Can Sustainability and Biodiversity Conservation Save Native Goat Breeds? The Situation in Campania Region (Southern Italy) between History and Regional Policy Interventions

Abstract

The Campania region has a genetic heritage, both vegetal and animal, of great scientific interest, but many genetic resources risk extinction or abandonment. Thus, from a sustainability perspective, their conservation is very important and represents an imperative to allow future generations to satisfy their needs just as we are doing today. The aims of the present paper were to describe the current consistency and importance of goat farming in Italy and in the Campania region and to study its trend from 1861 to understand whether the policies for the sector implemented over time have been sufficient to conserve goat biodiversity. To these ends, the latest available data of the national livestock register of the Italian Ministry of Health, those of the different available Italian agricultural censuses, and historical–cultural documents published over time for the livestock sector were acquired and consulted to describe the goat sector and reconstruct its temporal trend. The results showed that in Italy there are just over 1,000,000 goats (the same consistency as 60 years ago), 50% of which are distributed in the southern regions, and 50,616 farms with goats, 43% of which are extensive. In this contest, the Campania region represents approximately 5% of the national goat population. The continuous decrease in the size of the national and regional goat heritage since the 1920s is the result of the agricultural policy instruments implemented for the livestock sector over time, which have effectively excluded the goat sector. Two small increases in the number of caprines were registered: the first in 1980s, when the Italian scientific community realized that the native goat genetic types, its milk and its organoleptic and dietary qualities could constitute a wealth of endogenous resources that needed to be valorized; the second, in the last decade, due to the actions of sustainability and biodiversity conservation implemented at the national and regional level. At the same time, today the goat sector continues to have a marginal role in the national and regional agricultural economy, and the survival of native goat farming is essentially ensured by sustainable rural communities conceived as the custodians of biodiversity.

1. Introduction

The EU has placed the issue to safeguard the landscape and biodiversity among the objectives of the current agricultural policy and has made it one of the pillars on which the New Green Deal is based by drawing up a specific long-term, global, and systemic plan to safeguard nature and reverse the trend towards ecosystem degradation.

Biodiversity is the diversity of life, an important element to ensure ecosystem services on which humans depend, and is directly linked to the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability. Consequently, biodiversity loss and associated reduced capacity in the provision of ecosystem services directly impact the human condition [1]. In the last century, given increasing habitat loss, biodiversity conservation emerged as a global priority initially with the founding of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1948, where the focus was to examine the impact of human activities on natural habitats. Later, the 60s and 70s were dedicated to the protection of species and the habitats necessary for their survival by creating the “Red List of Threatened Species” [1].

In this contest, the Campania region (Southern Italy) has a genetic heritage, both vegetal and animal, of great scientific interest for the biodiversity of the natural and agricultural ecosystems that it represents [2]. On the one hand, its high economic and historical–cultural value has already been widely recognized, while there are still many genetic resources that risk extinction or abandonment as evidenced by the high number of genetic resources registered in the Regional Repertoire established with the Regional Regulation n. 6/2012 [3] and reported in the “Anagrafe Nazionale della Biodiversità di interesse agricolo e alimentare” established pursuant to Law 194/2015 [4] (namely 256 plant genetic resources and 14 animal genetic resources). Based on what has been said, a large project is underway aimed at the genetic identification of a native goat population of the Campania region.

In particular, the goat has been domesticated in the 8th millennium B.C. in Iran, Syria and Palestine and has reached us thanks to nomadic populations in search of land to cultivate [5]. According to Lauvergne et al. [6], the current goat population is the result of this emigration towards the West which occurred at various times, but which did not produce major changes in the genetic composition. Consequently, the presence of traditional populations is still very high today not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world [7,8,9].

