What will the future of Lake Garda be? What challenges lie ahead?

19 January 2026

 

[...]in order to create a vision capable of striking the right balance between growth and environmental protection, development and the preservation of the distinctive features of such a heterogeneous and complex area as the Lake Garda region.
 

Social, environmental, and cultural sustainability

Some of these elements—so central and vital to the Garda area and necessarily requiring in-depth attention in the coming years—were addressed during the Garda Green Talk, an event organized in Malcesine by the Garda Green business network in collaboration with Legambiente, and under the patronage of Federalberghi Garda Veneto and Lago di Garda Camping.
The goal of the meeting was to create a network among the various stakeholders involved, in order to build shared governance that would lead to greater environmental, social, and cultural sustainability in the Garda area. It was a moment of dialogue among administrators, entrepreneurs, associations, and citizens, aimed at imagining a lake “for everyone,” from residents to tourists.
To seek concrete solutions, four working groups were therefore created, focusing on mobility, tourism and livability, energy and waste, and climate adaptation.
 

Mobility and energy

Mattia Boschelli, Director of Federalberghi Garda Veneto, focused on the proposal for an integrated Garda-area mobility plan, reasoning in terms of a ten-year vision extending to 2035. The working group started from the need to open a concrete dialogue with Regions, Municipalities, the Garda Community, and trade associations in order to outline a shared, long-term plan.
The focus must be placed on specific issues such as road safety, which is affected by the high number of visitors, the growing volume of cars—also increasingly large—and the constantly increasing movement between individual municipalities in the area. It is therefore necessary to ensure the safety of vulnerable users and to find better coordination. Equally important is the impact in terms of carbon dioxide emissions caused by traffic, without overlooking the potential of slow mobility, car sharing, and bike sharing.

Davide Fumaneri, Director of Garda Green, focused on issues related to energy and waste. “What emerged is the need for a single, integrated communication strategy for all tourists, asking for their cooperation both in waste reduction and in better waste management,” observes Fumaneri.
“Since 1999, the law has temporarily allowed the application of a tariff based on square meters, but this prevents rewarding virtuous behavior and penalizing non-virtuous behavior. The goal is to identify reward and penalty mechanisms that encourage better waste management.”
On the issue of waste, the Director of Garda Green recalled how the good level of separate waste collection recorded during winter and the shoulder seasons drops drastically with the arrival of tourists and second-home owners.
“When it comes to waste disposal, the guest’s habits in their place of origin and the information they receive locally are fundamental. Waste collection and disposal systems vary from country to country, but also from region to region, as well as around the lake, where Verona, Brescia, and Trento do not share the same rules and methods for collection, disposal, and tariffs,” Fumaneri further points out.
“If the customer is not properly informed, they will not address the issue of waste management. Therefore, it is necessary to lay the foundations for creating a single Lake Garda vademecum for tourists.”
The Garda Green representative added that a dialogue has already begun among the municipalities of Riva del Garda, Malcesine, and Limone to arrive at a shared draft to be further developed for the 2026 edition of the Garda Green Talk. On this topic, he also recalled the need to think about a measurement and tariff system that moves away from square-meter-based logic and instead toward collection and pricing based on weight and thus on actual waste production—rewarding the most virtuous while penalizing those who produce large amounts of waste.
The energy discussion focused on future availability, access times and costs, and an alleged lack of coordination between municipalities and private operators, also considering the new European regulation that from 2027 will eliminate gas in new energy production systems.
 

Quality tourism

One of the key issues inevitably revolves around tourism. Matteo Gazzi, City Councilor of Malcesine with responsibility for Tourism, recalls that “for decades we have measured tourism based purely on quantitative data: arrivals and overnight stays, occupancy rates. Today a new need has emerged: measuring it in qualitative terms. What value do tourist presences generate for local territories and resident communities? And what added value can the territory offer the guest? Today, resident communities want livable territories and conditions for a better quality of life. A new balance is needed, along with responsible and courageous actions to preserve the identity and authenticity of our towns, which are the true tourist attraction of Lake Garda.”

Vittorio Mazzoldi, Vice President of Federalberghi Garda Veneto and a native of Malcesine, emphasizes that “hoteliers are on the front line in reducing the negative impacts of tourism on the territory. We try to make our guests more responsible, for example by encouraging greater use of public transport and soft mobility. We also act directly to make our facilities increasingly sustainable in terms of energy use and waste production. Our goal is to create economic development, but also cultural and social development.”

Echoing this sentiment is Francesco Zeitler, Vice President of the Young Hoteliers of Federalberghi at the national level: “The issue of tourism sustainability is deeply felt by new generations of travelers, who are increasingly inclined to reward—when choosing their holiday destination—virtuous destinations and facilities. Hoteliers are aware of this and have long been adopting concrete measures, such as eliminating single-use plastic, using dispensers for bathroom products, sourcing local and organic products, implementing renewable energy, and managing waste sustainably.”

Anna Granzotto, President of the Young Hoteliers of Brescia within Federalberghi Brescia, instead addresses the sensitive issue of mass tourism: “Hit-and-run tourism creates inconvenience without bringing real well-being.”


Read the article at https://www.larena.it/speciali/economie/il-futuro-sostenibile-del-lago-passa-da-energia-e-mobilita-1.12884520