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On Friday, May 30, 2025, Sardinia hosted the First Forum on Protected Areas, a strategic dialogue that brought together key institutional and territorial actors engaged in the protection and enhancement of the island’s natural heritage. 

The initiative, strongly promoted by Regional Minister for the Environment Rosanna Laconi, saw the active participation of the Regional Department for the Environment, the Forestas Agency, the Forestry and Environmental Surveillance Corps, representatives from the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security (MASE), as well as delegates from Sardinia’s national parks, marine protected areas, and notable initiatives from across Italy. 

Held in the Tepilora Regional Park, the Forum served as a space for listening, hands-on discussion, and collective planning. Working sessions adopted an Open Space Technology methodology, organizing thematic tables to address critical issues, opportunities, and future perspectives for Sardinia’s protected areas system. 

"The goal," said Minister Laconi, "is to initiate a shared and participatory reflection on existing regulations, sharing tools and diverse expertise to create a network in which protected areas become not just preserved spaces, but drivers of development for the communities that inhabit them." 

“The safeguarding of nature is, ultimately, the safeguarding of ourselves,” she added. “Protecting our natural and human environment means protecting our health, our culture, and our very existence.” 

A Regional Network for Conservation and Development 

Discussions clearly highlighted the urgent need to build a regional ecological network capable of overcoming current regulatory and operational fragmentation, aligning governance structures, and enhancing the ability of protected areas to address environmental and social challenges. 

Key topics included the need for a new regional law on protected areas, recognition and enhancement of ecosystem services, coordinated biodiversity monitoring, co-design with local communities, tackling overtourism, environmental education, and the promotion of sustainable tourism. 

Equally important was the focus on shared tools for economic planning, staff management, training, and strategic communication. Participants reaffirmed the essential role of the Sardinian Region in defining a unified strategy that ensures coherence across conservation, active management, and local development policies. 

The Forum promoted a new vision of the park as a comprehensive territorial infrastructure: not just a reservoir of biodiversity, but a place where new forms of interaction between environment, economy, and community can be tested. The active involvement of citizens, businesses, and local operators was recognized as central to building a sense of co-responsibility and shared value. 

With the recent establishment of the Capo Spartivento Marine Protected Area, Sardinia now counts seven Marine Protected Areas, covering a total of 133,000 hectares of protected sea. Alongside Sicily, it is the Italian region with the largest extent of marine areas under protection. 

This remarkable heritage reinforces Sardinia’s potential to become a model of ecological innovation and co-development, provided it is equipped with the appropriate legal, organizational, and financial frameworks. 

The Forum marked a concrete first step toward building this shared path forward.