The Park » Activities and projects

The Belluno Dolomites National Park "Animals" Special Project

The project

The Belluno Dolomites National Park (PNDB) occupies the southernmost part of the Dolomites between the Cismon and Piave torrents. With its 31,512 hectares, it represents one of the best preserved mountain areas in the eastern Alps with an exceptionally high level of plant biodiversity. With the exception of the steinbock, it is also home to all the typical Alpine vertebrates.
The Park Plan (published in the Extraordinary Supplement of the Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 21 of 26-01-2001) defines strategies and criteria for managing and conserving the ecosystems and biocenoses, but delegates detailed definition of the activities to be carried out in the various sectors falling within the competency of the Park Authority to a series of "special projects", including a number dedicated to animals.
The Animals Special Project (ASP) is a "Conservation Plan" aimed at analysing the interactions between animals and habitat and identifying measures to "conserve" the zoocenosis. The ASP therefore provides operational support to the Park Authority in planning future wildlife strategies.

Objectives

The Project's objectives are:

1. to critically assess the state of available knowledge about wildlife in the Park area;
2. to enter all available information in a Geographical Information System;
3. to make operational conservation, study and research proposals;
4. to define action priorities.

The conservation proposals have been drawn up with the aim of maximising all the possible benefits deriving from the presence of animals and have been chosen not just for their ecological validity, but also for their compatibility with the environmental and social situation in the area.
The benefits deriving from animals in a protected area can be divided into three categories: ecological, economic and aesthetic (Table 1)

The projects and activities proposed all take into consideration the fact that the Park must be interpreted in a wider geographical context with important environmental (ecological) and human (socioeconomic) relationships. This type of approach was adopted in the awareness that each action planned or proposed must necessarily take account of a whole series of not exclusively scientific factors which, if neglected, would make all efforts fruitless or even counterproductive. In particular, when planning wildlife strategies, account must be taken not just of the basic legislative priorities, but also of the legitimate expectations of those living and working in the area, never forgetting that in the case of a National Park wildlife management must necessarily give priority to conservation and cultural aspects associated with indirect use of the animal populations.
This is one of the reasons why the Animals Special Project is based on a "holistic approach" aimed at considering not just the most "socially interesting" species (ungulates and galliformes), but also the entire zoocenosis as far as possible.
The following taxa were considered: invertebrates (certain systematic groups only), bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, nesting birds (with particular reference to the alpine galliformes) and mammals (with particular reference to the ungulates and considering rodents and insectivores at mapping level only).
This type of approach enables the Park area to be characterised with respect to areas outside the boundaries.
The complexity of such a task necessitated the setting up of a large working group in order to ensure the availability of all the expertise required. (Table 2).

Results
Wildlife analysis
The numerous research projects carried out during recent years by the Park have enabled a relatively detailed picture of the species present in the area to be drawn up. Further studies are, however, necessary, in particular for the invertebrates of which only 446 species have been surveyed to date (Table 3). Endemic species of hypogean fauna and Rosalia alpine, a Cerambycidae beetle listed in Annex II of EC 92/43, the Habitat Directive, are particularly important.

The survey included 204 species of vertebrate, but the various groups were studied at different depths. For mammals, ungulates and carnivores, birds and bony fish, all species present have probably been identified, but this is not the case for insectivores, rodents and bats for which further study is required (Table 4).

The Park can boast the presence of a number of particularly important animal species such as, among the fish, the bleak (Alburnus alburnus alborella), marble trout (Salmo (trutta) marmoratus) and European bullhead (Cottus gobio), the last two listed in Annex II of the Habitat Directive.
Amphibians are represented by the most typical mountain species including the great crested newt (Triturus carnifex) and yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) listed in Annex II of the Habitat Directive. The 13 species of reptile include the viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara), Horvath's rock lizard (Iberolacerta horvathi) the common adder (Vipera berus) and also the horned viper (Vipera ammodytes), listed in Annex IV of the Habitat Directive.
The 140 species of birds surveyed include the occasional presence of both the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) and griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), both listed in Annex I of Directive 79/409/EEC, the Birds Directive, while a number of species such as the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), corn crake (Crex crex) (listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive and considered as "vulnerable" by the IUCN) and capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) are present in the Park with significant populations.
Conservation and management proposals
The proposed measures can be divided into four types:
Environmental improvement (EI): includes all activities involving the habitat, such as grass cutting or thinning in areas identified by experts as fundamental for the species involved.
Basic surveys (S): regular surveys to monitor populations (censuses, health monitoring, etc).
Active species management (M): reintroduction, eradication, etc.
Research (R): research in the literal sense and other activities aimed at improving knowledge of Park wildlife.
A priority was attributed to each activity (maximum, high, medium) to enable the Park to plan allocation of the available financial resources. The problem of defining an "Emergency Indicator" considering both ecological and social factors to assign to the various species is not new in wildlife planning. The group's work to this end is summed up in Table 5.

It is not possible to describe all the conservation and management measures proposed. Table 6 provides a summary.

A total of 84 proposals have been drawn up, divided as follows: 15 environmental improvement, 27 basic monitoring, 20 active species management and 22 research projects. Many of these are already underway or in an advanced stage of planning.

Geographical Information System
All data on Park wildlife has been entered in a database integrated in a Geographical Information System. This enables maps to be produced showing the current distribution of the various species and by integration with data already available on types of forest and herbaceous associations (deriving from the "Forestry" and "Grassland Improvement" special projects) will allow processing in the future with environmental suitability models.

Conclusions
The Animals Special Project has been designed to achieve two main objectives: to review the state of knowledge about species present in the Belluno Dolomites National Park and to identify a series of measures to be implemented in the future to facilitate conservation.
The approach of the entire project is aimed at considering the entire zoocenosis present as completely as possible, while being aware that social interest leans heavily towards the taxa traditionally easier to perceive and utilise directly.
The Animals Special Project has therefore also tried to tackle problems associated with groups of animals often neglected by planning (small mammals, bats, carnivores, etc) which in a protected area (but not only) should have "equal dignity" as the species traditionally studied.

Enrico Vettorazzo - Belluno Dolomites National Park