The Biodiversity Tree of Acarbio, created for this Christmas 2024 and located within the ancient Cloister of the former Capuchin Convent dating back to the 13th century (now Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel), was designed to represent the terraced landscape of the Amalfi Coast. The decorations symbolize the sea, land, and sky, made entirely from recycled materials and what nature offers during this time of year. This special Christmas tree also aims to raise awareness among the visitors of the historic hotel and the ancient cloister about the importance of environmental conservation and local biodiversity.

This initiative marks also a meaningful collaboration between the non-profit association Acarbio and the Anantara hotel chain. For over 15 years, Acarbio has worked to revitalize the Amalfi Coast’s inland areas, which face challenges like depopulation, demographic desertification, and marginalization from the booming coastal tourism.

Acarbio extends its gratitude to Anantara for spotlighting their mission through the Dollars for Deeds program. This partnership underscores Anantara’s leadership not just in luxury hospitality but also as a pioneer in responsible tourism. Their approach views guests not merely as contributors to local economies but as active participants in preserving the territory’s unique historical and social identity.

The tree’s base featured a fishing net from Menaica anchovies, sourced from the nearby Cilento coast. The tree celebrates the rich diversity of the Amalfi Coast’s terraced landscape:

• Sea: Represented by handcrafted Caretta caretta sea turtles, a tribute to the volunteers who protected two turtle nests on Maiori Beach this summer, along with small fish symbolizing the marine life of the Amalfi waters.
• Land: Featuring red fabric tomatoes symbolizing the Fiascone heirloom tomato, also known as “Re Umberto” revived by Acarbio after years of neglect. Dried lemons and oranges evoke the colors and aromas of IGP-certified Amalfi citrus, paying homage to the “flying farmers” who maintain the terraces. Recycled cork creates clusters of grapes, while crochet olives add a handmade touch.
• Sky: A majestic peregrine falcon, crafted from seeds and legumes, perches among the branches, surrounded by colorful birds, owls, and stars.

Messages of peace, love, and solidarity, written by international volunteers on slices of wood, can be found nestled among the tree’s decorations, all celebrating the theme of biodiversity. This extraordinary initiative stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and the shared commitment to sustainability and cultural preservation.

The eighth edition of the Ventotene Europa Festival held from 9 to 12 May also includes the Acarbio association based on the Amalfi Coast. This year’s festival is promoted and organised in cooperation with the Italian Youth Agency (AIG) and the European Commission as Representation in Italy. Acarbio was invited to represent the value of volunteering through the Esc programme, the European Voluntary Service. In fact, among the sixty young people selected by the Italian Youth Agency and coming from all over Europe, there is also Francesco Giordano from Tramonti, twenty-three years old, who, with the Acarbio association, took his first steps in this field of ‘youth commitment’ and active citizenship. During the day on 9 May, Francesco was invited to take the stage and speak about his personal experience.

““I spent twelve months with the “Solidarity Tracks” organisation on the Greek island of Lefkada, from August 2022 to July 2023 – told Francesco Giordano addressing the many participants present at the Festival – And during this time, I actively participated in the “Time Bank” project, an innovative initiative to promote the exchange of skills and abilities through the use of time as an exchange currency instead of money. Among other responsibilities I had there was supporting elderly members at the local community centre, the disability centre, and coordinating social activities. In addition, I had the opportunity to assist the organisation’s staff, gaining practical knowledge on how to write projects, manage reports and take on leadership roles. And thanks to this valuable experience, I developed not only personal, but also professional skills that later allowed me to fully integrate into the staff of ACARBIO, the association that supported me in my ESC experience”.

Francesco is currently involved in local projects in Tramonti and coordinates international projects dedicated to the environment and the local community, including “Make it Green”.

The sixty young people selected are also expected to vote in the upcoming elections, and to discuss issues of participation and active citizenship, national and European identity, European training courses, youth engagement in institutions and disinformation and new media, is more important than ever.

“The year of choices, from war to peace” is the central theme of the various conferences followed by interactive workshops and seminars dedicated to the European programmes Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps. The festival – which has been awarded the “Medal of the President of the Republic” – is being held under the High Patronage of the European Parliament, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Department for Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service, the Lazio Region and the Municipality of Ventotene.

