of historic and anthropologic interest, highlighting the value of man's presence in rural and mountain environments, both inside and outside the Park. This presence is constant, legible and deeply engraved on the land, influencing the evolution of even wilderness areas. The close link between people and the land where they live and work is an extraordinary cultural heritage and resource on which to build sustainable development.

2 - Developing resident communities with sustainable businesses;
The second line of action has two strategic objectives: development of sustainable businesses and valorisation of human resources. The sustainable businesses accessible during this first four year period are associated with four sectors: primary production, non-intensive tourism, light industry and trade.

3 - Improving the efficiency of the Park system.;
The social functions of the rural community in the area covered by the Plan are seriously compromised, in particular at high altitude and in marginal areas. This progressive weakening and in some cases total neglect is perfectly clear from the analyses annexed to the Plan. In communities where the equilibrium is so seriously compromised, a substantial injection of efficiency and new elements for endogenous growth induced by the Park and the community must inevitably be provided.
With reference exclusively to the activities of the Park Authority and Park Community, a series of immediately implementable actions were therefore identified in order for these parties to maximise their own potential for action.