PAESAGGI PRODUTTIVI E PATRIMONIOUNESCO: LE RISERVE MAB COME INFRASTRUTTURE DI RIFERIMENTO IDENTITARIOLUNGOLA VALLE DEL FIUME PO

This contribution addresses the theme of Productive Landscapes through the case of the Po Valley, one of Europe’s most anthropized regions, where the river landscape intersects with infrastructures for agriculture, industry, transport, and energy. Building on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, which promotes balance between conservation and sustainable development, the paper proposes an integrated vision of productive landscapes, highlighting both natural resources and human interventions. Some stretches of the river are MAB Reserves (Po Monviso, Po Collina, Ticino Valley, Po Grande, Po Delta), while others belong to UNESCO networks (World Heritage List, Creative Cities, Intangible Heritage, Geoparks). Yet, a unified strategy for protection and enhancement is still lacking, starting with the integration of existing MAB Reserves. The analysis considers the interplay between territorial “hardware” and the “software” of cultural know-how, showing how this complexity emerges in UNESCO strategies for the landscape and calling to rethink the Po Valley as a productive landscape to be preserved and rebalanced through knowledge, slow and proximity tourism within industrial tourism perspectives.