PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
LIFE GREEN4BLUE targets habitat fragmentation and degradation and biodiversity reduction in the plains of the Italian provinces of Bologna and Ferrara. This area of almost 41 000 hectares is representative of the wider Po valley, as well as other European plains, in its intensive use and overexploitation. It is one of the most endangered territories for biodiversity conservation, as highlighted in the Prioritised Action Framework for the Natura 2000 network, published by the Emilia Romagna Region.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE GREEN4BLUE project aims to reduce fragmentation of the aquatic and hydrophilic ecosystems of the canals, mainly affecting habitats listed in Annex I of the Habitat Directive, through smart canal management. It will set up an innovative land management system which integrates hydraulic safety, biodiversity and landscape projection. With sustainable vegetation management of canals, it will increase the biodiversity of flora and fauna around the inner freshwater wetlands.
The specific objectives are:
reinforce the canals' function as ecological corridors and green-blue infrastructure; create favourable conditions to establish four specific habitat types along canal banks; improve the chemical-physical-biological quality of water through new canal vegetation management and the phytoremediation service provided by riparian plants; control and limit canal bank erosion by improving vegetation and controlling and preventing two invasive alien animal species (IAS): Coypu (Myocastor coypus) and Red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii); increase environmental resilience by favouring heron colonisation and nesting efficient predators of Procambarus clarkii in shallow areas; design a shared and integrated invasive alien species control strategy; raise public awareness on the natural, cultural and social values of the canals and demonstrate the feasibility of the integrated management approach. LIFE GREEN4BLUEs work to transform canal networks will support Natura 2000 and the Habitats Directive. Its new management plan on biodiversity loss will support the EU Biodiversity Strategy. The project will also contribute to the implementation of the Regulation on invasive alien species.
RESULTS
Expected results:
around 24ha of canal banks which connect about 5 500ha of wetlands among Natura 2000 sites and surrounding areas; conditions created to establish four protected habitats even outside the Natura 2000 sites: - natural eutrophic lakes with Magnopotamion or Hydrocharition-type vegetation, with at least 5-7 wetlands species and at least one rare or endangered species; - increase in Common reed (Phragmites australis) habitat along 60km of channels alongside Bulrush (Typha latifolia) and Lesser bulrush (T. Angustifolia); - about 10 000 m2 of area modified towards the habitats Riparian mixed forests of Quercus roburand Old sessile oak woods with Ilex and Blechnum by planting five tree species; the off-site nursery established to produce and propagate local wetland species will remain active after the end of the project as a centre for selling local aquatic plants, thereby substituting exotic plants and removing the potential threat of IAS introduction; increase in phytodepuration (purification) capacity and a 10% decrease in nitrogen load; M. coypus and P. Clarkii populations reduced by 80-85% with trapping programmes and a vaccine to sterilise the surviving population; 10% increase in herons and egrets populations.
