Page 236 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

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organisation’s unity and operational structure, while avoiding areas of potential
overlap caused by the similarity of the roles played by the Forestry Department
and the Carabinieri in their respective areas of operations.

This solution will increase and enhance the effectiveness of both forces
by rationalising them and increasing their efficiency. The professionalism and
expertise of the State Forestry Department will become an even more impor-
tant resource when combined with a police force with general responsibilities
which already has a presence in all parts of the country, with over 105,000 offi-
cers, as well as recognised expertise in related areas, and is active and apprecia-
ted also on the international stage for its operational and training capabilities.

The 1000 or so Forestry Department bases which remain intact will bene-
fit from the support of over 4600 Carabinieri stations. By combining the spe-
cialist expertise of the Forestry Division with that of the existing Carabinieri
Command Groups responsible for environmental protection and agricultural
policy, it will be possible to create a new centre of excellence for the environ-
ment, the only one of its kind in Europe and, probably, the world, capable of
exporting to many other countries, to the police forces which the Carabinieri
train, an awareness of issues relating to the environment and food production.

I have already had the opportunity to confirm, and I do so again now, that
individual circumstances will be protected – jobs, places of work, posts of
responsibility, career expectations. In this way we will be able to create that sin-
gle police force responsible for protecting our environment which President
Bratti spoke about yesterday. No one will be penalised, and everyone, whether
Forestry Corps or Carabinieri, will be valued.

I wish to extend my sincere thanks to those who, for over a year, have
been working to ensure that this reorganisation happens in the best possible
way, in particular General C. A. Ilio Ciceri of the Carabinieri.

The international conference which is now ending has been a testing
ground, a forerunner of the collaborations which will hopefully develop in the
future if there is a willingness, as there is now very strongly, to see this decision
by the government and parliament as an opportunity which may not be repea-
ted to put at the service of the country that unique and yet extraordinary sen-
sitivity to the safeguarding of people’s health, the countryside and the environ-

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