Dr. Antonino Morabito: "Collaboration is always the best way"
In times like today, in which controversies prevail filling entire pages of newspapers for the benefit of only a few politicians, fortunately there are concrete examples that go in the opposite direction and, indirectly, call everyone to overcome ideological barriers. In the wake of the work carried out in recent years by the "National Observatory for Wildlife Management", an instrument promoted together by Legambiente and Arcicaccia, to which the Italian Farmers Confederation and Federparchi have joined, the Aspromonte National Park Authority has launched the “Project for the reintroduction of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus, Linnaeus 1758)”, a species present in historical times and extinct by man between the end of the XNUMXth and the beginning of the XNUMXth century.
Among the main purposes of the Park project was to enrich the biocenosis currently present in Aspromonte and, right from the start, the ambition to create a project that involved hunters and environmentalists, park authorities, provinces and territorial hunting areas together. A challenge consciously initiated to help strengthen social cohesion and collaboration between administrations, both of which are preparatory, even in wildlife management, to achieve shared, concrete and lasting objectives.
The conservation goal.
The reintroduction of the roe deer in the Aspromonte National Park has been evaluated in the context of the wider conservation strategy of the species at national level and for the specific opportunity offered to the "Italic roe deer" (Capreolus capreolus italicus, Festa 1925), given the value attributed to it by the international scientific community, as the local populations of roe deer in southern Spain and central and southern Italy are considered clearly distinct from other European forms.
Numerous scientific works speak, in fact, of the Italic roe deer as a relict entity of roe deer populations that occupied the Italian territory before its almost total extinction, with the exception of three historical nuclei remained in the Orsomarso (Cosenza, Calabria Region), in Gargano (Foggia , Puglia Region) and in the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano (Rome, Lazio Region).
The return of the roe deer in Aspromonte gives the opportunity to reintegrate a wild prey species, given that the Park is home to a wolf population (Canis lupus, Linnaeus 1758), whose conservation is important both nationally and internationally. Several studies have shown the correlation between the availability of wild prey and their appearance in the wolf diet, suggesting a growing tendency in the wolf to prey on the wild even in the presence of domestic animals, with the indirect advantage of reducing conflicts with livestock activities.
To this it must be added that the roe deer is also a species of hunting interest and starting the reconstitution of a viable population in Aspromonte offers not only important conservation objectives in the park area, but also concrete potential for collaboration and correct hunting wildlife management in the nearby territorial areas. hunting.
Continuity in the action of the Park Authority, scientific solidity of the data, technical correctness of the interventions, information, involvement and participation: the axes of success.
The Park immediately took into account having to dedicate its commitment for many years to reach the full success of the project and, considering the practice of self-sufficiency to be limiting, has chosen to make use of the technical-scientific advice of a group of recognized experience, the Dream Italia. The Park therefore first commissioned the feasibility study, which involved the technicians for over two years, then subjected to evaluation and validation by the technicians of the former INFS (today ISPRA), and on the result of those data and evaluations initiated the reintroduction project.
At the same time as the feasibility study, the Park considered it a priority, for the success of the project, to implement various dissemination and involvement actions. It has promoted and carried out training courses aimed at hunters residing in the 37 municipalities of the park and the staff of the bodies involved (technical staff of the Park Authority, State Forestry Corps, Provincial Police, staff of the Province and Territorial Areas of Hunting) on biology and the management of wild boar and roe deer species and has organized numerous informative evenings in various areas of the Park aimed at citizens and associations.
On the basis of the most recent studies that indicate the southern portion of Tuscany as the area with the most vital populations of Italian roe deer, agreements have been activated with the Provinces of Grosseto and Siena and the respective Territorial Areas of Hunting, in order to to be able to obtain the founding specimens that the project plans to place in Aspromonte, altogether between 60 and 90 individuals.
The phases of capture and release of the roe deer, individually marked and with 50% of the specimens also equipped with satellite radio collars in order to better follow the progress of the reintroduction, took place thanks to the active collaboration and participation of Tuscan and Calabrian hunters.
The Park has organized in the capture sessions planned in Tuscany, the participation of Calabrian hunters to allow them to experience all the phases of the project and among the actions still to be carried out it has foreseen some seminars in Calabria and Tuscany to be carried out together with the ATCs and Provincial administrations involved, as well as the hospitality in Aspromonte of Tuscan hunters who participated in the capture phases to let them know the places where the roe deer have been placed and the progress of the project to which they are actively contributing.
The Italic roe deer is returning to live among the pastures, the beech woods and the firs of the Aspromonte thanks not only to the Park but also and above all to the active and sincere collaboration of many organizations and many hunters and environmentalists. And 2010, the year dedicated by the United Nations to the defense of biodiversity, urges us to abandon all selfishness and to work together for our common goods.
Antonino Morabito
Administrator of the Aspromonte National Park Authority
You May Also Like ..
