Nature protection organizations in Italy have a long history, albeit one that is often overlooked in recent accounts of the Green movement. A number of quasi-national organizations that focused on protecting nature for recreational and scientific purposes were founded during the last decades of the nineteenth century, and their legacy is important for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the present-day Italian environmental movement. In the course of their history, the strong and innovative nature protection motivations of these organizations faded away, leaving the environmental organizations founded in the 1970s without a wide base of public support. They are, nevertheless, a part of Italian social history that deserves renewed attention. Clarifying this segment of social history and examining the place of nature protection within the environmental movement today is the aim of this chapter.
