Modern forest-dependent community

It is clear to see how important the forest is to the community of Cavalese and many other cities surrounding the Val di Fiemma. Val di Fiemma is a lateral valley that is located by the River Adige and has extremely dense forest cover. The Magnifica Communita di Fiemma has been a forest dependent community for over a thousand years which means that they rely on the forest for everything; trade, food, shelter, and many other tasks. In the tenth century, the autonomy was granted to the people of the valley and they were granted all of the rights of the forest by the Bishop-Prince of Trento. 

When it comes to thinking about how the community works, there are a handful of rules that need to be followed in order for everything to run smoothly. Vicini’s are physical people of the community that have lived in the valley for over twenty years. Each family appoints one family member to be the vicini and to speak upon the behalf of the others. The vicini had very strict rules about who could enter the community and if someone did not live up to the expectations of the community then they were outcast. Each vicini elected a regolano who represented the village in a governing council, a scario (president) was then chosen. In 1807, old statutes were abolished, and the central administrative system was put into place. With the new system, the villages were reorganized, and several attempts were made to try and break up the common heritage. All of the pleas to do so were always rejected and in 1933, power went back to the vicini’s and stated that they should have total control over the forest. 

Like I said before, the Val di Fiemma relied heavily on the forest to survive. With that being said, trade brought in the most economic gain for the community. This led to the survival of the town in many different ways, people were able to provide for themselves rather than relying on someone else. There were many rules and regulations that we put into place to make sure that the people of the community were not taking advantage and the resources were saved for future generations.