The chair-established to foster the exchange and circulation of knowledge between academia and society at large, lending an international dimension to a university teaching and research program-has as its holder Mauro Agnoletti, professor of Landscape Planning and Landscape and Environment History, at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI).
The initiative aims to promote an integrated system of research, training, and documentation on world agricultural heritage landscapes, contributing positively to the strengthening of regional, national, and international expertise in higher education on this topic. The chair's goals also include planning, conservation and enhancement of rural heritage, in line with international sustainable development goals.
Mauro Agnoletti, who has been involved in the issues of rural landscape planning and landscape and environmental history for many years, is a scientific expert on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the European Landscape Convention and coordinator of the National Catalogue of Historic Rural Landscapes. He served as chairman of the Scientific Committee of the FAO's Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Program on the Conservation of Agricultural Landscapes, coordinated the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the Interministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe. He is also a former president of the Landscape Observatory of the Region of Tuscany. He served as vice president and co-founder of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), coordinator of the UNESCO Inscription Dossier of the Prosecco Hills and agroforestry contents of the management plan of the Cinque Terre UNESCO site.
"Agricultural Heritage Landscapes" is the third Unesco chair at the University of Florence, among 39 in Italy: the establishment of the chair in "Human Development and Culture of Peace," directed by Paolo Orefice and Paolo Federighi, dates back to 2006, and that of "Prevention and Management of Hydrogeological Risk," directed by Paolo Canuti, to 2016.
