Urban-Rural Partnerships in Peri-Urban Areas: The Role of Non-profit Organizations

Abstract

In the last few years Fondazione Cariplo (Cariplo Foundation) has been promoting many initiatives related to the enhancement of new partnerships between cities and their countryside. Their focuses were the development of sustainable and multifunctional agriculture in the Peri-Urban areas and the transition from conventional monoculture agriculture to organic agriculture integrated in local food chains. Fondazione Cariplo’s aim is to contribute to achieve to different challenges, such as the reduction of soil consumption, guaranteeing good food to cities from neighboring areas and reducing transport emissions and costs. Several projects on urban-rural partnerships were supported since 2009, mainly located in a specific critical area called Parco Agricolo Sud Milano (PASM), the second largest agricultural park in Europe, and some of them will be described in this chapter. Environmental NGOs, often supported by Universities, usually promote grassroots initiatives. A first group of them focuses on promoting consumer awareness and more sustainable food production, a second one is aimed at promoting countryside landscape and environment and maintaining an acceptable equilibrium between settlements and open spaces. Fondazione Cariplo also supports research on food policies at regional and municipal level with the aim to contribute to the development of a public polices framework on food policies. In particular, Fondazione Cariplo was the main partner in the development of the Food Policy for the municipality of Milan.