Other initiative and perspectives

The long series of S.It.E. congresses shows its continued commitment towards the development of basic research, whilst emphasing research on practical solutions to the complex problems of nature conservation and environmental management. The priority given to these objectives is also expressed through the initiatives and environmental education programs instigated by the Society.

In recent years S.It.E. has actively interacted with the Italian Ministry for the Environment and national and regional environmental protection agencies and this type of interaction will be continued and intensified in the future. A central focus is the continued development of environmental research and monitoring programmes towards a coordinated land management policies and the utilisation of natural and human resources based on sound ecological knowledge. With these aims in mind the Society has a special interest in interacting with organisations from other countries involved in similar initiatives.

Since 1994 S.It.E., in close collaboration with other scientific societies, has contributed to the BIOITALY project in order to create the NATURA 2000 network, following the EEC Habitat Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and diversity of flora and fauna.

S.It.E. is also involved, with other Societies, in the "Wet Lands" project of the Italian Ministry for the Environment which forms part of the Project: "Completion of the basic naturalistic knowledge". The Wet Lands project is coordinated by Prof. Ireneo Ferrari and focuses on the classification of wet lands and the developing of indicators for management.

The strategic project "Biodiversity and Ecosystems" is coordinated by Prof. Fausto Manes and addresses the genetic diversity of natural plants populations.

A series of working groups are active in the S.It.E. The specific topics adressed include: Ecosystem indicators (Sergio Malcevcshi), Long Term Ecological Research (Pierluigi Viaroli), Ecological Education (Ireneo Ferrari)

Other activities sponsored by S.It.E. include:

  • A special volume of "S.It.E. Atti" edited for the XXV Anniversary of the Society addressing the state of Ecology in Italy and the history of the Society.
  • an Italian University level textbook on Applied Ecology, edited by Roberto Marchetti published in 1993;
  • an international conference on environmental education ("Nature and culture: old and new paradigms of reading and managing the environmental complexity") was organised by Antonio Moroni in 1996
  • an international meeting on "Ecology towards the year 2000" was organised by Paolo Menozzi in 1992 with the participation of the editors from major international ecology journals;