The Role of Botanic Gardens in the Era of the Anthropocene and a Changing Climate. Case study on the Botanic Garden of Bergamo, “Lorenzo Rota”

Abstract

The thesis' main purpose is to delve into the world of botanic gardens to understand the potential and limitations of these entities to have an impact in current times. This thesis is the result of the marriage between a personal passion for the promotion of the plant kingdom together with the journey of my working experience at the Botanic Garden of Bergamo “Lorenzo Rota”. Conducting an internship in a botanic garden has allowed me to gain a comprehensive overview of the complexity and interdisciplinarity of such entities, which perfectly align with an Environmental Humanities research. Through the use of literary resources as well as field notes and interviews, I was able to carry on a research both bibliographical and experimental. The initial chapter revolves around the evolution of botanic gardens through history, showing their mixed political, cultural, economic and scientific values. The second chapter moves the focus on the current Italian context and it is dedicated to the anthropological research carried out at the botanic garden of Bergamo. The concluding chapter is an attempt at analyzing the climate changes that will occur in Northern Italy in particular and, taking inspiration from abroad, how to translate an adaptation strategy to the Bergamo context. The entire research tries to have a critical point of view on the paradigmatic role of botanic gardens, an hypothetical balance between the utopia of control over nature and the expression of multi-species ecologies.