Demetria Barra — WWF Oasis

Demetria Barra, manager of the WWF “Grotte del Bussento” Oasis

“Around 9:15 a.m., I leave home and head to the Nature Reserve; before arriving, I greet everyone who has their door open, as is customary in this town. Then I get to the office and unlock everything — I even let the goats out, because we have dwarf goats. After that, if necessary, I head down for guided tours of the mill or the cave.

What makes this Oasis unique is that it is home to one of Europe’s most significant karst phenomena: the Bussento River resurfaces here after flowing underground through a route that is almost entirely unexplored, which naturally arouses a great deal of curiosity, especially among speleologists and the many tourists who come to visit the site. We also have an ancient Greek-style mill, with a horizontal internal wheel dating from the late 18th century that is fully operational — and a spring with an average flow rate of 150 liters of water per second, which bubbles up to the surface from the bottom.

The Oasis was established in 1995 as a WWF Oasis, but the idea dates back to 1988, when the municipality submitted a project to the regional government to develop the site. At the time, we didn’t have much hope that the project would be approved, so we decided to take drastic action to achieve our goal and began a hunger strike. We were young and old, all together: an entire community that was deeply committed to preserving this place. So we occupied the council chamber and ended up on a hunger strike for a total of nine days. I can tell you those were incredibly tough days; but our recklessness, youth, faith, determination, tenacity, and stubbornness enabled us to achieve our goal.

And that’s where this wonderful adventure began — one that isn’t over yet, because all this beauty still serves as an inspiration to the young people who, of course, will take charge of this place. With the hope that they, too, will be able to preserve, love, and respect this place just as we have done so far.”