'Libera Terra Mediterraneo' uses mafia-confiscated lands for better

1995: Don Luigi Ciotti and the Magistrate Giancarlo Caselli founded "Libera", a national network that coordinates groups, associations and schools to spread the culture of social responsibility to fight against organized crime. Thanks to an extraordinary collection of signatures, the law 109/96, for the social re-use of property confiscated to mafias, has been finally approved.

Palermo, 6 may 2011: three from Sicily and one from Campania. They are four, new co-operatives that joined the Consortium of "Libera Terra Mediterraneo", created to strengthen the business skills of cooperatives who work on land confiscated from the Mafia. A system that works, as evidenced also by the 2010 budget, which sees an increase in sales of more than 30%.

Still today, these cooperatives demonstrate how the renaissance to legality of these lands is not only possible, but also convenient: where mafia was exploiting the environment and degrading it, today there is organic farming, which respects natural cycles and the landscape; where the gangs were imposing black economy humiliating the freedom of individuals, now cooperatives promote human resources with regular and decent contracts; where mafia was withdrawing economic resources from the territory, now cooperatives show how to produce wealth honestly and environmentally friendly.