Transitioning a Landscape

Transitioning a Landscape was a 2024 action-research Challenge in Monti Prenestini (Lazio, Italy) that explored whether a territorial lab, inspired by Living Labs and Land-Based Labs, can catalyze new, sustainable models of active land management in areas affected by agricultural abandonment and natural reforestation. It ran from June 10 to July 26, 2024, with 11 days on the ground.

The Challenge combined scientific analysis, spatial mapping, and stakeholder engagement to prototype a lab model that strengthens the local supply chains around niche, place-based food products while stewarding the historic arid prairies (dry grasslands) that characterize the area. Its outputs include 18 spatial maps, 12 international case studies (Living/Land-Based Labs), a structured SWOT, a classification of the causes of land abandonment, and a blueprint for a 2–3 ha territorial lab aligned with EU initiatives such as A Soil Deal for Europe.

Seven observational exercises (e.g., soil profiles, vegetation transects, viewshed analyses) helped validate large-scale cartographies and local interviews; 9 local actors were directly involved and 63 stakeholders were identified for future collaboration. The approach reframes natural reforestation not as decline but as an opportunity to diversify landscape identity and rural economies, complementing the pastoral tradition.