Community Cooperatives Against Depopulation (by Alice Benatti)
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We report an interesting article taken from the Gazzetta di Reggio of 22/7/24 by Alice Benatti , which talks about community cooperatives. Through an analysis and an interview with Giovanni Teneggi, an expert in this field thanks also to his experience in Confcooperative. You can also read the article directly HERE .
Originally from Rosano di Vetto but resident in Castelnovo Monti, Giovanni Teneggi (pictured top left) not only lives the Reggio Emilia Apennines but is a profound expert on them, especially their cooperative hummus. He holds several prestigious roles in Confcooperative: he oversees the development of community cooperatives at a national level, is responsible for the Research and Development area of Terre d'Emilia (which includes Reggio Emilia, Modena and Bologna) and director of the Reggio Emilia office. Last but not least, he is president of Ifoa Reggio Emilia. On July 25, right in his Castelnovo Monti, precisely at the “Il Ginepro” farmhouse, he will speak to the students of the summer school “Landscape, community, sustainability” – promoted by the Unione Montana –, giving as examples those that have flourished from the beginning of the 1990s to today.
What will be the heart of his speech?
"The great theme of community preparation and activation in the Apennines, which we often remember as it was in the past: with its celebrations, rites, economic exchanges. But this whole world, today, is no longer present as it was then. In many cases the territory has simply become the location of an economic activity and not the ecosystem in which it is located. An ecosystem that, however, needs to be re-organized because it is the territories that need it. The opportunity of the summer school arises from the activity that has been developed for years by Confcooperative and by the whole cooperation in terms of community re-organization through the instrument of community cooperatives".
Here, let's start from here. What are community cooperatives?
"They are cooperatives owned by residents, businesses, associations, local institutions of a single town or valley that are born to put the territory's resources back into play and combat its social and economic impoverishment. In concrete terms, by reviving places or transforming them to respond to a need felt in the community in which they live."
Any recent experiences?
«Quite recently, the one born in Costabona, a village of Villa Minozzo kept alive by various activities that the inhabitants carry out. There is the company of Maggio, a place managed by young people, “La Officina Costabona”. The latter was born from the passion for agriculture, in particular for wheat, of some landowners in Costabona who informally carried on the tradition of threshing. At a certain point, they thought they could transform it into an economic activity. So they founded a community cooperative and today they manage the activities of transforming wheat into flour and other products, bringing both economic value and tourists to the area. Another interesting recent experience is that of the community cooperative “Valcampola” in Pecorile. Few would think that it is useful in a well-served hamlet 15 minutes from Reggio Emilia, but it is. This reality, in fact, becomes the manifesto of a fundamental point: community cooperatives do not only concern some geographical areas, such as mountainous ones, but involve towns, villages in the plains and even city districts because wherever we look one of the most widespread dramas is loneliness while one of the most precious and sought-after assets is the community itself».
Looking at our territory, what are the existing community cooperatives?
"In addition to those already mentioned, we have "Il Pontaccio" in Vetto, "Altimonti" in Civago, "San Rocco" in Ligonchio, "Vallenera" in Vallisnera, "Briganti del Cerreto" in Cerreto Alpi and "Il Quadrifoglio" in Castelnovo Monti. The latter was established in the new form of a community sports cooperative and was born from associations in the sector that came together to begin offering, in addition to activities related to their respective sports disciplines, a broader offering related to health and education."
The “Valle dei Cavalieri” was born in 1991. After more than 20 years it still stands...
"It was one of the first community cooperatives to be born in Italy and also one of the most talked about. In 1991 in Succiso the bar had closed, the last shutter left up. And some guys from the Pro Loco understood that it would be a shock because if the bar died... the town would die. So they formed the cooperative and reopened the place with the instinct to preserve this meeting place. Over time, they then added other economic activities to the bar so as to offer more services to the population and allow public bodies to revive their unused heritage. The closed school became a restaurant and then a visitor center for the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park. They also reopened a farm for raising sheep."
In an article of yours from a few years ago you talk about community cooperatives as cultural enterprises. Why?
"From an economic point of view, to be credible and effective, community cooperatives must hold together four dimensions and one of these is precisely the cultural one. In fact, they need to give back to the territory and its inhabitants a story. In short, culture as a narration of the living. The community cooperative "Viso a viso", for example, founded in 2020 in the Municipality of Ostana, at the foot of Monviso, has made the cultural dimension its main element".
If you had to take a “photograph” of the composition of the communities of the Apennines today, how would you see it?
"The mountain territory has different communities that overlap and coexist, sometimes without intersecting. The first is that of the habitants of the mountain, who enjoy it for themselves because they have a home there and do not seek other transformations. There are also habitants, who come from outside and share with the first group this "extractive" use of the mountain. Then there is the community of transformative inhabitants, who have decided to settle in the mountains because they have seized the opportunity to live well there, with a view to realizing a dream. We have crazy stories of people who have moved to the Apennines from Milan or London, in some cases having no previous contacts, because they believed that their life dream was only achievable in this place. Finally, there is a third community, that of teenagers between 15 and 18 years old living in the Apennines. We struggle to listen to this last one and initiate it into adulthood. But, in doing so, we are making it a candidate to leave."