by Francesca Morra
At least once in our lives, taking a walk or a ride in the car, we said: “once upon a time there were just fields here, and now you can see houses, buildings, asphalt everywhere…”. It’s not necessary to be 80 years old to say it! We have been witnessing an unrestrained urban sprawl (cyclically covered by the media) without any serious attempt of resolving the situation. Every single year hectares of land are spent for new buildings. A Legambiente recent research says that 500 km2 of land are covered by concrete each year.
Against this silent and slowly-striking environmental disaster, the voice of the Italian Forum “Salviamo il Paesaggio, Difendiamo il Territorio” raised up with a national bottom-up communication trying to spread the message of the need to protect soil and save the beautiful landscapes of our Italy. The forum and communication campaign coordinator Virginia Scarsi says: «The choice of a positive claim for the logo has been fundamental: communication messages often do not work because they use negative words like "stop” or "no." We chose two words which indicate that there is still a problem, but with a hopeful approach». In fact "Save" denotes that something is in danger and "Defend" brings to mind the need to nurture and preserve something.
In two years organizers received hundreds of thousands of reports, so they decided to take a census of all not inhabited and unused buildings, as a first step. This will make it possible to draw up a document getting the picture. This can also become a "resolution/motion model" or a bill. The aim of the organization is to change the common way of thinking about constructions. We have to consider the upgrading of existing building as the preferable solution. The communication campaign (associated with the Forum) tries to give everyone the possibility to express its mind and to raise awareness among not yet informed people. Notwithstanding the main goal is to force local administrators to take a clear position on this issue.
The campaign does not use just the Web (the site which is still under construction, or the regularly updated Facebook page) but tries to enter the usually free spaces like house balconies through flags displaying. Moreover coordinators will provide to the local communities many customizable materials: stickers, posters, advertising pages.
The organizers hope to entice people who will see the flags and attend the events planned, to question, to search information and at least becoming aware of the situation. With this extensive network of communication the mission is not impossible.
Against this silent and slowly-striking environmental disaster, the voice of the Italian Forum “Salviamo il Paesaggio, Difendiamo il Territorio” raised up with a national bottom-up communication trying to spread the message of the need to protect soil and save the beautiful landscapes of our Italy. The forum and communication campaign coordinator Virginia Scarsi says: «The choice of a positive claim for the logo has been fundamental: communication messages often do not work because they use negative words like "stop” or "no." We chose two words which indicate that there is still a problem, but with a hopeful approach». In fact "Save" denotes that something is in danger and "Defend" brings to mind the need to nurture and preserve something.
In two years organizers received hundreds of thousands of reports, so they decided to take a census of all not inhabited and unused buildings, as a first step. This will make it possible to draw up a document getting the picture. This can also become a "resolution/motion model" or a bill. The aim of the organization is to change the common way of thinking about constructions. We have to consider the upgrading of existing building as the preferable solution. The communication campaign (associated with the Forum) tries to give everyone the possibility to express its mind and to raise awareness among not yet informed people. Notwithstanding the main goal is to force local administrators to take a clear position on this issue.
The campaign does not use just the Web (the site which is still under construction, or the regularly updated Facebook page) but tries to enter the usually free spaces like house balconies through flags displaying. Moreover coordinators will provide to the local communities many customizable materials: stickers, posters, advertising pages.
The organizers hope to entice people who will see the flags and attend the events planned, to question, to search information and at least becoming aware of the situation. With this extensive network of communication the mission is not impossible.
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