IT / ES

The Municipality of Montepulciano (Tuscany, Italy) is about to approve an organic waste treatment plant, with a capacity of 40 thousand tons a year, in a land 400 meters away from the natural reserve of Lake Montepulciano.

The Montepulciano Lake Reserve is one of the most important wetlands in central Italy. This is an incredibly beautiful area, rich in biodiversity with an area of ​​483 hectares and is home to 200 different species of birds and 40 rare plant species of great naturalistic interest since most of the wetlands that existed in Europe have now disappeared, or in any case, degraded.

The area is part of the migratory route that crosses Tuscany and therefore represents an important staging point for birds that migrate from Africa to Europe. In this oasis, there are species that have disappeared from other Italian wetlands such as the water lily and the rare marsh orchid. The lake is also home to the Ferruginous Duck, and the Diving duck, almost at the border of extinction. The reserve is a relict for all the animals in the area, from fawns to hares, from ducks to peregrine falcons.

Due to PRIVATE interests, an agricultural land next to the reserve, which often floods and is connected to Montepulciano Lake, is about to be turned into an industrial land, that will receive the waste from three big regions: Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria.

This holds an enormous risk for the fauna and the delicate environmental balance of the reserve, as well as the surrounding agricultural lands.

In addition, this will damage the local economy, which is based exclusively on tourism and agricultural products.

The municipality of Montepulciano must take responsibility for what they are about to do. The municipality of Castiglione del Lago must stop them. We have tried multiple times to take action in this matter, but they prefer to hide.

In this identified area, it should NOT be built, given the following reasons:

- It is extremely close to the Montepulciano Lake Natural Reserve;

- The area classified as a very high hydraulic hazard;

- The area is quite sensitive to nitrites and nitrates;

- The area has three environmental legal titles;

- The area has purely an agricultural and touristic nature;

- It is located few meters away from The Canal Maestro della Chiana;

- It is few meters away from a cycle path;

This plant, will produce various pollutants for the environment. Greenhouse  emissions and heavy truck traffic are expected. Everything will cause an irreversible damage to the environmental balance of the oasis, to the local’s health and their economy, which for hundreds of years has developed by respecting the nature and these beautiful and historical landscapes.

Given these reasons, we need your immediate action: please sign this petition and then share it with all your friends.

We only have two months before they start building this plant, that will damage our ecosystem, landscape, animals, and plants, all of them important, precious, and fragile.

We count on you!