Local breeds seem to be an important component of the biodiversity of farms [10], thanks to their excellent adaptation to specific environmental conditions [11]. Since sustainability takes into consideration environmental, social, and economic aspects, and as stated by Esposito et al. [12] also animal welfare, the breeding of native breeds preserves the typical and traditional productions of marginal territories, giving these breeding systems (especially those extensive) an added value [11,13]. The conservation of native animal resources and the sustainable development of their products appear to be important actions to save those animal breeds at risk of extinction due to the spread of cosmopolitan and more productive breeds, which often offer a poor-quality product. The biodiversity of these animals now adapted to particular environmental conditions must be protected and conserved to prevent the irreversible erosion of genes and genetic combinations [2]. Furthermore, the importance to protect and preserve autochthonous breeds lies in their ability, compared to cosmopolitan breeds, to produce in hostile environments by optimally exploiting local resources.

In light of what has been said so far, the aims of the present paper were to describe the current consistency and importance of goat farming in Italy and, in particular, in the Campania region, and to study the historical dynamic of the goat sector at a national and regional level to understand whether the policies for the livestock sector implemented over time have been sufficient to conserve goat biodiversity.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Description of the Goat Sector and Trends at the National and Regional Level

The first phase of the research concerned the acquisition of information about the current consistency of the Italian goat population and its distribution among the different regions of Italy. In particular, the following data were acquired by the consultation of the latest available data of the national livestock register (NLR) of the Italian Ministry of Health [14]: the number of goats, the number of flocks, the production orientation, and the ratio of goats to sheep. A focus, then, was made on the Campania region, for which the data relating to the number of goats bred by breed were also extrapolated. The collected data were processed using an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft 365) and subsequently structured into tables and graphs, in order to be able to describe the goat sector.

Subsequently, the temporal trend of the number of goats at the national and regional level was reconstructed starting from 1861 thanks to the extrapolation of data from Rubino [5], Agostini [15], the National Pastoral Association (NPA) [16] (for the years 1861, 1876–1881, 1908, 1918, 1930 and 1961) and from the Italian agricultural censuses, which are carried out every ten years, and precisely from those of 1971, 1982, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 [17,18,19,20,21]. At the same time, the temporal reconstruction of the number of farms with goat breeding, and the respective average size, was only possible starting from 1971 using the national agricultural censuses [17,18,19,20,21]. As before, an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft 365) was used to make graphs and describe trends over time.

2.2. Analysis of National and Regional Policies for the Livestock Sector

The last part of the research concerned the acquisition and consultation of historical–cultural material and national and regional regulations, laws, and decrees issued over time for the Italian livestock sector and deposited in the national and provincial libraries and research centers present in the Campania region and at the nearby Basilicata region. All of this is to understand the role that goat farming has had in the national and regional economy from ancient times to the present day and to try to point out whether there was a connection with the trends reconstructed previously.

3. Results

3.1. The Italian Goat Sector

• The Current Situation

Currently in Italy there are 1,002,271 caprines [14], 50% of which are distributed in Sardinia (29%), Calabria (11%) and Sicily (10%). Goat farms amount to 50,616, 28% of which are concentrated in Lombardy and Piedmont (Figure 1).

The average size of goat farms varies greatly between the different regions, although, as shown in Figure 2, the following groupings can be identified:

• Farms with less than 10 animals are present in Marche, Liguria, Friuli, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Valle d’Aosta, and Umbria;
• Farms with a number of goats varying from 11 to 19 in Trentino, Lombardy, Piedmont, Abruzzo, Lazio, and Campania;
• Farms with a number of goats varying from 30 to 40 in Calabria, Molise, and Sicily;
• Farms with more than 40 goats in Puglia, Basilicata, and Sardinia.

If we consider the number of animals, the production orientation is almost equally distributed between mixed (32%), dairy (32%) and meat (30%), while if we take into consideration the number of farms, from Figure 3, we note that the meat sector rises to 38% and the family sector represents around 30% of goat farms. At the same time, the dairy sector represents only 8% and the mixed sector drops to 22% (Figure 3). What is more interesting is the average size of these types of farms: dairy farms have the highest average size, with 72 animals/herd, mixed ones 27 animals per herd, meat farms 14 animals and family farms only 3 goats per herd.

