Cuglieri, “Every day is a good day to save a tree”

Environmental sensitivity and love for the ancient olive tree of sa Tanca Manna continues to be nourished, devastated by the flames of the great 2021 fire and then reborn.

This morning, 14 December 2023, the Cuglieritan schoolchildren, with the director Patrizia Atzori, brought the thousand-year-old patriarch back to life, planting the shoots of the ancient plant in the site where it stood, in Sa Tanca Manna, and in the courtyard of the Cuglieritana school.

All made possible thanks to the scholars of the Center for the Conservation of Biodiversity, the Germplasm Bank of Sardinia, and the Department of Science of the University of Cagliari, who collected and preserved the seeds of the monumental plant way back in 2011. The seedlings, daughters of the patriarch's shoots, were planted for a renewed hope of environmental recovery of the entire territory.

A great day of civic and environmental education "Every day is a good day to save a tree", the event organized by the Montiferru Association in collaboration with the Municipality led by Andrea Loche, the Sardinian section of the Italian Botanical Society, the Istituto Comprensivo Santu Lussurgiu-Cuglieri and Legambiente Sardinia.

For the Biodiversity Center and the Germplasm Bank it is «a great source of pride to have managed to multiply the seeds of the wild olive, collected before the fire and preserved in our structures where, thanks to the skill of the technicians, in particular by Marco Porceddu, it was possible to multiply and breed the materials."

Gianluigi Bacchetta, director of the Centre: «We continue to support the cause of the recovery of Montiferru, and to collaborate with the Association of the same name, with the aim of restoring and restarting the economy of the devastated places. The partnership with the Association, the Sardinian section of the Italian Botanical Society and the Issla Association, chaired by Ignazio Camarda, is drawing up the census and protection of Sardinia's monumental trees. We are all committed to the sole aim of protecting this enormous heritage, for the benefit of the community."

Pierpaolo Arca, president of the Montiferru Association, specifies: «We have demonstrated that man, in close collaboration with nature, does not want to lose the difficult battle against fires for the regeneration of the territory and the landscape. The hope is that it is one of the many seeds that can germinate positively for our communities."