Amalfi coast towards UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve

The Amalfi coast, with its natural beauties, from Vietri sul Mare to Positano, from Amalfi to Ravello, is officially on its course today to enter the list of places named "UNESCO World Mab Biosphere Reserve". Today in fact, Miguel Clüsener-Godt arrived in the province of Salerno on an official visit as delegate of Mab Unesco - the "Man and biosphere" programme of the UN agency - on an official visit. The three day visit is the peak of a road begun in 2009 with the creation of the Acarbio association (Associazione Costiera Amalfitana Riserva Biosfera) which was made with the intent of entering the prestigious list of places, which counts 553 spots worldwide, 8 of which in Italy. Of these, two are already in Campania: the Cilento and Vallo di Diano Park (in the province of Salerno) and the area of Somma-Vesuvio and Miglio d'Oro (in the Naples province). Clüsener-Godt, the Acarbio officials say, will visit Amalfi, Ravello, Positano, Tramonti and Scala, to verify the necessary requisites for the area's candidature which already includes that of World UNESCO Heritage site awarded in 1997. Visiting the area will also be the secretary of the Canary Islands Unesco Centre, Cipriano Marin, invited by Acarbio as tutor of the nomination from the MAB offices in Paris. Today's official visit foresees a tour on the Amalfi state road 163, classified by National Geographic as "one of the ten most beautiful roads in the world", starting in Vietri sul mare and arriving in Ravello, where the Unesco delegate will be welcomed at Villa Cimbrone, one of the most exclusive residences in Italy, whose past guests include the writer Virginia Woolf and politicians such as Winston Churchill or Bill Clinton. Tomorrow a visit with the mayors will take place in Amalfi, together with the presidents of the park and the Province, Region and University representatives: at the end of the discussion a letter of intent will be signed in order to support the nomination for the next "'MaB Coordinating Council" which will then decide on the establishing of the reserve. Among the other stops taken by the Unesco representative, will also be the Marine Reserve of Punta Campanella, where two Sea turtles (Caretta Caretta) will be freed into the waters. The project of the Acarbio Association has been brought forward thanks to the contribution of the province of Salerno and with the support of the Regional Park of the Lattari mountains, of the Campania Region, of the municipalities of Maiori, Ravello, Scala, Vietri sul Mare, of the Università Parthenope di Napoli, o0f the Protected Marine reserve of Punta Campanella, of the Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana and of the Italia Nostra association. (ANSAmed).