EXCERCISES 7 Find the questions for these answers. It mainly focuses on a sustainable management of the land from an ecological and economical point of view. National parks, regional and interregional nature parks, nature reserves, wetlands of international importance and other protected natural areas, as well as land and marine potential park areas. Partially controlled exploitation, i.e. partial cutting of woodland, regulated grazing, traditional nonintensive farming as well as quality non-intensive sheep (and especially cattle) rearing. There is no overall plan for tourism: each park can decide for itself, but in compliance with general guidelines. 1. 2. 3. 4. 8 Four sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from sentences a-d the one which fits each gap. Nevertheless, the development of rice cultivation gradually ate away strips of the forest and limited it to its present size: almost a floating raft on the rice fields. These families were called “partecipanti” (sharers) as they shared the wood management and resulting income. In Roman times, even though the wood was widely exploited by colonisers, who used its timber in the building and foundry sectors, it survived, as it was sacred to Apollo and thus protected for reasons of worship. The wood has survived until today thanks to strict management and to deforestation rules which probably date back to the Middle Ages. a. b. c. d. Bosco delle Sorti della Partecipanza: a Floating Raft on the Rice Fields Surrounded by the rice fields that characterise the plain of Vercelli, the Bosco delle Sorti della Partecipanza of Torino is one of the very few extraordinary relics of the ancient postglacial forest that used to cover the plain of the Po river. ☐ Even today, as in the past, every year a section of woodland is cut in turn and it is ‘fate’ (which is what ‘Sorte’ means) which decides, which agricultural each owner is to coppice. The wood, formed mainly of pedunculate oaks and poplars, became a Regional Park in 1991. The longterm goal is to recover the identity of the forest through the containment of invasive species (e.g. the black locust tree), elimination of the red oak, the balance of coppicing areas with areas, and important reforestation activity on the soils that were turned into rice fields at the end of the 19th century. ☐ Around the year 1000, Cistercian monks founded Saint Mary’s Abbey and cut down thousands of hectares of wood for agricultural purposes. During the 13th century, what remained of the ancient broad forest was split into two portions: Lucedio’s Wood – first to Saint Mary’s Abbey and then to private owners – and the Bosco della Partecipanza, by Bonifacio I, Marquis of Monferrato, to some families from the town of Torino as a reward for their military help against the rival town of Vercelli. ☐ In this way they managed to protect the area from the rural speculation which led to the disappearance of other woodlands in the lower Vercelli plain. ☐ 1. by a draw, parcel entitled high-trunk 2. allotted granted 3. 4. GLOSSARY allotted: assegnato asset: risorsa to boast: vantare by a draw: a sorte entitled: autorizzato foundry: fonderia granted: dato in concessione grazing: pascolatura high-trunk: alto fusto marsh: palude parcel: parcella peatland: torbiera raft: zattera rearing: allevamento