Agricultural tradition and scientific research for territorial sustainability

Montana is a partner of polimi in the ECHOES-Nosedo project, an acronym for Ecological, Cultural and Hydrological Observatory for Education and Sustainability at Nosedo: Marcita Living Lab.

Launched in January 2025, the project aims to quantify the contribution of the historic marcite agricultural practice to strengthening the environmental and socio-cultural resilience of local territories. At the core of the initiative is a participatory field-based living lab at Cascina Nosedo, located within the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano, an exceptional setting where research, place-based knowledge, and community engagement converge.

In a recent interview with Corriere, Professor Paola Branduini, the project coordinator, highlighted the uniqueness of the marcite system, emphasizing its outstanding historical, environmental, educational, productive, and socio-cultural value.

Within the ECHOES-Nosedo framework, Montana contributes by quantifying and assessing the benefits that the Marcita ecosystems of Chiaravalle provide for human well-being, delivering practical tools to support more informed decision-making processes in environmental planning and management.

A concrete demonstration of how scientific knowledge and traditional practices can be integrated to develop scalable and replicable sustainability models.