(In the picture Francesco Giordano with Federica Celestini Campanari of the Italian Youth Agency)

Tramonti on the road to participation?

For the project coordinators it was very enlightening. The main tangible results come from the results of the Youth Survey and the results of the Youth Conference.

The Youth Survey – How young people in Tramonti live

As this is the first survey of this kind, there are no similar results to compare with other contexts. At the time of drafting the project, we had three hypotheses about the current situation of young people in Tramonti, which will be answered here.

• Young people have few places to meet their friends (they mainly meet at their or their parents’ homes).

We see this hypothesis confirmed. Young people mainly meet outside, in a bar or restaurant, or at their friends’ homes. Furthermore, 65% say they have few activities for their free time. When asked in more detail, they mention as the first space places for young people or a youth center, structured cultural experiences and activities, and more shops, bars, or restaurants. This strongly confirms our personal observation of the city, that there are few spaces and activities dedicated to young people, and the options they have are few.

• Tramonti does not satisfy all the needs of young people (most of them intend to leave the city when they grow up to study, work, and live).

This hypothesis is perhaps the best-known in Tramonti. The results of this survey partially confirm this hypothesis. About 38% of young people intend to stay in the city in the next 5 years, while 62% intend to leave the city or are not yet sure if they intend to do so in the next 5 years. In this case, we must consider that more than half of the respondents were 12 or 13 years old, and the next 5 years include only the period of life up to the end of high school, when they will be 18 years old. As expected, this number is much higher among the age group between 19 and 35 years old. While young people can still attend university and commute from Tramonti, many of them will leave the city due to the lack of job opportunities diversity (the most cited reason for leaving the city, followed by university and leisure activities). The main reasons for staying in Tramonti are proximity to nature and family and friends.

This lack of representation is reinforced by the fact that young people feel they do not trust adults in general and even less politicians in particular (> 50% vs. > 15%) and that they associate Acarbio more with the defense of their interests (> 80%) than with the municipality (> 60%) (see 3.2.2 and 3.4).

• Young people do not (yet) participate in democratic life (most of them).

This question offers the most peculiar results of the survey. A good number of young people participate in political life through discussions in their personal environment. Furthermore, a good number of them (17%) are able to get in touch with a politician (although these values could be overestimated for the entire population). However, this result corresponds to the authors’ observation that politicians in Tramonti are easily accessible and available. However, most young people would not know how to make themselves heard at all, and very few of them have entered the political field from civil society – while the majority of them would like to influence local politics. This supports a new hypothesis, that the process of political participation in Tramonti is not sufficiently structured at the level of municipal political participation and that the local associations sector lacks structure to involve young people. Politicians, in theory, would be willing to get in touch, but it seems that this is a potential dissatisfaction. This response is even more reinforced by the fact that this survey was completed by the most interested young people and the response in 3.2.2, where young people state that the reason they do not want to enter the decision-making process is that they do not know how to do it well.

Furthermore, young people show a rather low level of trust in adults in general and politicians in particular. This certainly reflects societal trends as a whole, however, it is quite devastating to see that this also holds true for young people. In their responses, young people mainly identified Acarbio as the institution that will advance the interests of young people in Tramonti, rather than themselves, the municipality itself, or their peers or parents. This could be linked to the fact that Acarbio organized this project as the first participation initiative in the area and was able to gain trust, or simply because young people associated the topic with the association when they responded.

It is interesting to see the results of this question and how they can provide insights into the political participation of young people in Tramonti. It seems that, although there is some level of engagement and contact with politicians, many young people still feel uncertain about how to make themselves heard and participate in the political process. The lack of structure and opportunities for involvement in associations and local politics could contribute to this sense of disconnection and underrepresentation. It is important for leaders and local organizations to take these results into account and work to create more opportunities for young people to participate and make their voices heard.

The Youth Conference – Writing the Youth Charter of Tramonti

What did the first Youth Conference in Tramonti bring? Young people set up the youth charter of young people in Tramonti. In 4 different areas, they asked for changes concerning spaces and activities for young people, mobility, youth participation and environmental impact. They asked for more spaces to be, especially in winter: sports fields, or a youth center. This fits the result from the Youth Survey, that young people meet a lot outside because of a lack of accessible spaces. They also asked for more events organized: game events, sport events. In mobility, the main problem is clear – they cannot reach other hamlets of the town. So a minibus would help with that. Also, more sharing services for e-bikes and e-scooters could give a solution to this. In regular meetings with the municipality, they would be able to fight more for their ideas or get more updates on what is happening in town.

