The return of the forest to
urban areas is the focus of a two-day study session at the
Benetton Foundation study and research centre in Treviso on
February 18-19, organisers said Monday.
Landscape architects Peter Walker, designer of the forest
of oak trees at the 9/11 Memorial in New York, and Berliner
Thilo Folkerts are among the leading professionals due to
attend.
"There is a persistent need to return to the forest in
urban areas," Luca Carra of Italia Nostra, one of the authors of
the 1974 Milan project Boscoincittà, told ANSA.
"Not just ecologically but because that is how to create
landscape."
"Boscoincittà began as a challenge, with the help of
volunteers, the scouts, associations. In 5-6 years the area of
forest cover had visibly grown," Carra said.
"In this way environmental education initiatives, cycle
routes, wildlife areas sprung up. Today it is a much-loved area
of Milan, that brings residents into contact with a green
culture," he continued.
Such green areas have not only an environmental but also an
economic impact, for example by increasing local property
values, Carra said.
"A Bocconi (university) study calculated that in 40 years
Boscoincittà has cost 9 million euros but generated 40 million
euros," he explained.
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