As regards the farming methods, 43% of the farms are classified as “open-air or extensive” (with an average size of 26 goats) and this type of farming is practiced mainly in Sardinia, Calabria, Campania, and Sicily, while 41% are registered as “enclosed or intensive” (with an average size of 10 animals) and are mainly present in Lombardy and Piedmont. At the same time, the farms classified as “transhumant”, although there are only 1266 in Italy, have an average size of 21 animals.

At a regional level, meat-oriented goat farms are mostly present in Lombardy, Piedmont, Calabria, Veneto, and Sicily, while milk-oriented goat farms are significantly present only in Sardinia.

Referring to the entire sheep and goat sector, in Italy goats represent only 15% of it and at a regional level, it exceeds 40% only in Valle D’Aosta, Liguria and Lombardy (Figure 4), representing a marginal sector compared to that of sheep.

• The Trend over Time

Figure 5 shows the trend in the number of goats from the unification of Italy (1861) to the present day. As already explained, this temporal reconstruction was carried out by collecting data from different sources and what emerges is that from 1861 to today more than 50% of the goat population has been lost and, if we consider the value of 1918 (2,734,828 caprines), we can talk about a loss of almost 70% (Figure 5).

In particular, in 1861 in Italy there were approximately 2,234,000 caprines, which decreased by 10% between 1876 and 1881, and then increased by 36% and reached the maximum value in 1908. Subsequently, we witnessed a sharp collapse in the number of goats (−60%), bringing their value in 1961 to 1,098,000 animals. The decrease continued throughout the 1970s and a small recovery occurred only between 1982 and 1990 (+25%). But the decline in the consistency of this species did not stop and continued until 2010 (−32%), when there was a new slight increase (+11%) and a stagnation of approximately 1,025,000 caprines (Figure 5).

Over time, the regions with the highest number of goats have always been those of Southern Italy and in particular Sardinia, Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Basilicata, and Puglia. Piedmont and Lombardy have always distinguished themselves in the North and only in 1861 Umbria and Tuscany stood out (Figure 6).

Regarding the number of farms with goats, in reference to the available data (starting from 1971), we note a different temporal trend from that found for the number of goats: from 1971 to 1982, if the number of goats decreases, the number of farms with goats increased by 126%, but then decreased drastically until 2010 (−80%). At the same time, even in this case, there has been a recovery in the last decade (+35%) (Figure 7).

Regarding the temporal and regional distribution of the number of farms with goats, Figure 8 shows the prevalence of Campania, Calabria, Sicily, and Basilicata in the South, while Piedmont and Lombardy in the North.

The average size of farms with goats is a reflection of what was said above and essentially influenced by the number of farms with goats. In fact, it decreased in the decade 1971–1982 due to the considerable increase in the number of farms with goats and a certain stasis in the number of goats, then it increased until 2010 due to the drastic reduction in farms with goats (−80%) and then it decreased again in the last decade (Figure 9).

3.2. The Goat Sector of Campania Region

From the latest data available in the NLR (June 2023), it emerges that in Campania region there are approximately 48,600 caprines and 2524 farms with goats [14].

Contrary to what happens at a national level, the production system of goat farms is 45% family type, 33% meat, 20% mixed and less than 2% dairy. Everything is more accentuated if we analyze the production orientation by number of caprines: the meat one represents 42%, the mixed one almost 40%, while the dairy one rises to 5% (Figure 10). In line with the national data, dairy farms have the highest average size with 54 animals/farm, mixed farms 34 goats per farm, meat farms 20 and family farms only 4 caprines.

Outdoor or extensive farming involves 1067 farms (42% of the total), 46% of which are for meat, while stabled or intensive farming involves 1445 farms, 58% of which are family type.