The adults assisting the event were impressed. “I was impressed by how well the young people expressed themselves during the event. They quickly arrived at the point, and they had many important aspects under consideration” said Gioacchino Di Martino, representative of the Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana who assisted the event. “The discussion on the round tables were amazing. The young people discussed concepts and issues, that I only treated once I was at university”, told us Adelmo Della Pietra who was part of the table “Environmental issues”.

“When discussing about youth participation, we often here 2 different arguments”, Cornelia Kramsall from the coordination tells us. ”The first one is, how important it is that young people are involved in their future It concerns them in the first place, they will inherit this world from us. And secondly that young people may not be competent enough, they miss crucial experience, they cannot be responsible for things that adults don’t manage themselves. And both voices are somewhat right. We have to pay attention to create a serious dialogue, and to carefully chose methods for this. Young people often see things clearer, but often it remains the adults, the politicians, responsibility to bring the change. This can be very fruitful, if taken seriously”.

And what about the young people? They were of divided opinion. Most of them enjoyed the event very much. They enjoyed being able to express themselves at the municipality, and they enjoyed discussing different points of views. They also considered their work very successful. For some of them the event took too long. Some of them have doubts about how much of their ideas will be implemented in real life, and this is a fair point. Let’s prove them we take their interests seriously. It’s up to us.

Downloads

The results of the Youth Survey: Italian copy of Survey report – I miei primi passi nel dialogo politico

Evaluation to estimate the outcome of the project: Evaluation-of-the-project-_I-miei-primi-passi-nel-dialogo-politico_

The Youth Charter of Tramonti: Carta dei Giovani di Tramonti 

Social Media

Video summary of all the steps of the project: https://youtu.be/trW7VoGGvck

Local press

https://www.positanonotizie.it/it/territorio-e-ambiente-23/nasce-la-carta-dei-giovani-di-tramonti-ecco-le-117405/articolo

https://www.ilvescovado.it/it/territorio-e-ambiente-23/a-tramonti-la-prima-conferenza-dei-giovani-per-dar-116909/article

https://amalfinotizie.it/tramonti-5-aprile-conferenza-giovani-municipio/

Nasce la “Carta dei Giovani di Tramonti”: in 17 punti proposte e desideri

Tramonti, i ragazzi nella politica attiva: nasce la prima Conferenza dei Giovani

At the organization, we always have volunteers and interns from all over the world, which means that we use English as the common language every single day. This gives us the great opportunity to share our knowledge and practice with the locals who thrive to learn English. The result? Now two of our interns have a new name among the habitants of Tramonti: My teacher.

After the tourist season, when the everyday life slows down a bit on the Amalfi Coast and the locals have more time to prepare for the next year, we invited the interested habitants of the area to join us in the office of ACARBIO, in Corsano, Tramonti. We met every week two times and spent over an hour together reading, speaking, and playing in English. Participants were interested in the lessons because they wanted to improve their level of English, or for some, start their journey with the language. Most of them work in tourism and hospitality, which means that in the season they get in contact with many people who don’t speak Italian. So learning English would make their job way easier and less stressful.

Class after class we repeated the new knowledge we had gained and like this strengthened our confidence in communication. Dividing the participants into two groups based on their level of English we tried to optimize the learning conditions of the groups. Like this, we could construct lessons that were interesting and challenging enough for everyone. In the beginner class, we focused on learning the necessary words, while for the advanced class, we prepared more talking exercises.

For us, the biggest moments were the ones when the participating locals talked to each other in English. That showed the improvement they have made since the first class we had in the office of ACARBIO. Step by step we could talk more during the classes without having to write down the words we were using. The participants learned, for instance, how to introduce themselves, how to describe programs available on the Amalfi coast, how to get around in Tramonti, and how to explain the prices of services. With these topics, we tried to prepare them for realistic situations that can occur in the future and at their workplaces.

At the end of the classes, both the participants and we left in a good mood, feeling that we had made progress that day. The locals showing up again and again, gave us the motivation to prepare useful and interesting lessons. We hope that the result will stay with them and when the situation comes they can activate their new English knowledge.

