Keepers of Roero interview with Ettore Chiavassa

Divulgator of beauty. This is how Ettore Chiavassa likes to define himself, lover and great connoisseur of the Roero in its most authentic version, the natural, wild one. Those who know him know that there is no more apt definition.

Ettore’s is a figure that struck me from the first meeting. After a career as a bank manager, he chose to devote his retirement to environmental protection and his passion for nature, from rediscovering ancient fruits to observing flora and fauna in the very forests where he spent his summers since childhood.

We meet at cocktail hour to have a leisurely chat about projects, visions, hopes, difficulties, facts and perceptions in the field of nature and environment.

Let’s start with your involvement with Canale Ecologia: when was the association born and what is it about?

Ettore — Ecology Channel was born more than 30 years ago thanks to a group of forward-thinking and somewhat visionary people , at a time when there was little or no talk about the environment. It was a “pigeon’s egg,” a simple but ingenious idea: to buy forests, fortresses and the natural areas of the Roero to protect them.

It started with a handful of hectares, then over time the initiative grew, thanks in part to the help of entities such as Germany’s Nature Life International and the support of the area through municipalities, banks, and various institutions. Today we take care of about 50 hectares of wilderness and biodiversity, including the iconic Roero fortresses.

Ours is a long-term vision; we try to accompany and accelerate, where possible, the process of natural regeneration of the forest. The idea is simple: give a push today so that nature can walk on its own tomorrow.

It is slow work, the fruits of which we will not see firsthand, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will see.

The other cornerstones and pillars of the association’s activities are information, outreach and education. We do a lot of outdoor education work in short, through activities we carry out with schools, the social welfare consortium and day care centers.

What are the greatest difficulties you encounter in carrying out your activities?

Ettore — One of the biggest is finding the owners of so many small, scattered, often forgotten plots of land: woods, meadows, pieces of fortresses that no one claims anymore.

The other difficulty is definitely related to finding new human resources, we struggle with the generational transition, especially the intermediate one between our generation and the next generation, which is very promising, we see it when we are in schools, there is interest, curiosity and a great spirit of observation.

What can we do today to protect and preserve the landscape heritage of the Roero?

Ettore — The greatest risk today is the trend toward monoculture. We have moved from a peasant civilization to an agricultural entrepreneurship that focuses on hazelnuts and vines: profitable crops, sure, but they challenge thenatural balance.

We need an approach with a broader vision: we need to interweave culture and nature, combine traditions and biodiversity, landscape and folklore. I like to think of Roero as a big country made up of many small parishes: it is time to intensify collaborations and have one voice.

It would take a super partes body that can give coherence and vision to the many local initiatives.

Is there a project you particularly care about that you’d like to talk about?

Ettore — I am working on the creation of a new route: it will be called Gran Traverso del Roero (GTR). It will be a sort of 43-kilometer-long spine that will connect Sommariva del Bosco, the tip of the Roero, with Guarene, its balcony over the Langhe, and then descend to Piazza del Duomo in Alba, the nerve center of the area.

The idea is that of a loop trail, although at first glance it does not seem so. We thought of it in a practical and sustainable way: you arrive by train in Sommariva with bike or backpack, ride the entire route to Alba , and then return comfortably by train. A route that crosses plains, low hills, fortresses and vineyards, offering a real concentrate of the Roero landscape.

We have just completed the design phase. If all goes as we hope, it will be up and running next fall, in collaboration with CAI and all the organizations that would like to help spread and support the project.

How can we really strike a balance between wildlife and human activities?

Ettore — For me, being ecological means taking into account everyone: nature, agriculture, animal husbandry, avoiding radical positions. Nature tends toward balance, but you need to know it. Conflicts with wildlife such as deer, wild boar, wolves often arise from a lack of information.

The wolf, for example, is a natural regulator. It does not multiply indefinitely: each pack chooses a territory, marks it, defends it, and adapts to the availability of prey.

In the Roero, where there is an abundance of wildlife, wolves pass through, but they have not yet established themselves. I have been monitoring them for years, even at night, and I know that they can travel more than 50 km in a single night. No more than 4 or 5 families could live together here.

Even with wild boars, a scientific approach is needed: removing matriarchs, for example, destabilizes groups and increases their reproduction. The same happens with wolves: remove a pack leader and the pack becomes disoriented.

This is how problems and fears, often amplified, arise. The presence of wolves, if monitored, is an important signal of biodiversity.

Coexistence is possible, as long as we are well informed and take actions with awareness and knowledge

Let me ask you something: what’s it like walking through the woods at night?

Ettore — The forest at night is something extraordinary and surreal, it is an environment that accepts you. When you are inside it you are enriching the biodiversity of that forest, you are a living species like any other. It’s about inclusiveness, and that’s why you should not panic but indulge in a vigilant fear, a borderline point between courage and unconsciousness.

The forest changes your intimate and spiritual perception, but also physical, the senses are enhanced, there is an almost psychedelic effect, distorted, amplified, for example in the volume of a hedgehog falling from a plant or in hearing verses or micro-movements.

Then there is the question of light: the eye gets used to darkness and spots details that you might not notice in the daytime.

With the full moon then, this feeling is enhanced until it takes on an almost mystical, magical, fairy-tale-like character imbued with suggestion.