Plant Conservation in Italy

National Red Data Books

Liste Rosse Regionali delle Piante d’Italia. F. Conti, A. Manzi & F. Pedrotti. 1997. Pp. 139. WWF, Associazione Italiana per il World Wildlife Fund, in collaboration with the Società Botanica Italiana, Camerino.

Check-list and red-list of the liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) of Italy. M. Aleffi & R. Schumacker. 1995. Fl. Medit. 5: 73–161. Covers 2 (out of 6) hornworts and 127 (out of 273) liverworts.

In 1971 and 1979 the Società Botanica Italiana published 2 large volumes documenting 563 sites considered to be of high botanical interest and in need of conservation: Censimento dei Biotopi di Rilevante Interesse Vegetazionale Meritevole di Conservazione in Italia. F. Pedrotti et. al. (Eds). 1971, 1979. Società Botanica Italiana, Camerino. (Site details – description, threats, proposed protection, maps.)

Floras

Flora d’Italia. S. Pignatti. 3 vols. 1982. Edagricole, Bologna (now: Il Sole 24 ore - Edagricole, Via Goito 13, 40100 Bologna). (Vol. 1, History of Floras, ecology, gymnosperms, pteridophytes, dicotyledons; Vols 2 and 3 – Remainder of dicotyledons, and monocotyledons; line drawings and distribution maps for each species.)

Flora dei muschi d’Italia. C.C. Pedrotti. Pp. xiv + 817. 2001. (First of two vols.) Antonio Delfino Editore, Via Udine 32/40, 00161 Roma.

Vegetation

Two bio-climatic zones – the Middle-European (Alps, Padanian plain and the northern side of the Apennines from Liguria to Emilia-Romagna) and the Mediterranean (the peninsula, the islands south of the Apennines and Maritime Alps). The boundary between the zones is not always well defined and extra-zonal formations often occur. The extensive mountains create many ecologic niches where numerous plants speciated. Natural forests were heavily cleared from the Neolithic onwards.

Within the main bio-climatic zones are several vegetation belts, described below in ascending altitudinal order: 1) Arid Mediterranean environment of evergreen shrubs dominated by olive (Olea europaea subsp. oleaster) and carob (Ceratonia siliqua), also with Pistacia lentiscus, Chamaerops humilis (dwarf palm), Myrtus communis, Juniperus oxycedrus, Euphorbia arborescens, Cistus and Pinus halepensis woods; 2) Mediterranean evergreen maquis with Holm Oak (Quercus ilex), Arbutus unedo, Phillyrea, Pistacia lentiscus, P. terebinthus, Quercus suber, Pinus maritimus, P. halepensis and P. pinea woods, in places degraded into low garigues and steppe; 3) Deciduous oak of Quercus robur with hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and ash (Fraxinus) on large plains and valley floors, and, close to rivers and lakes, alder, cottonwood and willow; 4) Mesoeuropean environment dominated by Quercus petrea and Q. pubescens; 5) In the mountains, mesophilous deciduous forests dominated by beech (Fagus sylvatica), but also with formations of Abies alba and Pinus spp.; 6) Alpine meadows and forests of Picea abies and other conifers; 7) Above the tree line, low bushes and grasses.

Plant Conservation Programmes

Some key projects for plant conservation include:

EOLIFE99 - Conservation of priority plant species in the Aeolian Islands;
Conservation of Abies nebrodensis in the Madonie regional park, Sicily;
Piemonte region: Conservation and management of the S. Genuario wetland;
Emilia-Romagna region: Environmental restoration and conservation of the habitat of the salt-pan of the Comacchio Marshes SCI;
Toscana Region: Conservation of Tuscan Apennines mountain grasslands;
Trento Provence: NEMOS project - improvement of Alpine wetland areas;
Regional Park of Montevecchia and Curone Valley: Petrifying springs and semi-natural dry grasslands in Valle S. Croce e Valle del Curone;
Barro Mountain Consortium: Integrated management of insubric-prealpine habitats;
Adda-Sud Regional Park: Restoration of the Soltarico Oxbow Lake;
Agrigento Municipality: ‘Juniper Dunes’: Rearrangement and conservation Monte Russu SCI;
Consortium for the Iseo peat-moss management: Biodiversity of Iseo peat-moss: conservation and management
Casentinesi Forests National Park: Restoration of grassland habitats in the Monte Gemelli, Monte Guffone SIC
LIPU: Urgent actions for the conservation of some SCI in Foligno;
WWF Italy: Protection of habitats with Silver Fir in the SCIs of the central and southern Apennines;
WWF Italy: Protection of sea and coastline habitats in SCIs along the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea in Italy;
Regional Park of the Sile River: SWATCH - Sile’s Wet Areas Together Conserve How

These and many more projects are listed and described in detail in the LIFE database of projects funded by the the European Union’s LIFE fund in support of the EU Habitats Directive.

The Trentino Seedbank (Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Via Calepina 14, CP 393, 38100 Trento) conserves endangered plants from the Trento region as part of the European Native Seed Conservation Network – ENSCONET.

Key institutions

Agenzia Nazionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente (APAT, formerrly ANPA), Via Vitaliano Brancati, 48, IT-00144 Roma.

Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio, Via Cristoforo Colombo, n. 44, IT-00147 Roma.

Ministero per le Politiche Agricole e Forestali - Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Via Giosuè Carducci, 5, IT-00187 Roma.

For a portal to information on national parks in Italy, see Parks.it.

Specialist botanical societies

La Società Botanica Italiana, Via G. La Pira 4, IT-50121 Firenze.

Association for Biodiversity and Conservation (ABC-onlus), Via Scipione Innocenti 35, IT-40138 Bologna.

Main botanical institutes

Department of Botany and Ecology, University of Camerino, via del Bastione 3, IT-62032 Camerino.

Orto Botanico della Facoltà di Scienze, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Via Floria 223, IT-80139 Napoli

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Padova, Centro Interdisciplinare dei Musei Scientifici, Università di Padova, Via Orto Botanico 15, IT-35123 Padova

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Palermo, Via Lincoln 2, IT-90128 Palermo

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pavia, Via S. Epifanio 14, IT-27100 Pavia

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pisa, Via Luca Ghini 5, IT-56100 Pisa

Orto Botanico, Largo Cristina di Svezia 24, IT-00165 Roma

List of most botanical gardens in Italy and other institutions working on botany.

Other relevant NGOs

Federazione Nazionale Pro Natura, Via Pastrengo, IT-13-10128 Torino.

WWF Italia ONLUS, Via Po 25/c, IT-00198 Roma

GreenPeace Italia, Viale Manlio Gelsomini, 28 IT-00153 Roma.

Legambiente

Acknowledgement

This page was prepared by the Association for Biodiversity and Conservation, Italy. Created March 2003, last updated January 2006.