Bormida Valley: long-term territorial structures and green extractivism

Abstract

This paper examines the conflict between top-down energy transition policies and the preservation of long-term territorial structures in Bormida Valley, located between Piedmont and Liguria. By analyzing the proliferation of industrial wind farm projects and waste-to-energy plants there, the article highlights how these interventions risk becoming forms of green extractivism, turning its local communities and fragile eco-systems into areas which are to be sacrificed for external speculative interests. In this light, the research sees social opposition as something more than just NIMBY phenomenon, but rather as territorial resistance rooted in the historical memory of a community already scarred by industrial pollution, the ACNA case. The study aims to emphasize the need to overcome the de-territorialization of current energy policies. It proposes a shift toward a territorial transition based on democratic planning, public debate, and localized energy models, such as renewable energy communities, which recognize the landscape as a common good and a core constitutional value.