Grave di Ciano: Una biodiversità minacciata dall’adattamento

A new major infrastructure project looms over the Piave, one of the most heavily engineered rivers in the world, near Crocetta del Montello (Treviso). It involves the construction of a vast flood control reservoir within the protected site of Le Grave di Ciano (Natura 2000 Network, Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation), a disused river bend. Excavations to create reservoirs capable of holding 30–40 million cubic meters of water in the event of exceptional floods threaten to irreparably alter the approximately 1,000 hectares of the natural area, in a region where they represent a rare island of biodiversity. The reasons cited to justify this potential ecocide center on the need to adapt to climate change, interpreted in engineering and technocratic terms that are indifferent to mitigation—and thus to long-term sustainable development—and inattentive to the social and cultural dimensions. The economic value of the gravel and sand extractable from the riverbed is largely left on the margins of public debate, even though the prospects for profit from extraction and construction are likely a decisive factor in the project. In this essay, we will reconstruct the evolution of the site using historical cartographic sources. Second, we will illustrate the naturalistic value of the Grave. We will then trace the recent events that led to the flood control project, forms of resistance by citizens, and the expansion of the network defending the natural area. Far from being an isolated case, we consider this attack on the territory emblematic of today’s ecological policies and conflicts at the intersection of science, citizenship, and the environment on issues such as climate change, the commons, natural, cultural, and intangible heritage, greenwashing, and environmental justice.