The importance of terracing in the traditional cultural landscapes: the case study of Sicily (Italy)

The landscapes formed by agricultural terraces are the natural result of the encounter between the characteristics of an environment and the creative force and genius of man, the slow evolution of this relationship between nature and culture, a collective project that balanced the need for producing with the resources available and the native character of the environment. These cultural processes produced a great variety of landscapes. However, they are not supported or confirmed by common inventories allowing to identify and classify the typical Main Traditional Landscape (MTL) within which very important is the role carried out by terraces and related man-made structures, both for natural and cultural aspects and functions. Terraced farming systems are considered not only the most representative cultural landscapes of the Mediterranean, but also among those at greatest risk. The crisis of traditional agricultural landscapes particularly concernes, in fact, those most affected by the costs of cultivation in regards to how small the land unit is, as well as the difficulties regarding access and mobility. Concerns about their disappearance and deterioration are due to their environmental, cultural, economic and social characteristics. The large number of terraced landscapes in Sicily are in accord with the complex nature and history of the island. Many important features of these landscapes can be recognized, such as: production, soil conservation, improvement of the microclimate, fire protection, conservation, biodiversity protection and the enhancement of the cultural, aesthetic and ethical aspects of agriculture. The study carried out in Sicily addresses the problem of protecting the landscape, not by considering the legacy of terraced cultivation systems obsolete and therefore inevitably subject to abandonment or to a reduction by mainstream culture to a "landscape museum," but, on the contrary, as an exemplary manifestation of the opportunities offered by the enhancement and preservation of traditional cultural landscapes. On the basis of these considerations, the objective of the present paper is to draw up the importance of terraced-land within the MTL of Mediterranean context, by the study-case of Sicily (S-Italy), in terms of: (i) cross-landscape distributive importance; (II) main structural characters and functions; (iii) ongoing driving-actions in land-use change. A study case that can be of great interest for such regions, as the Konso in Ethiopia, were terraced systems are of interest for reasons together productive, environmental, cultural.