PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Please be aware this project has been financed by instalments. That is the reason why you may find the same project in different 'submission years'. With each instalment the duration, the content and the budget of the projects were usually amended. The starting date remains only the same. This project is part of a multibeneficiaries project. That is the reason why summaries are the same for each sub-project. The main threat to Italy¿s heritage stems from the progressive reduction and fragmentation of natural habitats. A major step was taken by a comprehensive 1991 law on protected areas which created new national parks, bringing their total number to 18. Through this project 6 new national parks will be given special attention because of their significance on an European scale. Three of them, the parks of Monti Sibillini, Gran Sasso-Monti della Laga and Majella are located in Central Italy and the other three, the parks of Gargano, Pollino and Cilento-Vallo di Diano are in Southern Italy for a total area of about 1,000,000 ha. Here, numerous ecological examples are representative of a relict fauna and flora (such as the golden eagle, the brown bear, and among the plant species, Adonis distorta, Androsace mathilde and Cypripedium calceolus), elsewhere extinct.Two national NGO, WWF Italy and Legambiente, are involved in the realization of an inventory of SPAs within the six recently created national parks. On the basis of these inventories the project is currently preparing actions and management plans for strategies to limit or prevent ecological degradation, to re-establish the ecological equilibria between flora and fauna and to encourage sustainable development. Finally it will offer courses to National Forest Service personnel involved in the surveillance of national parks. An inventory of potential Special Areas of Conservation within the six national parks has already been drawn up, using satellite photographs and field data. In the new three national parks of Central Italy, 8 sites are found in Monti Sibillini, 26 in Gran Sasso-Laga and 17 in Majella while in the three new National Parks of Southern Italy, 12 sites are found in Pollino, 9 in Gargano and 18 in Cilento-Vallo di Diano. These, presented to the Environment Ministry, will most likely become part of the Natura 2000 Network to be established under the Habitat Directive.