Activity of S.It.E. within the Natura 2000 Project

The Italian Ministry of the Environment and the National Agency for Alternative Energy (ENEA) are responsible of coordinating the project and collecting and analysing the data, while the Regional Authorities (of which there are 20 in Italy) are in charge of the compilation of the Rete Natura 2000 network questionnaires and the related BIOITALY file for each site of interest of the European Community.

The scientific guidelines for the work at the regional sites, involving the compilation of questionnaires, the revision of annexes and selection of new sites, were indicated by a national scientific committee made up by representatives, nominated by the Ministry, from the national botanical, zoological and ecological societies.

The scientific societies were also involved at the regional level: some S.It.E. members acted as regional referees, working in conjunction with the regional authorities.

S.It.E. worked in close collaboration with botanists and zoologists. The project is an interesting attempt to face conservation problems using a multi-disciplinary approach. The problems of compiling the ecological sections of the Natura 2000 files, concerning site-level attributes of environmental quality, vulnerability, etc., are discussed with researchers and practitioners working in different fields of botany, zoology and ecology.

web site: http://www.scn.minambiente.it/sap/home_sap_nat2000.htm