There are various goat breeds raised in the Campania region and the five most widespread are Meticcio, Camosciata delle Alpi, Saanen, Cilentana nera and Napoletana. There are also various native breeds registered in the national register of biodiversity of agricultural and food interest, like the ones already mentioned (Cilentana nera and Napoletana), plus Cilentana Fulva, Cilentana grigia, Pomellata and Valfortina [15], which represent 5% of the entire goat population raised in the Campania region. Usually, these breeds are raised extensively with wide use of grazing, provisioning notable ecosystem services, such as landscape conservation [22,23], enhancement of biodiversity [24] and wildfire prevention [25,26].

The temporal trend of the number of caprines in Campania follows the national trend, showing a peak in 1908 and then a continuous decrease until 2010. At the same time, however, if at a national level in the decade 1980–1990 there was an increase, in Campania we can speak of stasis and then a continued decrease until 2010 (Figure 11). Furthermore, in the last decade there has been an increase of 11% at a national level, while in Campania only 4%.

On the contrary, in Campania, the temporal trend of the number of farms with goats perfectly follows the national trend, as shown in Figure 12.

Regarding the temporal distribution of the number of goats and the number of farms with goats among the five provinces of the Campania region (Caserta, Benevento, Napoli, Avellino, and Salerno), Figure 13 shows that Salerno is the province that over time has always had the highest number of caprines and farms with goats, whose weight was always equal to 60–70% of the regional total.

Available data of the agricultural census [17,18,19,20,21] shows that, in agreement with the national average, goats in the Campania region have always represented marginal forms of livestock compared to sheep and have never exceeded 20% of the total ovines and caprines raised over time (Figure 14).

3.3. The Goat Sector between History and Politics

The historical–political bibliographic research carried out in the various libraries and research centers of the Campania region, and in the nearby Basilicata region, allowed us to discover important documents which have as their object of study the national and regional goat sector. Many of these documents are very old, some dating back to the beginning of the last century and have allowed us to reconstruct the dynamics of the sector under study also from a historical, cultural, and political point of view. Thus, from this research it emerged that in ancient times the goat occupied a decidedly better place than it does today in the collective imagination. In fact, among many communities it was sacred, a symbol of abundance, prolificacy, imagination, spontaneity, inconstancy, and considered a useful animal [27,28,29]. The economic and social importance it held in society was also notable, as demonstrated by the space this animal occupied in the literature, especially ancient literature [5].

The goat reached its greatest importance during the Roman Empire, when its products (meat, milk, and skin) were more appreciated than those of cattle, mainly bred for work, and in equal measure compared to sheep [30,31]. At the same time, however, already during these years, the role assumed by wool in the economic and production system shifted the relationship in favor of the sheep and the fall of the Roman Empire also determined the fall of the goat: the consistency of this species was greatly reduced, and the few remaining goats were raised in flocks essentially made up of sheep [31,32]. Later, with the barbarian invasions and until the year 1000, breeding in general suffered a notable reduction as transhumance, and the prevailing system of management of the flocks and the territory was interrupted due to the insecurity of travel [5]. The scenario changed again during the 10th and 12th centuries: throughout Italy and Europe there was a generalized repopulation and cultivation of the countryside. The regained safety of travel made the resumption of transhumance possible [33]. At the same time, wool regained its economic and strategic importance and became a determining element for the development of many European states, such as England and Spain [34,35].

In Southern Italy the situation was similar: as transhumance increased in importance, governments intervened to protect movement and guarantee significant tax revenues, but all to the detriment of agriculture [36]. In fact, in those years transhumance became compulsory, grazing lands were increased and the state property was extended with the incorporation of new lands [5]. At the same time, to ensure a secure income for the State and encourage the production of wool and the related wool industry, all the pastures were allocated to ovines and not to caprines [37]. From that moment on, the goat ceased to be a useful animal for the community: expelled from the pastures and hunting reserves of the feudal lords, it underwent a progressive downsizing of its spaces and slowly ended up being relegated to the bottom rung of the economic and social ladder. Thus, although it continued to be bred as a guide animal for large flocks or by the less well-off classes and considered the “cow of the poor”, it seemed to disappear from the production system [5].

