LIFE ESC360 PROJECT: NATURE PASSION

Coordinated by the Carabinieri Corps, the European volunteering project involves 360 volunteers in monitoring fauna and flora within the State Natural Reserves managed by the Biodiversity Carabinieri Grouping

Rome, 6 May 2019 - A unique experience in contact with nature. The Life ESC360 project offers 360 volunteers, aged between 18 and 30, the opportunity to actively participate in the conservation of our environmental heritage through the monitoring of invertebrates, amphibians, birds, mammals of community interest, within the Reserves State Natural managed by the Biodiversity Carabinieri Group.

The work of the volunteers is an indispensable tool to provide a clear picture of the state of conservation of animal species and thus contribute to the targeted management of Natura 2000 network sites administered by the Carabinieri.

The ESC360 project is co-financed by the Life program of the European Union, is part of the initiatives of the European Solidarity Corps and also sees D.R.E.Am. - Italy.

Among the objectives is to create an integrated biodiversity monitoring system through the application of standard protocols within the study areas for forest and mountain habitats. The monitoring rounds will last 2 months, in particular May / June and July / August in 2019, March / April, May / June and July / August in 2020 and 2021.

The study activities will focus on insects, amphibians, birds, mammals. In addition, vegetation detection and habitat recognition techniques will be presented.

The areas in which the species and habitats will be controlled by volunteers are the Bosco Fontana State Nature Reserve, the Casentino State Nature Reserves and the State Nature Reserves in Abruzzo and Molise.

To ensure adequate training for the volunteers, a preparatory course was organized at the beginning of each monitoring round which will precede the activities in the field.

The first round of the training course and preparation for the monitoring activities of the 38 ESC360 volunteers to be held in Castel di Sangro (AQ) at the Feudozzo Tower in the State Nature Reserves of Abruzzo starts today, Monday 6 May. and Molise, and will last about a week.

The program included topics of transversal interest including the Habitat Directives, the Birds Directives and the Natura 2000 Network, principles of biology, ecology and taxonomy, management and conservation of forests, monitoring theory, as well as specialized topics for the tasks that will go to carry out volunteers on the territory.

The course will be held in the first week of each volunteer shift and will last 5 days (Monday to Friday) for 7-8 hours of lessons. It will be preceded by an entrance test aimed at verifying the state of knowledge of the volunteers on the subjects taught. At the end of the training, students who have attended at least 90% of the lessons will be able to carry out field monitoring activities. They will be divided into 3 groups and transferred to the locations of the 3 study areas, in particular in the Reserves and in the Natura 2000 sites managed by the Carabinieri Biodiversity Departments of Verona, Pratovecchio and Castel di Sangro.

The activities will be conducted mainly on high altitude mountain habitats and on forest habitats. In particular, for these last ones the dendrometric parameters of the stands will be detected and a qualitative evaluation of the woody necromass will be carried out. In addition, the presence of alien species will be evaluated and any control actions will be carried out, in addition to the monitoring of animal species.

In order to provide a further assessment of the biodiversity level of the areas investigated, measurements based on the environmental bioacoustics technique will also be performed, using special recorders and analyzing the recordings with dedicated software.

Finally, a database of the scientific data of the project will be created in which all the environmental and faunal elements collected by the volunteers validated by the project tutors will be inserted. The action will be carried out in collaboration with ISPRA and the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea.