For the Preservation of Salento in Puglia

During my many travels throughout Italy, I witnessed firsthand the extent of climate change's impact across the entire peninsula and its islands.

However, Salento, located in southern Puglia, offers a particularly stark illustration of the current environmental transformations. This region, once renowned for its ancient olive groves, is undergoing a radical transformation. These trees, witnesses to centuries of history, are dying at an alarming rate; it is now estimated that more than 21 million olive trees have disappeared.

This disaster is attributable to *Xylella fastidiosa*, a bacterium introduced in the early 2010s through the importation of plants from South America. The steady spread of this pathogen northward in Puglia now threatens the integrity of the regional ecosystem. This crisis is generating major economic and societal repercussions, permanently jeopardizing the livelihoods of many local families.

Faced with these challenges, what measures should be adopted? In 2025, as part of a partnership with the OLIVAMI association, MO Tra Mozzarelle & Olive donated 50 olive trees of varieties resistant to *Xylella fastidiosa* to an organic farmer in Salento. This reforestation initiative actively contributes to carbon sequestration while supporting the development of a local economy based on ecosystem restoration.

This is how "Il Giardino di MO Tra Mozzarelle & Olive" came about. In 2025, this initiative contributed, on our scale, to the regeneration of 0.2 hectares of land while providing direct support to a farmer.