Paper short abstract:

By focusing on an agricultural area nested between two natural parks and an important industrial hub in South Sardinia, the paper aims to show the response of different species to the careless activities connected to the ecological transition.

Paper long abstract:

In South Sardinia (Italy), the ecological transition is producing new forms of careless exploitation of natural resources. In this context, properties and ownerships are rapidly changing their values and previous commons configurations, while ecosystems are changing their multispecies compositions and landscapes are muting their appearance. By focusing on an agricultural area nested between two Natura 2000’s parks and an industrial hub (Lai 2021), the paper aims to show the response of different species to the activities connected to the emergence of renewable power plants (Meloni 2021). Framed in the theoretical context of Capitalocene (Moore 2015; Latour et al. 2018), the contribution highlights the unequal relationships involving native and imported species. Further, the paper shows how the lives of various non-human species intertwine with hundred years of history of colonialism and agricultural and industrial development in the area. In this sense, by taking on a multispecies perspective (Tsing 2003, 2015), the paper reveals the connections between global changes and the emergence of apparently invisible critters that are striving for survival.

Finally, the contribution suggests that by embedding the local ecological knowledge of people living with other species in the programs for environmental management and energy production, it is possible to design policies attuned to the ‘small agencies’ (Bennett 2010) of fundamental yet neglected species.