The development of a Piedmont mountain area through the valorisation of black truffle

The paper describes a valorisation process in a marginal territory of Piedmont and analyses the recovery process of Black truffles production, focusing on the importance of the associative forms of management, both for the valorisation process and for the recovery of abandoned areas. The objective is to describe the initiative of Valle Grana producers, analysing its distinctive aspects and evaluating it reproducibility in similar conditions, which are typical of Italian marginal lands. The valorisation action has started thanks to a new territorial strategy of local actors, setting up black truffle plantations and taking care, in the same time, of surrounding marginal lands. The success of truffles valorisation initiative has represented the background for the creation of a voluntary “land owner association” (association foncière) which involves as many as 64 private owners and a public administration and more than 100 hectares of surface. These lands will be recovered from abandonment thanks to controlled ovine pasturage, ensuring at the same time, fertility improvement and stability of grazing land and reducing the shrub invasion which is generally followed by landscape degradation.