The 21st of September 2021 was an anniversary that unfortunately did not receive proper emphasis in Italy. Two hundred years earlier, Ignazio Thaon di Revel, lieutenant-general of the King of Sardinia Carlo Felice di Savoia, had declared ibex hunting illegal because of the extinction danger faced by this mighty Alpine animal. Only a few dozen specimens were left between Piedmont and Aosta Valley in what is known as the Gran Paradiso mountain massif, so named by the homonymous peak (4.061m). The main cause of this gradual disappearance was the hunting practised by the mountain people, who considered the ibex an essential source of raw materials: leather, horns and meat were precious for surviving in high mountains and the blood, such as that of the chamois, was also consumed in the belief that it improved breathing and healed respiratory diseases.
In the centuries-long history of the House of Savoy, this was the first law to be issued with a specific conservationist purpose and, most importantly, it was the basis for the foundation of Italy’s first national park. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Gran Paradiso had become the great hunting reserve of the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II but, after the First World War, Vittorio Emanuele III decided to hand over it to the state because of the severe economic disruption the Crown was facing. This transition began in 1919 and was completed on 3 December 1922 with the official handover to the Italian state, which had fallen into the hands of fascist power just over two weeks before. The transformation of the Gran Paradiso from a hunting reserve to a national park can therefore be considered one of the last acts of liberal Italy rather than one of the firsts of Fascism. The political and conservation history of Italy and Europe have climbed the highest peaks to entangle with the history of the ibex, which has become a symbol of the harmonious coexistence of humankind and nature. The hope is that the Gran Paradiso National Park’s centenary, which will be celebrated in just over a year, can become a space to reflect on the ties between political and environmental history in Italy and Europe and on the great climate challenge that awaits us.
Mountains are indeed the perfect markers of the global warming impact on the planet. The progressive retreat of glaciers, the shifting of the tree line and the loss of biodiversity are now problems whose solutions can no longer be postponed.[1] Just look at pictures showing glaciers from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day to see that our most precious water supply is literally vanishing before our eyes.[2] Glacier melting is so alarming that it recently led a group of researchers from the Oregon Glacier Institute to publicly hold a ‘funeral’ for Clark Glacier’s ‘death’ in order to draw the attention of the public opinion.[3] A similar celebration also took place for the Capra glacier on the Piedmontese side of the Gran Paradiso. From the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, the glaciers in the National Park have lost more than half of their surface area.[4]
The current economic production models and lifestyles underlying climate change suffer from a lack of limit, which mountains have long represented for people. In this respect, on the occasion of the forthcoming centenary, a proposal has been put forward to promote a symbolic limit within the national park: the creation of a ‘sacred mountain’.[5] According to the promoters, this initiative would consist in designating a peak as the ‘sacred mountain’ of the Park, inaccessible to anyone. A boundary that park visitors would have to freely accept and share. This self-limiting initiative that aims to protect nature from human impact is certainly worthy of support in its spirit, but it might present a few problems and has raised some discussion. Many voices posed the problem that the presence of a ‘sacred mountain’ could have the opposite effect, attracting curious people and tourists, thus nullifying the sense of the initiative. But more problematic, in my opinion, is the very idea that mountains and nature can only be protected by removing the human presence. Furthermore, an ecological ‘sacralisation’ of the mountains could once again turn them into spaces perceived apart from history and civilization, as they have been for many centuries.
I believe that the centenary of the Gran Paradiso National Park should be an opportunity to emphasize instead how Alpine history has been a great example of symbiosis between humanity and the wildest nature. The history of the Park and its main dweller, the ibex, shows that although human agency is a destabilizing factor for the environment and produces damage, humanity is also able to self-correct and remedy its own actions, ceasing to continue its business as usual but without annulling itself. Wilko Graf von Hardenberg has recently published a history of the Gran Paradiso National Park during the years of the fascist dictatorship. The conclusion of his work is dedicated to the effort of the anti-fascist resistance, that found a safe haven in the mountains of the National Park, to save again the ibex from the extinction danger caused by the war. Von Hardenberg has pointed out that “the making of a democratic Italy from the mountaintops and safety of its Alpine valley and the country’s rebirth after the dark years of Fascism combined in the wartime and post-war experiences of the Gran Paradiso National Park to save the ibex from extinction and encourage the resurgence of the country’s nature”.[6] A perfect synthesis of how the environment around us is permeated with our political history and how the centenary of a national park can be the best opportunity to reflect on its past and future.
I believe that the centenary of the Gran Paradiso National Park should be an opportunity to emphasize instead how Alpine history has been a great example of symbiosis between humanity and the wildest nature. The history of the Park and its main dweller, the ibex, shows that although human agency is a destabilizing factor for the environment and produces damage, humanity is also able to self-correct and remedy its own actions, ceasing to continue its business as usual but without annulling itself. Wilko Graf von Hardenberg has recently published a history of the Gran Paradiso National Park during the years of the fascist dictatorship. The conclusion of his work is dedicated to the effort of the anti-fascist resistance, that found a safe haven in the mountains of the National Park, to save again the ibex from the extinction danger caused by the war. Von Hardenberg has pointed out that “the making of a democratic Italy from the mountaintops and safety of its Alpine valley and the country’s rebirth after the dark years of Fascism combined in the wartime and post-war experiences of the Gran Paradiso National Park to save the ibex from extinction and encourage the resurgence of the country’s nature”.[6] A perfect synthesis of how the environment around us is permeated with our political history and how the centenary of a national park can be the best opportunity to reflect on its past and future.
[1] Research Center for Alpine History – CREA Mont Blanc, Climate Change and its Impacts in the Alps, 2021; J.I. Barredo, A. Mauri, G. Caudullo, Impacts of Climate Change in European Mountains – Alpine Tundra Habitat Loss and Treeline Shifts under Future Global Warming, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 2020.
[2] Glaciers in retreat: tracking the decline of the Earth’s ‘rivers of ice’ in “The Guardian”, 02/05/2021.
[3] O. Milman, ‘It’s like a rotting carcass of its former self’: funeral for an Oregon glacier in “The Guardian”, 02/05/2021.
[4] F. Rullo, Piemonte, sempre meno ghiacciai sulle montagne in “Corriere della Sera”, 13/09/2021.
[5] The proposal has been initially put forward by Toni Farina, the representative of the environmental associations on the park council board; then an autonomous promotion committee has been formed. The discussion on this theme has been hosted on some local blogs dealing with Alpine culture and environment: T. Farina, Una Montagna Sacra per il Gran Paradiso in “I camosci bianchi. Blog di discussione sulla montagna, escursionismo, cultura e tradizioni alpine”, 29/09/2020; B. Farinelli, La via del sacro non è sempre quella giusta in “I camosci bianchi”, 12/10/2020; S. Ronchey, La montagna e il sacro in “I camosci bianchi”, 21/11/2020; L. Enrico, Riflessioni sulla Montagna Sacra in “I camosci bianchi”, 23/04/2021; A. Gogna, Una ‘Montagna Sacra’ in “GognaBlog”, 09/08/2021.
[6] W. G. von Hardenberg, A Monastery for the Ibex. Conservation, State, and Conflict on the Gran Paradiso, 1919-1940, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 2021, p. 160.
– Bruno Farinelli is a PhD student at the Centre for Political History. His doctoral research project is titled “Hunting for Ambition: The Royal Hunt and the Representation of Power at the Court of Savoy”.