Background The area of the “Comunità Montana” which stretches from the valleys of the rivers Nure and Arda has a high quality environment. The low level of anthropisation and industrialisation, together with widespread forested areas and zones of high environmental quality are indicators of the good environmental status. The local administrations, within their planning tools (namely the “Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale” and “Piano di Sviluppo della Comunità Montana”), have identified the most appropriate ways to reach sustainable development in the area. Consensus was reached that such development should be pursued mainly through two strictly inter-related strategies: 1. the improvement of the tourism sector; 2. the valorisation of the agri-food system based on traditional products of high quality (particularly PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) quality labels). Objectives The project aimed at obtaining EMAS II certification for the territory of the seven municipalities and the “Comunità Montana”. The specific project objectives were: 1. to obtain an environmental system certification for the territory as a guarantee for all the economic activities (agricultural,tourism and food production); 2. to design environmental sustainable policies that will boost local economic development. The implementation of an EMAS system was judged to be crucial in order to: - establish guidelines for the implementation of policies for the improvement and safeguard of the environment; - strengthen the territory's environmental reputation for excellence which would give it an advantage vis-a-vis economic stakeholders; - promote the economic development of the area by attracting a greater number of tourists and financial resources. Results The project reached all of its objectives, namely: - achieving the EMAS certification for the Mountain Community; - raising awareness among the local population and municipalities about the importance of EMAS certification for future sustainable development and; - the start-up of many actions aimed at improving the environmental quality of the Mountain Community. The priorities chosen were hydro-geological instability; water quality and waste water management. 1) Hydro-geological instability About 33% of the territory of the Mountain Community is subject to landslides. These have a great impact on the natural resources and economic activities (damage to industrial and inhabited structures, road blockages, damage to aqueducts, methane pipelines etc). The objectives until 2007 include: control existing landslides; adopt measures in order to prevent new landslides and; realize 100 hectares of forests. 2) Water quality: in particular for waste water management Not all the inhabitants have depuration plants available and their waste water is discharged into the water courses. It is consequently necessary to: - connect the sewer system to all the villages which are not currently supplied; - construct new depuration plants wherever it is convenient from a technical and economic point of view. It is almost impossible to connect all the inhabitants to the same sewer system, because the villages are situated quite far away from each other, therefore after the works, many sewer systems will be available. 3) Waste management: in particular for differentiated and cumbersome waste collection. Every year, 8,490 tons of waste are produced in the territory of the Mountain Community, this is equivalent to a total of about 506 kg per habitat, with peaks reaching 770 and 913 kg during the summer months. The objectives until 2007 include: increase the separate waste collections to reach 25% of the total waste (actually 13%) and; equip the dedicated areas to reduce the uncontrollable abandonment of waste. An investment plan has been approved to support the above actions, with some 5 millions euro to be invested up until 2007. The environmental policy of the Mountain Community has been improved through co-ordinated promotion and implementation of environmental policies, which were previously carried out by the municipalities acting on their own. The Governance Pact which was adopted engages the municipalities to carry out the co-ordinated environmental policy. The procedure manual will be a tool for promoting and implementing the environmental policy. The actual policy, which was approved by the participating municipalities, has clearly defined the objectives to be implemented within 2007 in the above-mentioned sectors. The level of innovation is quite high considering the situation of Mountain Communities in Italy; they do not tend to act according to clear medium-long term programmes. The methodology used in the project is transferable and in fact seven Mountain Communities in Northern Italy are presently adopting it. The main socio-economic effects of the project are improvements in the quality of life of the territory and development of the tourism, agriculture and forestry sectors. It has been estimated that the economic outcome for the entire Mountain Community would represent at least 1,8 million euro per year, along with the creation of hundreds of new jobs. The abovementioned investment plan is undoubtedly an indicator of the project's success and a guarantee for the continuation of the project after LIFE. This project has been selected as one of the 21 "Best" LIFE Environment projects in 2005-2006