Who we are and what we do
Photo: Basilio Puglia/Crio Vision Who we are and what we do Who we are Manu Manu Riforesta! is a non-profit association set up by a
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11 million olive trees in the Salento are gravely ill; they have lost their foliage and no longer generate oxygen. Over the last 150 years this vast expanse of olive trees has been a unique green lung, giving the landscape of southern Puglia its identity. Now, because of the phenomenon of Olive Quick Decline Syndrome compounded by the Xylella bacteria, the landscape is reduced to an expanse of dry trunks and branches, presenting a uniformly grey mantle.
We propose to recreate the forest in the heart of the Basso Salento, in the territory of the Paduli, where the ancient Belvedere Wood once stood. This former paradise of biodiversity, with its oaks, holm oaks, ash trees, elms, Mediterranean scrub, and wetlands, was cleared at the end of the 19th Century to make room for olive monoculture, a spread of olive groves that today survives only as a forest of ghosts.
WE WANT TO LEAVE A GREEN HERITAGE FOR THOSE WHO COME AFTER US!
By acquiring abandoned land – to be purchased, loaned, donated, or rented – which will be achieved through a major campaign of sensibilization both of the public and of the authorities. By setting in motion ‘the centripetal force of the Paduli’ in collaboration with the local community so that all feel the urgent need to reconnect with this once rich & fertile land (now abandoned because of ‘the catastrophe of the olives’) with their feet, their hands, their minds and their hearts. By working in synergy with the University of the Salento and their Botanical Gardens, with whom we have established an agreement to study the territory of Manu Manu Riforesta!, to plan the land’s cultivation and the plants adapted to it, and to take into consideration the problem of climate change and progressive desertification.
We need help to buy lands, promote researches, plant and guarantee care through time.
Written and directed by Bruna Rotunno ©2020 | Produced by Manu Manu Riforesta!
Shade and light, destruction and rebirth. “Canto” and “Controcanto”.
Photo: Basilio Puglia/Crio Vision Who we are and what we do Who we are Manu Manu Riforesta! is a non-profit association set up by a
This is the first piece of land acquired by Manu Manu Riforesta! thanks to the fundraising campaign. It is a small area of wetland with
The agricultural area of the Salento known as the Paduli is bounded by an almost ellipsoidal line of c.40km that extends from Scorrano to Miggiano.
‘THE SACRIFICIAL ELEMENTS’ The Greek Tragedy of Our Dying Olive Trees My dear friends in Turkey, I am writing to you from Salento to recount
Manu Manu Riforesta! is a hymn to creativity – of nature and of man. We are convinced that powerful imagination – united with as much
We are not alone! We are many pursuing the objective of restoring oxygen to the Salento and recreating biodiversity. Our companions on this journey: Azienda
