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Italian environment delegation celebrates links with Monash

26 October 2005

Representatives from Italy's Cinque Terre National Park visited Monash's Clayton campus this month to mark the first anniversary of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Monash in 2004.

Cinque Terre National Park's Mr Franco Bonanini (far right) with Monash Arts dean Professor Homer Le Grand and pro vice-chancellor -- Planning Professor Merran Evans.

The MOU, facilitated by Monash Environment Institute director Professor Nigel Tapper, focuses on developing a partnership with the national park through academic research, exchange and sponsorship of students, researchers, seminars and workshops.

The delegation included president of the Cinque Terre National Park Mr Franco Bonanini, mayor of Vernazza Mr Gerolamo Leonardini and Mr Fabio Renzi, senior national manager of Legambiente -- Italy's largest environmental lobby group.

The Cinque Terre is a region comprising five villages in Northern Italy located along 15 kilometres of the Ligurian Coast and is known for the cultivation of grapes and olive trees.

The region, which includes a Marine Protected Area, is one of the most popular tourist sites in Italy and attracts more than two million visitors a year. It gained UNESCO World Heritage listing in 1997 and was declared a national park in 1999.

Professor Nigel Tapper and Mr Franco Bonanini.

Professor Tapper said the partnership with Monash had been successful, with around 75 students, teaching staff and researchers in geography, environmental science, sustainability and tourism travelling to the area to study.

"Monash remains strongly committed to the partnership," Professor Tapper said. "Our relationship with the park provides our students with a wonderful opportunity to study a beautiful and unique cultural landscape but one that is under tremendous environmental, cultural and economic pressure because of its popularity with tourists.

"As well as learning from our relationship with the park, we hope to be able to contribute useful knowledge through our research efforts."

Among the upcoming initiatives is a 10-day intensive study program in Cinque Terre conducted by the School of Geography and Environmental Science in December for interested third and fourth-year students at the school.