In 1931, Agostini [15] spoke of the breeding of goats, and in particular of those grazing in the woods and on steep terrain, as an “age-old problem” to be solved. The goat, now considered a voracious and dangerous animal for the conservation of “the insufficient and precious forest heritage on which the hydrogeological defense of the mountainous and rugged Italian territory depended”, was removed from the forest with two types of measures:

(1) Direct defense of the forest and other mountain terrain by better regulating goat grazing (the provisions on goat grazing issued within the Royal Legislative Decree n. 3267 of 1923 [38] on the reorganization of legislation regarding forests and mountain lands);

(2) Indirect defense against damages and inconveniences of any kind deriving from the methods according to which goat breeding was implemented, tending to reduce their number with fiscal means (the Royal Decree Law n. 100 of 1927 [39] established a special tax obligatory in all municipalities on goat animals).

Ultimately, these measures tended, with the reduction in the number of goats, to free other lands from damage and obstacles to agricultural progress, and to increase the breeding of other species of animals. According to Agostini [15], a notable decrease in the number of goats occurred, but largely due to other concomitant factors.

Rubino [5], however, holds an opposite opinion, for whom the reasons for the ostracism towards goats which led to the laws which limited or prohibited their breeding are to be found in the fact that, in the use of spaces and forest, the goat entered into competition with man. The slow but constant growth of the population in the second half of the 1700s and the consequent increase in demand for food and the start of industrialization stimulated both a vast process of occupation and use of the territory to increase agricultural production and a strong need for wood as fuel and to produce sleepers for the nascent railway. The need for new lands led to the cutting down of forests, the clearing of pastures and the listing of state lands [40]. According to the Zanardelli inquiry (1902), especially in the Southern Italy, there was a massive destruction of forests [41]. Faced with such systematic destruction, according to Rubino [5], man needed a “scapegoat” and hence the goat became the number one enemy of the forest and, consequently, as we have seen, a series of impositions and decrees have been issued to prohibit grazing. As a consequence of the repressive legislation there has been a strong contraction in the number of animals bred and the exclusion of the goat from the horizons of agricultural evolution.

Gramignani [42] wrote that at the beginning of the 20th century there were still more or less numerous groups of goats roaming around all the southern cities of Italy from which milk was milked for children. But this use gradually waned, given that the doctors of the time claimed that goat’s milk was a carrier of typhus. At the same time, according to Gramignani [42], the disappearance of goat flocks from these cities was caused by other reasons: the tightening of municipal provisions (see tax), the greater coming and going of car travel, changes in lifestyles, which they have made purchasing milk from the dairy more convenient, practical, and beautiful rather than directly from the goats. Furthermore, other factors that have determined the rarefaction of these animals seem to have been, on the one hand, the lack of shepherds (the elderly were no longer able to follow the climbing of the caprines and the young guys emigrated to more profitable places and sectors), and on the other hand, the surveillance of the then forestry agents became increasingly vigorous and rigorous [42].

Despite the repressive nature of the laws, the goat continued to be bred, because it was an animal indispensable for the survival of a large part of the population, and its productive potential was not affected, given that in those years in Italy genetic improvement had not actually been started for any bred species [5].

After the Second World War, as a result of development policies implemented especially in the South of Italy, where 80% of the goat flocks was concentrated, the delay (in terms of production differential) between Italian goats and those of some European countries worsened, especially France, Norway and Switzerland. Thus, in those years, convinced that the modest profitability of the Italian livestock system was due to the low productivity of the rustic genetic types and to quickly reach European levels, the legislators believed that the importation of more productive subjects, to be replaced or crossed with those local, was the solution to accelerate this development. So, perfectly functioning development models were imported abroad, abandoning or neglecting the search for solutions for existing models, such as genetic and pasture improvement, dairy techniques, etc. But the techniques developed in the cold temperate areas were only partially applicable in the different climatic environment of the Southern Italy. As Carena [43] pointed out, instead of adapting techniques and methods used elsewhere to the southern reality, a specific technology should have been created for its dry environments. As a result, all native populations were crossed with foreign breeds without the goat sector having any benefit (the dairy cattle sector was an exception, benefiting from adaptable imported breeds and technologies) [5].

