Mussolini Agricultural Act

With the Mussolini Act (law 3134/1928), the Italian Fascist regime launched a bonifica integrale (integral land reclamation) campaign aimed at draining all the marshy areas in the country and at reforming agrarian lease contracts. The goals were both to fight malaria and to create new agricultural land that could support a smallholder economy. This second aim, especially, fit well into the Fascist rhetoric of ruralization and autarky. However, because of increasing cuts to funding in the following years, particularly since the regime had started planning the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and of large estate owners’ opposition to plans for a real agrarian reform, the actual success of this plan was rather marginal. One of the rare cases where this plan had enduring environmental consequences was the showcase reclamation of the Pontine Marshes by Rome, which was accompanied by the foundation of various new towns and villages and the creation in 1934 of Italy’s third national park, the Circeo National Park.