History of Val Sanagra Park
The Val Sanagra Local Park of Supra-municipal Interest (PLIS) was established in 2005 through the initiative of the municipalities of Grandola ed Uniti and Menaggio, with the aim of enhancing and protecting an area of extraordinary natural, historical and landscape value.
The Sanagra Valley is one of the most fascinating valleys in the Lepontine Pre-Alps., located between Lake Como and Lake Lugano. This territory, still largely wild, is home to a rich mosaic of natural environments: forests, pastures, mountain pastures, streams and fir forests that represent a wealth of biodiversity of great value.
Beyond the 900-meter mark, where the last houses of the municipalities of Menaggio, Grandola ed Uniti and Plesio stop, extend acres of untouched landscapes, deeply connected to the history and practices of local people.
In this context The Val Sanagra Local Park of Supra-Municipal Interest was established in 2005.. Strongly desired by the municipal administrations of Grandola ed Uniti and Menaggio, the PLIS represents a innovative land management model: a flexible form of protection, built from the bottom up, which does not overlap with the needs of inhabitants, but integrates them into a long-term vision.
The creation of the park was preceded by a articulate institutional and administrative pathway, which also involved the provincial administration of Como. The signing of the agreement between the two founding municipalities marked the official start of the PLIS, defining its management methods and providing for theEstablishment of a special management committee, charged with outlining its future directions.
Official Recognition
Provincial Council Resolution No. 183/27914 of 06/30/2005.
Ways of planning and scheduling:
Multi-year Program of Interventions approved by DCC No. 40 of 25/11/2006
Management Committee
President: Mayor of Grandola ed Uniti, Angelo Adamo
Vice president: Mayor of Menaggio, Michele Spaggiari
Majority members of the municipality of Menaggio: Valentina Pozzi, Ilaria Biacchi
Member belonging from Menaggio Territory Association: Francesco Visetti
Majority members municipality of Grandola ed Uniti: Andrea Selva, Sara Erba
Member belonging Association of the territory of Grandola ed Uniti: Emanuele Gobba
Park Technician: Attilio Selva
THE VISION.
Protection and tradition: a possible balance
The result of a shared vision, the PLIS is based on a model of participatory protection, which does not impose rigid constraints, but recognizes and promotes the importance of traditional activities and the age-old relationship between man and the valley.
Unlike regional or national parks, PLISs do not impose restrictive limits on land use or on private property. The perimeter of the Val Sanagra PLIS, for example, deliberately excludes urbanized areas and focuses on natural areas. Traditional activities such as hunting, fishing, mushroom and fruit picking, wood cutting, or animal husbandry are fully recognized and protected as an integral part of the valley's identity and ecological balance.
This approach avoids the outdated idea of a closed and "inaccessible" park, where nature is separated from everyday life. On the contrary, the Sanagra Valley PLIS is proposed as a A model of harmonious coexistence between man and the environment, capable of conserving the landscape through the direct involvement of those who have lived in and cared for it for generations.
The establishment of the park also came in the wake of growing interest in the area's cultural and natural heritage, fostered by the opening of the Sanagra Valley Ethnographic Natural History Museum. This structure has been able to collect and tell the historical memory and environmental peculiarities of the area, helping to strengthen the awareness of its value.
The Sanagra Valley PLIS is today. a concrete example of how land protection can coexist with sustainable development and respect for local traditions. It is a story that continues, written every day by the community that inhabits it, in a continuous dialogue between past and future.
