The “question of Xylella fastidiosa” in Apulia: a process of landscape grabbing?

Apulia is a land of secular olive trees, which characterize the landscape, the economy and the identity. In 2008, plants with leaf scorch symptoms have been observed and, in 2013, they have been ascribed to a range of causes (fungi, the leopard moth and the Xylella fastidiosa, in addition to the reduction of care). Nevertheless, the governmental policies have been focused on the bacterium eradication by tree felling, the widespread use of insecticides, and the ban on planting olive trees. Can we consider the 'Xylella fastidiosa question' and the policies to eradicate the bacterium as a process of landscape grabbing? From 2013, the year of the first eradication policy, we are witnessing a conflict regarding the cognitive needs, the containment policies and the historical significance of the presence of this bacterium. This contribution wants to investigate the containment policies and the consequent agricultural and landscape restoration policies to “revitalize” the olive production and market, considering that they are inherently biopolitical, is to say policies defining life, and their forms, on a territory. In this sense, the whole conflict is a process of territorial constitution by the actors involved, especially those in power. The work will focus on the effects on the sensory dimension, a fundamental element in extra-linguistic communication, and therefore in the incorporation by human of the landscape in crisis. What are these renewed senses that are capable to generate? How do institutions try to convey or subsume the signs of the landscape in progress?