Activities

Hope for Sennariolo

Recovering the olive trees ecosystem of Sennariolo to protect biodiversity and respond to the health impacts of climate and extreme weather

Sustainable Development Goals:

Mission

By recovering the olive trees ecosystem of Sennariolo, recently devastated by extreme wildfire, we protect biodiversity and respond to the health impacts of climate and extreme weather

Let’s talk about the effects of a mega fire boosted by climate change

On 24 July 2021, in the road between Bonarcado and Santu Lussurgiu, large and persistent wildfires crossed the territory of Montiferru and Planargia for 60 hours at very high temperatures, involving 11 municipalities affected to varying degrees, intensity and altitudes.

An intense blow has reached the planting of olive groves in Sennariolo, among the oldest ones at the regional level, destroying three quarter of the entire territor

Climate change, characterized by a substantial increase in temperatures and drought conditions, are playing a key role in determining fire regimes along with human activities. Future climate variability will further aggravate specific components of the risk of fires in many areas of Europe with consequent impacts on people, goods and ecosystems exposed in the most vulnerable areas. In recent years, in fact, there has been an increase in average temperatures and an extension of both periods of rain during winters and drought periods during summer months. This new condition reduces the humidity of the vegetation and facilitate the spread of flames. Even the greater abundance of winter rains, in reality, can favor summer fires, because it causes a greater growth of plants that become combustion material in the dry season.

Recovering the ecosystem of Sennariolo

Our proposal for the reforestation and restoration of the olive-trees of Sennariolo includes both direct interventions on the vegetation and on the soil in order to improve the overall resilience of the area to respond to potential climate-relate extreme events like fires, flooding and heatwaves.

The project intends to provide integrated responses in the field of recovery of olive trees plantations damaged by fires and at the same time to develop the basis for an integrated hydraulic-forest restoration action. The aim is also to mitigate the effects of flooding potentially affecting road network and the safety for residents living in the villages around, during extreme climate events.

The restoration action according to the techniques of naturalistic hydraulic-forestry engineering, crucial to limit soil erosion, will benefit the recovery of the forest itself, favoring the absorption of water in the soil and thus avoiding the drastic washout of the microbiome.

These measures will have to foresee interventions of wooded and vegetational reconstitution of the available biocenosis, exploiting the potential regeneration capacities typical of the Mediterranean vegetation, using appropriate silvicultural measures.

Targets

Recovering at least 4 hectares of olive plantations by reversing soil degradation, renewing existing biocenosis and replanting olive trees

Support our Campaign

Our actions are supported by organizations that want to make a difference to protect the marine, terrestrial and coastal ecosystem to avoid particularly negative impacts, also by strengthening their resilience, and to act for their restoration in order to obtain healthy and productive oceans and soil.

Together with some of them we have carried out concrete projects for the protection of our sea and for the creation of new Posidonia forests, for circular economy and precision agriculture to limit waste and protect natural resources like freshwater.

The actions that we will continue to carry out together in the next decade to protect our ocean and land will affect the future of our planet for centuries to come: we have a huge responsibility towards the planet, towards ourselves and future generations.