Logo Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
THE ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM OF SARDINIA

Asinara Island strategy for a regional heritage site

Asinara
The Conservatoria delle Coste enhancement strategy for Asinara Island regional heritage site

Regional Council declaration 48/1 of the 9th September 2008 entrusted Conservatoria delle Coste with the integrated management of Asinara Island and all the buildings and property of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, which were assigned to the agency in the first semester of 2009.

Regional Council Declaration no 73/8 of the 20th December 2008 gave Conservatoria delle Coste mandate to draw up potential projects and guidelines for the enhancement of the regional properties on Asinara Island, and to prepare public procurements to identify entrepreneurial stakeholders that could make use of the island buildings through integrated enhancement projects.

Main inspirations

The landscape and, in particular, cultural-landscape heritage as a fundamental key to interpret each action.
Asinara Island is a peculiar place due to its density of wildlife and history, from this derives each conservation and management action dedicated to its natural and cultural-historical heritage, not only guaranteeing their physical integrity, but also producing this indefinable atmosphere that transforms the fruition of the space into an internal experience.

Principle of integration in coastal area management
The integrated management of coastal areas is the reference approach of Conservatoria delle Coste. It tries not to consider each action individually, but instead as part of a complex system of actions, assessing their interdependence in time and space. Harmonic integration is also at the institutional level.

Strategic objectives

1. Organisation of services and infrastructure supporting the Park: each time a regional heritage building is enhanced, through its careful restoration and reuse, new uses and opportunities are created for the island.
The demands on the reception capacity must be tackled within the existing infrastructure (road network, water, electricity, sewage) as well as the services supporting the Park. The resulting objective is the logistic reorganisation of the island. This option is not only necessary, but also usually involves different skills and requires institutions to follow cooperative planning processes.

2. The strengthening of the Park use scenario: following completion of activities, compatible with the institutional aims of the National Park which purpose is improving visitor enjoyment of the island, the objective is to make emerge and configure latent economic and social opportunities, through the introduction of new and diverse activities.

3. Organising the reception offer: this aim promises an ambitious building restoration project. The idea is to restore the existing building heritage for reception purposes. It has a range of requirements, including the regeneration of depopulated urban settlements and close rural lands, the enhancement of all cultural and environmental features, and the encouragement of a considerate tourist, and associated economic, development.

4. Enhancement of cultural-historical heritage: this objective is to regenerate the cultural and historical heritage, both in its physical integrity and use, and in the community's perception of the potential uses that it represents for the island. It therefore responds to the demand of various visitors and tourist to understand the authenticity of the places they visit and to discover local cultures and traditions while being environmentally and culturally respectful.

Activitities achieved during 2009-2012

The Agency has finished cataloguing and registering the buildings in Asinara, and has now started intensive routine and exceptional maintenance work to restore these buildings to conditions suitable for use.
The works completed and underway include:

• planning and implementation works to restore the Fornelli-Cala d'Oliva access route that provides parking spaces along the road for the guided visits and the pedestrianisation of Cala d'Oliva;
• planning and entrusting of buildings to private parties to open a restaurant specialising in Zero Km menus serving local products in the former Cala d'Oliva canteen (opening June 2012);
• public announcements for the planning and entrusting of the former headquarters for the creation of a 40 bed hotel (predicted to open Summer 2013);
• planning and entrusting to the fishermen of a building close to Cala d'Oliva, in the Asinara Gulf, for fish and fishing related tourism;
• entrusting of a building in Cala d'Oliva to operate as a Diving Centre (predicted opening July 2012);
• planning and entrusting of blocks of buildings in Cala d'Oliva for the creation of an 80 bedroom diffused hotel (predicted opening Spring 2014);
• international planning competition and the entrusting of the former Trabuccato branch building for the creation of a sustainable international sailing centre (predicted opening Summer 2013);
• planning and implementation works to create a marine wildlife research centre (predicted opening Spring 2014);
• restoration of the Punta Scorno semaphore signal station for the creation of an international oceanographic observatory.

Through the Ente Parco (the Park Body), Conservatoria delle Coste manages a field of 63 buoys managed by Cormorano Marina at Porto Torres.
A number of distinct cultural interventions are foreseen; among these will be the establishing of the Falcone Borsellino Document Centre in Cala d'Oliva, and the Asinara Prison History Museum in Fornelli.