NO REMOVAL! VINEYARDS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WOODLAND PLANTS AND RECEIVE FINANCING FOR CONSERVATION, NOT PRODUCTION. THIS IS THE IDEA OF DARIO CARTABELLOTTA, DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF VINES AND WINES OF SICILY

Once Upon a time Sicilian wines were cut and also destined for distillation. In the last two/three decades, however, wine making on the island has made a decisive turn towards a quality product, with optimum results. The “ bottled” wines have been greatly developed but the real problem of many Sicilian producers, and particularly of the wine co-operatives, is “bulk” wine, still present in large quantities. It is especially a problem since the new Organization of Agricultural Common Markets (OCM) in Europe has eliminated crisis distillation and has made finances available for the eradication of vineyards. Even if it were economically “profitable”, what would removing so many vineyards mean in environmental terms?

“Certainly the vineyards planted many years ago to produce wine in bulk and for cutting or during the years when financing was readily available for distillation, have today lost their productive value,” explained Dario Cartabellotta, Director of the Regional Institute of Vines and Wines to WineNews. He has a simple, but potentially brilliant idea: consider the vine a woodland plant, for the purpose of environmental conservation and for which the EU pays contributions.

“In Sicily, today,” said Cartabellotta, “we have 120.000 hectares of vineyards. Thirty to forty thousand hectares are part of the renewal and growth of varietal wine. There is, however, a large area that surely has an environmental use. We can assume that the EU pays subsidies (about 20.000 euros per hectare) to plant trees and woodland areas, which however will take about 15-20 years to grow and be able to reduce carbon dioxide. The vineyards in Sicily are already capable of doing this, even if they no longer have productive value. They can, therefore, help achieve the objectives set down by the Kyoto Protocol to counter hydrogeological instability. This could be the formula to ensure the preservation of this wine country and avoid eradication of the vines, which would have serious consequences in terms of environmental impact”.

Therefore, a change of vision, from agriculture, viticulture in this case, which produces, to one that can also serve “only” for the conservation of the environment?

“Yes, and we must consider that the vine, a Mediterranean plant par excellence, together with olives and citrus fruits, is not only interesting for Sicily, but throughout the south and most of the rest of Italy. Therefore, giving environmental value to the vine is certainly helpful to preserve a strong feature of the landscape. Why, then, give “woodland” status to only a few plants and not to the ones that have greater potential for fixing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Of course, it is a bit difficult now to see vineyards as a forest,” says Cartabellotta, “but it’s easier if we realize that the objective of the Kyoto Protocol is to identify plants that counteract CO2 in the atmosphere. We also have scientific data highlighting the vine’s efficiency in this sense, compared to other authorized woodland plants at other latitudes”.

A strong initiative is needed, then, in the Institutional settings to achieve this goal…

“We will involve the other Italian Regions, the Ministries and especially the European Union, because we are now in a moment of discussing the future of Europe and the Common Agricultural Policy after 2010. We can try to redirect “old” ways into the perspective of environmental regeneration”.