G.A.L. Basso Monferrato Astigiano: Rural Development Written Into the Hills

G.A.L. Basso Monferrato Astigiano is a Gruppo d'Azione Locale, a tool promoted by the European Union to develop plans and programmes for the socio-economic improvement of rural communities. It groups together public and private partners: local public bodies such as municipalities, provinces and mountain communities, alongside organisations representing the area's economic operators.

The group has worked in two named phases. Between 2014 and 2022 its Local Development Plan ran under the title "Scoprire, amare, vivere il Monferrato", discover, love, live Monferrato. The current strategy, covering 2023 to 2027, is called "Ri-abitare il Monferrato", re-inhabit Monferrato, a shift from introducing the area to newcomers toward keeping people living in it.

Part of that work is written directly into the landscape. Under measure OP. 7.6.3, G.A.L. Basso Monferrato Astigiano has produced manuals dedicated to protecting and enhancing the rural landscape, the settlements and the building traditions of the Basso Monferrato Astigiano, guidance meant for anyone restoring a farmhouse or a village square rather than starting from a blank page.

The same territory is catalogued for people passing through it. Il Monferrato Outdoor, realised under the PSR 2014-2020 programme (Operation 7.5.2, Tip. 2), collects itineraries that wind through the hills of Monferrato, and a companion publication, the Piccola guida alla conoscenza del Monferrato, is billed as a journey among hidden treasures and unique impressions for discovering the area. Both sit alongside an online territorial network with an information database covering the whole GAL BMA area, a way of keeping the itineraries, the heritage sites and the local producers in one place.

The group also tracks what its own funding has produced: it collects testimonials from local businesses that took part in the PSR 2014-2020 programme, a record of what the money was actually used for. Its full registered name carries its own label for the area, too: Gruppo di Azione Locale Basso Monferrato Astigiano Terra di Tartufi Soc.Coop. The offices themselves are in Tonco, in the province of Asti, among the hills the itineraries are drawn across.

More about G.A.L. Basso Monferrato Astigiano on their own website: https://monferratoastigiano.it.