Italy Plans to Denude Forest to Fight Prostitution

avatar for Dudester
Dudester
An Italian region struggling with policing the sex trade along a heavily wooded road has come up with a novel solution: Just chop down the forest.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the regional government of Abruzzo in central Italy has tried 24-hour patrols, raids and cameras to curb the rampant sex trade on the Bonifica del Tronto road -- all to no effect.

Finally, Angelo di Paolo, the regional government's notoriously decisive public works chief, decided that fighting the forest would be much easier then fighting the sex trade. He declared that all the vegetation on or around the banks of the River Tonto would be cut down.

Environmental groups are protesting, saying the plan would destroy 69 acres of woodland vital to local ecosystems.

Sponsored LinksWood puns aside, the Italian state has traditionally had a hands-off approach to the sex industry. Street prostitution was legal until 2008, when the minster for equal opportunities, former topless model Mara Carfagna, introduced a national system of fines and jail time for people caught buying or selling sex. She called it the first substantive action against the sex trade in 50 years.

Since then, Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservative crackdown on crime and illegal immigration has also attempted to curb the human trafficking of sex workers. A recent census of the Bonifica del Tronto region found about 600 prostitutes from Nigeria, Romania, Brazil, Albania and China.

But it remains to be seen whether Abruzzo's plan will do much to eliminate the larger social problem, or just force human traffickers and prostitutes into different environs.

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avatar for Dudester
Dudester
14 years ago
1) Since the Germans allow bordellos, and it looks like Italy doesn't, I laugh at the notion that Italians think they are morally superior to the Germans (pot calling kettle black).

2) One doesn't have to be an environmental sciences major to see what is wrong with this.
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manuela
14 years ago
Knowing Berlusconi these trees must get cut, just to give him a better view on this illegal, but o so delicious hardly dressed prostitutes in action ;-)
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samsung1
14 years ago
I think I also remember seeing an article about how they have road signs in Italy warning that it is a popular area for prostitutes. I am not sure why they had them there..maybe they want to caution drivers not to hit the street walkers?
avatar for Prim0
Prim0
14 years ago
Does this mean that clean shaven pubes will now be called Italians?
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