Green cities, Sweden: Malmö and Stockholm.

Malmö

It is the biggest town in Skane and at the end of the '80s it was in desperate decline after the dismissal of thousand Kockums shipyards workers. 

Today it is a completely new coastal city, which has worked hard and has been staking everything on sustainability and the environment. 

The first neighborhood to be converted was Västra Hamnen: this former industrial area has become a residential and commercial zone, powered by 100% 0 km renewable energy. It's the symbol of Malmö's transformation into a sustainable city. 

Another green neighborhood is Augustenborg: it is home to the largest concentration of green roofs in the world! 

In 2000 it was decaying and abandoned; the city administration adopted a sustainable approach to the problem, posing 10,000 square meters of green roofs to avoid floodings, extending the green areas and improving energy efficiency and the access to recycling facilities. 

Furthermore, Malmö was the first Swedish fair and equitable city. 

Stockholm 

It is one of the greenest capital cities in the world and its inhabitants pay much attention to the sustainability and the environment to better preserve their city. 

There are lots of cycle paths and the public transport in environmentally friendly and clean.

The city is full of parks and natural reserves and in and around the town nature is the undisputed protagonist. 

Hammarby Sjöstad is a known in the world ecological neighborhood. It is located on the shores of the lake which bathes the city and the water is its main source of energy. All domestic waste is used to produce energy and the hydroelectric plant and the solar panels produce electricity. 

The aim is to create a sustainable resources based residential system and a new way of life, compatible with the environment and nature. 

These two Swedish cities are fantastic examples of urban sustainability and respect of nature. 

Brown Bear: the situation in the Italian Alps.

In the Italian Alps, there are only 35 brown bears left. 
Reduced to the brink of extinction, the Brown Bear had almost disappeared at the beginning of the last century from the alpine zone, because of poaching and poisonings. 

Today bears are returning but in the Alps people are no more accustomed to their presence and they have lost the precautions for peaceful coexistence. 
Garbage cans, hives and hen houses are devoid of protections and it is clear that they are irresistible temptations for bears. 

Bears are increasingly forced into a fragmented, anthropized habitat and this inevitably leads them more and more in contact with men. 
Damage caused by these animals provokes strong resentment in the local population and this can be eliminated only by an adequate forest policy and by a greater ecological awareness.