Across much of Italy, biodiversity is not confined to protected areas. It lives and thrives within agricultural landscapes shaped by centuries of human use. These are not untouched ecosystems, but places where farming and cultivating practices have created a mosaic of habitats that support a surprising richness of life: from passerine birds to raptors, from hares and roe deers to the return of the italian wolf.

In open farmlands of southern Italy, projects focused on species like the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) have shown how closely wildlife and agriculture can be linked. Traditional buildings provide nesting sites, while low-intensity farming maintains the open habitats these birds depend on. Where these practices persist, entire communities of insects, reptiles, and birds continue to find space.

Further south, in the dry grasslands of the Alta Murgia and the Murgia Materana, agriculture has never fully erased the natural character of the land. Extensive grazing, cereal fields, and fallows form a patchwork that supports steppe species now rare elsewhere in Europe. These landscapes may appear simple at first glance, but they are among the most ecologically valuable in the country.

In very different conditions, the wetlands of the Po Delta tell another story. Here, agriculture exists alongside water: rice fields, canals, and flooded plains that attract hundreds of species of migratory and resident birds. Over time, these areas have also seen the quiet return of mammals like golden jackals and wolves, moving through a landscape where human activity and wildlife are deeply intertwined. At the same time, these areas are wintering grounds for thousands of water birds, including cranes, geese, eagles and several more.

These environments are not static, and they are not without pressure. Intensification, land abandonment, and changing economic realities all shape their future. Yet they show that biodiversity does not always require the absence of people. In many parts of Italy, it depends on how land is used.

To explore these agricultural landscapes is to look beyond the idea of “wild” as something separate. It is to recognise that fields, pastures, and wetlands can hold as much ecological value as forests or mountains, if managed in ways that leave room for more than just production.