Local development
Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne (SNAI)
A strategy to enhance the resourcefulness of communities and their sense of identity.
Inner Areas make up a large part of the country — around three-fifths of the territory and just under a quarter of the population. They are highly diverse, distant from large centres of aggregation and services, and follow often unstable development paths. Yet, they are rich in resources that central areas lack; although affected by demographic challenges, they also have significant potential to attract people and investment.
The National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI) structures its action along two main lines: ensuring essential citizenship services and promoting local development, while strengthening the administrative capacity of municipalities and encouraging inter-municipal cooperation. In terms of services, the SNAI focuses on three key areas: health, education, and mobility. It adopts a cross-sectoral approach that encourages these aspects to be considered in an integrated way. SNAI aims to identify and create positive synergies with local development initiatives, by mobilising local expertise (knowledge chains) and encouraging the entrepreneurial resources of local communities — not merely as recipients but as active protagonists of welfare and local development policies.
The pilot area of the Emilia Apennines has a strongly integrated and cohesive core, from which the application originated, identified as the “Project Area.” This includes the seven municipalities of Castelnovo ne’ Monti, Carpineti, Casina, Toano, Vetto, Villa Minozzo and Ventasso (formed from the merger of Busana, Collagna, Ligonchio and Ramiseto). These municipalities are part of the Union of Municipalities of the Reggio Emilia Apennines, covering an area of 795.6 km² and with a population of just under 34,000 inhabitants.
Starting from this core, the area extends to a broader territory where the strategy can demonstrate its success, called the “Strategy Area.” This stretches along the Apennine ridge towards the upper valleys of the Secchia and Enza rivers, which rely on Castelnovo ne’ Monti for education and healthcare services, and downstream towards the hilly municipalities of Parma and Reggio Emilia provinces, with which the Project Area shares involvement in the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MaB) programme.
Overlaying this is the distinction between ridge municipalities and those of the mid-mountain. The former are marked by declining settlement density, demographic shrinkage and the presence of the National Park. The latter are characterised by a robust economic fabric based on Parmigiano Reggiano dairy farming, and by the service hub of Castelnovo ne’ Monti.