Pro Natura founded in Italy

The current Federazione Pro Natura is the successor of the Movimento Italiano Protezione della Natura (MIPN). Fostered into existence by Renzo Videsott, who had almost single-handedly saved Gran Paradiso National Park during the last years of World War II, MIPN was Italy’s first postwar preservationist association and an important actor in the international debate about nature conservation. In fact, it was one of the founding members of the IUCN. Moreover, with respect to previous groups and associations, most of which dissolved during the Fascist regime, MIPN aimed to overcome aesthetic conservationism in favor of a more ecological approach to conservation. However, it never achieved a significant membership, and within ten years of its foundation its only really active section was the one in Turin. To try to revive the association, this section decided in 1958 to rebrand it, against Videsott’s opinion, as Pro Natura.