Thus, the goat has never been subjected to selective action and has never benefited from the incentives given for zootechnical development and for the valorization of the related products. Proof of this is the “Italian Meat Plan”, developed in the 1950s, which by exclusively encouraging meat (production of cattle and pigs) effectively excluded goat [44]. Thus, the South of Italy was asked to specialize its structures in the production of meat and the projects approved over time were notable. In the wake of this situation, research also focused on meat and in particular on the evaluation of the quality of buffalo meat and on the production technique of heavy lamb (about 30 kg in weight) [45].

But already starting from the 1960s, more authors began to affirm that goat breeding could and should be maintained, where these animals could use natural production, namely where agriculture was not practiced and where they did not exert a harmful action on reforestation [42]. In 1971, the then president of the National Pastoral Association (NPA), Sen. Dr. Mario Carelli, wrote “goat farming, alongside sheep farming, is a valid tool for the complete valorization of vast areas of the Italian territory with a pastoral vocation. And this in consideration that the goats, in compliance with forestry constraints for the protection of the woodland heritage, allow the use of all shrubby flora that would otherwise be lost in the typical and rich Mediterranean scrub” [14]. Thus, in those years the NPA technical committee carried out a survey dedicated exclusively to goats to outline the financial and economic consistency of goat farming in Italy. For the first time it was stated that goat farming had considerable importance in the general context of Italian zootechnics, not only for its production, but above all for the social implications it entailed and the possibilities it offered regarding the exploitation of natural fodder resources in vast mountain areas which are not suitable, for technical and economic reasons, for the breeding of other animal species. The goat, for centuries considered the main enemy of the forest, was finally rediscovered in many environments in the 1970s and aroused the interest of breeders, technicians, and scholars [14].

In the 90s it was figured out that, among the animals of zootechnical interest, the goat expressed the lowest level and rate of development but had the highest potential to be exploited [45]. So, several studies were published regarding animal husbandry in the internal areas of Southern Italy [46,47,48]; the goat production systems [49,50,51,52]; the territory and its resources to plan interventions in zootechnics [53,54,55]; and the protection and recovery of native populations and breeds [56,57]. Subsequently, the importance of considering biodiversity as a “cultural” asset has been brought to the attention of scholars, that is, considering “ancient” germplasm like other cultural assets (monuments, finds, works of art, etc.), since this is strongly linked to the anthropo–socio–economic changes of the many communities of men who have taken turns in a specific territory. Hence, given that the native goat is a true “cultural asset”, its knowledge, conservation and valorization constitute an inseparable trinomial [58].

Even the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry finally recognized that the sheep and goat sector had a non-marginal importance in the context of the Italian agri-food system and that they had “a great objective relevance” in Italian zootechnics. Thus, in 1988 he prepared a proposal for a National Sector Plan for ovines and caprines [59] with the aim to implement sector interventions on the basis of programmatic lines to be implemented in the short- and medium-term using planning tools coordinated at the national and European level. Regarding the caprines sector, for the first time the goat, especially the extensive or semi- extensive breeding of “rustic” goats, was recognized as playing an important role in the development of difficult areas, in addition to the decisive role in the control of the undergrowth and therefore in the limitation of fire damage. Furthermore, the valorization of this type of goat seemed to be linked to the valorization of its products with particular reference to milk, which had “good organoleptic characteristics and is rich in noble elements”, and its derivatives. At the same time, the implementation of the aforementioned plan, good in purpose, never took place.

