Date of label : 29/10/2024
Lake in Borgomanero.
Summary
The Cusio lake contract is a participatory tool adopted to protect water resources around Orta Lake in Piedmont (IT), which over the years have been exploited to the point of exhaustion and then recovered thanks to innovative and costly interventions. To avoid repeating past mistakes and to align with the European legal framework, the Cusio Lake Cntract unites 133 local actors in an action plan. This plan brings together environmental protection and territorial development, while integrating social, economic and educational components. It proposes collective and individual actions across four areas: pollution reduction, lake ecosystem, shared redevelopment of the territory, and education on environmental sustainability.
The solutions offered by the Good Practice
In the 1920s, industrial activity led to increasingly severe heavy-metal pollution in Lake Orta. In 1987, the Verbania Hydrobiological Institute (now CNR-IRSA) carried out a huge remedial action by ‘liming’ the lake, i.e. neutralising its waters by adding carbonates. This action restored the lake to pre-pollution conditions, and it is still considered a global scientific case study for lake restoration. Subsequent actions have included using bivalves as biomonitors, reintroducing fish species, protecting reed beds, monitoring environmental conditions, and surveying plant species and levels of microplastics.
Today, the lake is a welcoming place with clean water. Small and medium-sized urban centres form a ‘city-lake’, where new and traditional industries co-exist with cultural, tourism and recreational activities. In 2021, more than 130 local actors signed the lake contract for Cusio, the tool that this ‘city-lake’ has adopted, to ensure both the protection of natural resources and socio-economic development.
Building on the sustainable and integrated urban approach
The Cusio lake contract aims to integrate nature conservation with development in the Lake Orta area. According to the World Water Forum, the largest international gathering in the water sector, this tool enables the adoption of a system of rules that balance public utility, economic performance, social value and environmental sustainability, in the search for effective solutions for the redevelopment of a water basin. This shared system of rules is crucial for the participatory processes at the local level, involving citizens, institutions and social and economic actors interested in the management and use of water resources.
The Contract’s action plan focuses on four main themes, two addressing the environmental, one the economic, and one the social dimension:
- Pollution reduction: To prevent spills, clean up waste, and reduce the sources of pollution.
- Lake ecosystem: To study the ecosystem, and define monitoring and impact assessment projects.
- Shared redevelopment of the territory: To reinforce ongoing actions, coordinate maintenance and clean-up actions, exchange and share information among local authorities, and develop sustainable tourism.
- Environmental sustainability education: To train, raise awareness and involve all age groups in the Contract’s activities.
Based on participatory approach
The Cusio lake contract is the culmination of a participatory process that started in 2017. Following a first Memorandum of Understanding in 2018 and a SEA - Strategic Environmental Assessment, the lake contract was signed on 13 November 2021.
The process involved numerous discussions among the parties in various municipalities, to co-evaluate needs and expectations, refine solutions, and achieve the succesful sharing of the initiative. The process was characterised by a high level of participation during the drafting of the Contract documents, including vital technical contributions from the Territorial pre-analysis for the Cusio area (2019) and from Aqua Novara.Vco (2020).
The lake contract is a voluntary agreement involving 133 local actors, equally divided among public administrations, businesses, and local associations. In essence, it is a true alliance between public institutions, various private organisations and citizens, to protect the water, manage lake resources, and sustainably develop the territory.
What difference has it made?
Administrative fragmentation has slowed or even prevented development, often to the detriment of smaller and less-structured municipalities. The Cusio lake contract addresses this by establishing a network of cooperation among the various municipalities, to mitigate the negative effects of this polycentric system and diffuse urbanisation. Around 70 000 people live in this area where natural beauty, industry and services coexist, and where the main challenge is taking shared and innovative actions to better access services and promote the green transition.
A first achievement was involving all the lake municipalities, and others in the water catchment basin, along with the most significant industries and associations in the area, to collaborate in the implementation of the actions.
Another success was entrusting the Cusius Ecomuseum with the coordination and implementation of the lake contract. The Ecomuseum is a cultural institution dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural and cultural assets of the Orta Lake basin.
Why this Good Practice should be transferred to other cities
The Cusio lake contract is a flexible tool that is adaptable to the ecological, social, and economic specificities of other European lake areas. Its main goal, to improve or maintain water quality, is common to all lake areas in Europe, and its pollution reduction and environmental strategies can address similar problems elsewhere. Other pillars of the lake contract also target common interests, such as promoting sustainable development, particularly in the tourism sector; replicable environmental education programmes for all ages; and adoptng governance and monitoring tools that ensure the effectiveness of actions.
The lake contract is a Voluntary Negotiated Planning Agreement in favour of the environment, which stems from the European Water Directive (2000), whose objectives are taken up under Italian laws and regional legislation in Piedmont. The instrument is replicable since it stems from a European Directive, which the various Member States will have implemented within their own national frameworks.
Its approach can be adapted by others by following six steps:
- Definition of river basin boundaries and characteristics.
- Analysis of sources of pollution, legal frameworks, development plans, and previous or ongoing projects.
- Identification of historical and cultural values and community needs.
- Engage local actors and key players.
- Involve technical and scientific support.
- Identification of possible funding sources.
This pathway can be adapted to local circumstances. For succesful replication, it is crucial to set clear goals and have committed key actors capable of guiding the process, inspiring stakeholders, and persuading them to cooperate towards the common goals.
In the framework of an international cooperation project led by the city of Borgomanero and the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI Piemonte), the Ecomuseum Cusius is providing technical assistance to the City of So-Ava and the Association of Municipalities of the Atlantic Coast (Benin, Africa), to adapt the practice to the Nokoué Lake, where large cities, such as Cotonou, Porto Novo, Abomey-Calavi. coexist with traditional villages such as Ganvié.