In the last few decades European industrial cities have experienced major transformations which have implied the need to rethink the role of nature. Re-naturing the city, reconnecting urban planning and nature and enhancing sustainability, means taking into account ecosystems and biodiversity through a social approach to nature which reconsiders nature as a social product and re-examines city–nature relationships, the way Urban Political Ecology (UPE) suggests. This paper focuses on the Brescia Quarry Park, a suburban space that until just a few years ago was characterized by mining activities. This area has now been transformed into a re-naturalized area and is projected to become one of Europe’s largest re-naturalized protected urban areas. These transformations are signs of a profound change in the urban metabolism. In fact, the community has struggled for many years for the recognition of the value of the area in ecological and cultural terms. Therefore, an approach was adopted based on Urban Political Ecology, which is useful to study how the socio–natural relationships change and how an exploited and degraded land can become a relevant natural area from the local community’s point of view. This approach also allowed us to study conflicts due to unequal power relations and strategies developed by the community to reduce these conflicts. Particular interest was given to the participatory processes which have driven these transformations and to the role played by the different actors involved through top-down and bottom-up approaches. So, we decided to combine UPE and participatory action research—PAR and create a participatory map of the Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) in the Park. Attention was given to understanding the practices of the stakeholders and benefits for the community. This involvement allowed us to represent the complexity of the re-naturalized urban landscape which was analyzed through the changes in natural, urban and rural features that emerged. During the process, the interaction between citizens and experts was fundamental in co-producing an analysis of the placemaking of urban landscapes and in revealing the socio–ecological interactions of the stakeholders with these places. The results of the mapping process represent a first step towards promoting sustainable environmental planning and management based on the involvement and empowerment of the local population.

The lemon houses of Lake Garda provide Ecosystem Services, due to their history and their deep rooting in the landscape. Unfortunately, Urban Planning hasn’t ever taken into account these possible benefits. In fact, it has always allowed their reuse as residences and it has sustained the conservation of the buildings only. The lack of interest in reintroducing lemon growing or other agricultural activities has produced a noticeable impoverishment of the local landscape. To overcome these limits, Urban Planning should be oriented to implement practices, which take root in and bring out the variety of local landscapes. In order to reach this result, Urban Planning may help to bring some lemon houses, especially the abandoned or the most vulnerable ones, back to their original agricultural vocation, reintroducing autopoietic agricultural techniques, which are in balance with the environment. An interdisciplinary approach may be adopted in a profitable way, to strengthen the efficiency of the Urban Planning. Aiming at this interdisciplinary approach the paper reports our first investigations concerning the contribution of different disciplines, which will help Urban Planning to consider, in case of the reuse of Lake Garda lemon houses, immaterial benefits and to reintroduce activities linked to their original vocation.

This book explores the commodification of nature with a particular emphasis on how this process is perpetrated by capitalist societies. Through the example of Italy, the book presents another lens to observe landscapes and natures and the different actors, both human and non-human, involved in their production. It draws on critical geography perspectives to unveil the socionatural dynamics that form the basis of the commodification of Italian natures. It examines how the social construction of nature in Italy produces peculiar effects on ecologies and landscapes as well as on human and non-human bodies, and how alternative socionatures emerge. The book is written primarily for scholars, particularly in human, cultural and critical geography, political ecology, cultural studies as well as heritage, tourism, sustainability and urban studies. It will also be of interest to policymakers and planners in nature conservation, landscape planning and heritage management. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

Lombardy is one of Italy’s most urbanised regions. However, it is also one of the cradles of experimentation and implementation of nature conservation. In this chapter, we discuss nature conservation in the Lombard context, specifically focussing on protected areas that emerged in highly urbanised contexts or as green belts around major cities. We identify current trends and challenges related to the socionatures produced in these areas through a case study of Bergamo Hills Regional Park and the local parks of the city of Brescia. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

This chapter examines the process of the production of nature in the urban environment from the perspectives of social nature and urban political ecology. It focuses on reconstructing the interaction between the city and nature and overcoming the dichotomy that has always characterised them. The regreening of cities, starting in the 1980s, is an important issue in urban sustainability projects, and with the rising attention to climate change, it is now part of urban climate strategies. The analysis provided in this chapter focuses on the new production of nature in the urban climate strategies promoted and realised in the Italian cities of Brescia, Bergamo and Mantova. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->