In the last decade, the law 194/2015 [4] which gave rise to the creation of a national system consisting of the Anagrafe Nazionale della Biodiversità di interesse agricolo e alimentare; the Portale nazionale della Biodiversità di interesse agricolo e alimentare; the Rete nazionale della Biodiversità di interesse agricolo e alimentare and the Comitato Permanente per la Biodiversità di interesse agricolo e alimentare, in order to preserve, in situ and ex situ, local species (animals, plants and microbial) of agri-food interest at risk of extinction and/or genetic erosion. In particular, in 2012 the Campania Region with Regulation n. 6/2012 [3] already established the Germplasm Banks for the ex situ conservation of native plant and animal genetic resources at risk of extinction and the Regional Repertoires of Animal Genetic Resources, which is divided into a plant section and an animal section including the native Campania breeds and populations, at risk of extinction, registered in the herd books, as well as a list of the populations reported in the Campania territory, not yet registered in the herd books but which are being studied and are considered at risk of extinction. In particular, in the aforementioned Regional Repertoire, only the native breeds of the Campania region and the breeds which, although of external origin to the Campania territory, have been introduced there for at least 50 years and are traditionally integrated into its agriculture and breeding can be registered. Successively, the figure of the Custodian Breeder (CB) was introduced, as defined in art. 2 paragraph 3 of Law 194/2015 [4]. Specifically, CB are breeders who undertake the conservation, within the agricultural farm or in situ, of genetic resources of local food and agricultural interest, animals subject to risk of extinction registered in the Regional Repertoire, according to the methods established by the current European and Italian legislation [60,61], as well as by the regional provisions issued on the matter. The list of native Campania animal breeds is reported in the animal section of the Repertory divided by type of livestock species, and regarding goats, there are the following native breeds: Napoletana, Pomellata, Cilentana nera, Cilentana grigio, Cilentana fulva, and Valfortorina. Furthermore, with DRD n. 87/2018 [62], the Campania Region has regulated the methods of registration of CB in the Regional List of Guardian Growers Animal Section, and, at the end of 2023, 78 CB of Campania were registered in the aforementioned list. In addition to this, the Campania Region (Department of Agriculture) has activated two important initiatives: the AMICA Project (actions in support of zootechnical micro-chains for the valorization of indigenous Campanian genetic resources and related production) [63] financed with the resources of law 194/2015 [4] by the Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and the Custodian Breeding Project of the Regional Breeders Association of Campania and Molise (Conservation and Enhancement of Local Populations and Local Native Breeds and their Habitat) [64].

4. Discussion

The current consistency of the national and Campania goat heritage, its characteristics, the relationship with the sheep sector, and its distribution between the different regions of Italy, as well as its trend over time (presented in Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9, as concerns the national framework, and in Figure 10, Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13 and Figure 14, regarding the Campania region), in our opinion, are the result of Italian political choices that occurred throughout history and widely presented in the results of the historical–cultural bibliographic research. In particular, the trend of the goat population over time, and its continuous decrease, since the beginning of the last century, seem to be the result, on the one hand, of the role and weight that sheep farming and forestry have had on the goat species, and on the other hand, of the agricultural policy instruments implemented for the livestock sector over time, which in this case excluded the goat sector.

As reported in Figure 5 and Figure 11, both at a national and Campania region level, after the unification of Italy (1861) and until the beginning of the 20th century, the regained tranquility of movements (in particular of the transhumance) and precarious living conditions led to an increase in the number of goats raised, especially in the extensive system, based essentially on the use of pasture, and in many cases wandering. Subsequently, the repressive legislation of the 1920s caused a strong contraction in the number of animals bred and the exclusion of the goat from the horizons of agricultural evolution. As widely seen in the presentation of the results, this decrease continued until the end of the 1980s. Indeed, both at a national and regional level, in the decade 1980–1990 there was an increase in the number of caprines bred: these were the years of the rediscovery and valorization of the goat’s potential. In fact, in those years, the Italian scientific community realized that the native goat genetic types, its milk and its organoleptic and dietary qualities could constitute a wealth of endogenous resources that needed to be valorized. Thus, in the 90s it was figured out that, among the animals of zootechnical interest, the goat expressed the lowest level and rate of development but had the highest potential to be exploited [45].