The first part of the project took place in December and January, when the 30 students from the 3rd class of IC “G.Pascoli” participated in a 6 hour long workshop on active participation facilitated by the members of the association ACARBIO.

How do you create active political participation? In the first place, these workshops had the objective of understand, express and confront the needs and ideas for the future of the place. Throughout the dialogues, discussions, debates, and ideas for the future of Tramonti and for a more sustainable Tramonti, the pupils practiced how to express their opinion, and exchange and confront with the others. The evaluation of the first results brought it into the light that in the workshops students gained confidence and the ability to express themselves.

After the first part of the project, in March a Youth Conference will be held in the Municipality where we meet with the Mayor and the members of the Municipality of Tramonti to exchange on the needs of the local youth. Do you have a question, idea or comment that you want to share with us? Do it now!

Link to the next in-depth article:

My first steps in political dialogue: What will remain?

Downloads

The results of the Youth Survey: Italian copy of Survey report – I miei primi passi nel dialogo politico

Evaluation to estimate the outcome of the project: Evaluation-of-the-project-I-miei-primi-passi-nel-dialogo-politico

The Youth Charter of Tramonti: Carta dei Giovani di Tramonti 

Social Media

Video summary of all the steps of the project: https://youtu.be/trW7VoGGvck

Local press

https://www.positanonotizie.it/it/territorio-e-ambiente-23/nasce-la-carta-dei-giovani-di-tramonti-ecco-le-117405/articolo

https://www.ilvescovado.it/it/territorio-e-ambiente-23/a-tramonti-la-prima-conferenza-dei-giovani-per-dar-116909/article

https://amalfinotizie.it/tramonti-5-aprile-conferenza-giovani-municipio/

Nasce la “Carta dei Giovani di Tramonti”: in 17 punti proposte e desideri

Tramonti, i ragazzi nella politica attiva: nasce la prima Conferenza dei Giovani

Together with a team of 20 international volunteers and the tattoo artists Stefano Liotti and Gaia Lembo; we worked to give the walls of the kindergarten “Scuola dell’Infanzia Raffaele Fierro” in Tramonti a new look.

In a first step, Stefano did a workshop for the volunteers on how to do sketches. Then we divided into groups to think of what to draw on the wall with sketches and present it to the others. During these 4 weeks , we also thought about which colors to put on the wall and paint.

Follow Stefano and Gaia here on facebook or instagram: @AmalfiCoastINK

„We aimed to perceive the atmosphere of Tramonti, the empathy, the sympathy of its citizens – said Joana – and the spirit of sharing, characteristics that are not seen but felt in these parts“.The painting depicts churches, mountains, grapes, our ancient tomatoes, lemons, mozzarella, pizzas, and is an idea of a „neighborhood“.

The painting depicts churches, green spaces, mountains, grapes, our ancient tomatoes, lemons, mozzarella, pizzas, liqueurs. It is an idea of a “neighborhood” with peasants, pizza chefs, vendors, activities such as trekking, traditional dances and the most characteristic vehicles that can be encountered. They thus represented the place that welcomed them, as they saw their eyes and their hearts. 

The Murales on the Central Market is an important step of the RESCUE project. It is very important for us to be able to lead people towards art. Indeed, art can help to make changes. Located in Polvica, this marketplace looked abandoned for who did not know that on saturdays the local market was held there. The walls were sad and didn’t invite you to spend some time around the square. The idea was not only to RESCUE it but to give people inspiration to come and organize other activities, workshops or to play around. Also it can be a source of inspiration for other art RESCUE projects. They started by cleaning and painting the walls in white, in order for them to paint and draw on it. Then, they were able to make this beautiful manifesto.

Find us @ https://goo.gl/maps/ZEVkBKbt94hRGauU7

In order for the participants to achieve results in a practical way, the young people discovered step by step basic entrepreneurial elements and how to apply them for their own visions (learn about and develop business models, how to present them in the market communication…).
The key objectives were: discovering and adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, raising awareness of how eco-social visions in entrepreneurship can improve civic skills, creating six different business models with social or ecological missions, sharing good practices and methods with the other participants, developing intercultural awareness and competencies.

At the same time, the activities of the project also consisted of many opportunities for cultural exchange and experience sharing of local excursions to get to know exemplary initiatives.