At the same time, the implementation of the National Sector Plan for ovines and caprines [59], good in purpose, never took place and caused a new decrease in the number of goats raised and the farms with caprines in Italy and in the Campania region starting from the 90s of the last century (Figure 5, Figure 7, Figure 11 and Figure 12).

The small increase in the number of caprines and goat farms that has been recorded in the last decade, both at a national and regional level (Figure 5, Figure 7, Figure 11 and Figure 12), is linked to the law 194/2015 [4] and the various actions implemented to conserve and protect animal biodiversity (such as the AMICA and Breeder Custode projects implemented in the Campania region).

Despite all this, today the goat sector continues to have a marginal role in the national and regional agricultural economy, with an impact of less than 1% on the value of production and compared to the sheep sector. Furthermore, meat production decreases, imports from abroad increase and the decline in consumption continues [65]. Consequently, what are the future prospects? The survival of goat farms, and of native breeds, is confirmed as crucial for the social and environmental function to maintain and protect the territory in areas where other productive activities would not otherwise be possible [66]; but the structural weaknesses must be overcome, starting with the excessive fragmentation of the offer, which make economies of scale unachievable, does not allow the variability of production costs to be addressed nor adequate bargaining power, especially with large-scale organized distribution. The key words identified by sector operators seem to be innovation, cooperation, information, and sustainability for the decisive development and improvement of the goat meat supply chain [67]. Furthermore, on the supply side it seems useful to increasingly focus on products and presentations that come close to the “new” consumer needs, focusing on products with greater added value and service content without neglecting the possibility to encourage purchasing by promoting knowledge of the healthiness, environmental and social sustainability characteristics of goat meat [67].

In the Campania region, indigenous goat breeds represent 5% of the goats raised in the region, and, together with plant crops and other indigenous animal populations represent the result of adaptive modifications that have stabilized over hundreds, if not thousands, of years which have led to genetic changes useful for an increasingly better adaptability of these populations to variable environmental conditions. In this regard, approximately 85% of the territory of the Campania region is represented by hills and mountains characterized by production systems that are mainly based on animal husbandry and the supply chains connected to it and there is the highest concentration of agrobidiversity. The specificities of these territories, dictated by climatic and pedological conditions, have enormously influenced natural and agricultural ecosystems and in particular plant crops and native animal populations. The activity of the local population on the territory has also made it possible to conserve these plant and animal genetic resources and use them for subsistence purposes and/or for local trade [66]. Over the centuries, in fact, breeders and growers have been able to adapt the techniques of cultivation, breeding and transformation of primary products to their own biosystem, and thus obtain excellent productions from both an organoleptic and nutraceutical point of view, which are still little known and valued. From this perspective, farms do not just represent simple production structures, but are enterprises strongly rooted in the territory and with the local communities, capable on the one hand to supply quality products and, on the other hand, to guarantee the protection of biodiversity and landscapes, conservation, and transmission of uses and traditions to future generations.

Thus, today more than ever there is the need to act (conserving native biodiversity and helping breeders and farmers to do so through incentives), given that the depopulation of internal rural areas, of Campania as well as of other European regions, can cause the animal populations and native genetic types and their breeding systems (extensive and semi-extensive breeding with prevalent use of pasture as food source), as well as the vegetable crops connected to them, to be abandoned. Furthermore, another risk is that they may be supplanted by varieties and breeds not adapted to the climatic conditions and traditional hill and mountain farming systems and therefore be more demanding in terms of energy inputs, as well as being more vulnerable to specific pathologies such as animal parasites.

5. Conclusions

This research, through the description of the goat sector (in Italy and in the Campania region), which includes important native breeds, and the study of its trend over time from a historical and political point of view, highlighted that in the Campania region the survival of goat farming (especially the extensive ones) is ensured by regional policy interventions. Indeed, in recent years, the institutions have recognized the importance of grazing farmers in marginal areas as custodians of traditions, culture, and biodiversity. In this context, to explore the role that rural families and communities have in the conservation of native animal breeds, in the future we intend to conduct an in-depth analysis of case studies.