The first day all participants, coming from the partner countries(Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croazia, Spagna e Italia), started the project with a treasure hunt to get to know the city and the local community as well as to get to know each other. This was also a useful activity to create and strengthen the teams that worked together later on the project.

On the second day, the teams presented their research on ecosocial entrepreneurship in their respective areas with the identification of associated issues and needs, along with additional Team Building activities.

During the next days, following the program, participants explored entrepreneurship through a case study focused on the ACARBIO initiative “Re Fiascone”. The case study of Re Fiascone served as a practical and engaging learning experience, providing them with valuable insights and knowledge, letting them understand the complexities of entrepreneurship using real-life examples.

Along these lines a crucial part of the project included local trips to explore ecosocial entrepreneurial activities, such as visiting the ecofarm “Antonella Dell’Orto” as a sustainable entrepreneurship example. Additionally, the visit to the protected area “Oasi of Legambiente” was also significant, offering a unique opportunity for participants to witness environmental conservation and enrich their knowledge of sustainable initiatives.

To be able to understand how international markets work, participants played The Coffee Chain game. This game puts players in the positions of people who are involved in the coffee trade. This was useful to think about what is involved in world trade and to think about issues of global justice.

In the next phase participants were introduced to the Business Model Canva. This model gave them a visual representation of how a company creates, distributes and captures value for its customers. This step was essential because then the team had to start to understand how to create their own model. In fact in this step of the project the preparation for a start up competition began. The teams learned how to choose the name, logo, video and pitch of their business plan. After the preparation, during the last days of the project all teams had training for pitching and public speaking to be able to present their eco-social business plan in front of a small jury.

All the participant teams at the end of the project presented their eco-social business plan, some presented it with a power point, some with an oral presentation and some with photos and examples.

Certainly, another integral aspect of the project was the vibrant cultural exchange. Each evening, participants actively organized international nights, providing everyone with the opportunity to explore and appreciate the diverse cultures within the project.

RESULTS

Start up competition:
Tool kits:

• Social Business Model Canvas for template
• Social Business Model Canvas Re Fiascone example
• Coffee Chain Game

LOCAL PRESS:

“Planting new Initiatives” Blog CieloMareTerra

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Youtube:

Instagram:

Facebook:

Results

The Recipe book Med Food Lab 2021:

The videos of the project:

Final summary video

Interview @ IC TRAMONTI Web Radio

LOCAL PRESS:

Grande successo di “Med Food Lab 2021” a Tramonti in Costiera amalfitana

A Tramonti parte “Med Food Lab 2021” con 37 ragazzi provenienti da tutta Europa

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram stories

Post Facebook 1

Post Facebook 2

The CLIC Startup Competition was an opportunity for early-stage startups, informal teams and talented innovators to find some supports, to create network with other similar groups and to learn about business models. The main aim of this competition is to support the development of sustainable business ideas and cultural heritage.

The competition was organised between September and November 2020 and it had 73 applicants all over the world.  ACARBIO participated with “Taste of Terraces” project.

“Taste of Terraces”

The “Taste of Terraces” was selected in the top 25 projects, giving the opportunity to participate in online voting.

Promotion and online vote

We, the ACARBIO team, worked to promote the project. We made photos, videos, we created social media posts and memes, we called our friends and family and explained why is important this project and this competition. It required a group effort!

We made it to the final event!

After the online voting, thanks to the amazing support we received from our network, we were in the top 15 projects, meaning we took part in a three-day online event and capacity building programme from 25-27 November. An online event for every project was presented in 4 minutes. The representative of “Taste of Terraces” was Cornelia, who did a concise presentation about the previous steps and the ideas for next steps.

And the winner is …

We did achieve special mentions for our project and we achieved an award for being the most voted project! While we did not win the first prize, with 477 votes during the voting phase, we were the team who could convince the audience the most! We say this with overwhelming thanks to our amazing network of supporters.

Last but not least, the Taste of Terraces was the most voted startup, and also won a communication and marketing services prize by the Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, CNR IRISS National Research Council of Italy, a C-SHIP programme at ICHES by ICHEC Brussels Management School and an ENEA support by ENEA EEN/BridgEconomies.

Now, what is coming next?

We will keep up the work, and use our awards to reach the next phase and launch of the project!