SCI and SPAs Management Plan

What is Natura 2000 Network?

  • Mountain and alpine calcareous and schisto-calcareous scree formations (Thlaspietea rotundifolii) (photo by: Enrico Vettorazzo)
  • Alpine and subalpine grassy calcicole formations (photo by: Enrico Vettorazzo)

It is the complex of sites characterized by the presence of natural habitats and species habitats included in annexes I and II of the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/42/EEC-art.3), as well as by the presence of the species included in annex I of the Birds Directive (Directive 79/403/EEC).

Aims
Guaranteeing the maintenance or, if necessary, the recovery of a satisfactory state of conservation of the most threatened habitat types and species in their natural distribution area.
Each Habitat has its own code (four digits). The first digit of a Natura 2000 code indicates one of the following categories:

  1. Coastal and halophytic habitats
  2. Coastal sand dunes and inland dunes
  3. Freshwater habitats
  4. Temperate heath and scrub
  5. Sclerophyllous scrub
  6. Natural and semi-natural grassland formations
  7. Raised bogs and mires and fens
  8. Rocky habitats and caves
  9. Forests

Natura 2000 Network consists of the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) required by the Birds Directive and of the Sites of Community Importance (SCI) required by the Habitats Directive. They represent a temporary stage for the establishment of the Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). In Italy, it is the Ministry of the Environment which designates, with a decree adopted in agreement with each involved region, the SCI included in the official list as SACs. Natura 2000 in Italy consists of over 2,400 SCI and over one thousand SPAs.

How are Natura 2000 Network sites designated?
Program “Bioitaly” (LIFE Natura 1994) between the Italian Ministry of the Environment and the Regions and autonomous Provinces. With DM 3 April 2000 “Elenco dei siti di importanza comunitaria e delle zone di protezione speciali, individuati ai sensi delle direttive 92/43/CEE e 79/409/CEE” (“List of the Sites of Community Importance and Special Protection Areas designated according to the Directives 92/43/EEC and 79/409/EEC”) Italy provided a first list of the designated Special Protection Areas according to what established in Directive 79/409/EEC and of the pSCI (proposed Sites of Community Importance) according to Directive 92/43/EEC (for Veneto 157 pSCI and 17 SPAs). Subsequently, there was a series of changes which led to the enlargement of the perimeter of some sites and to the designation of new sites leading, in Regione Veneto, to a total of 100 SCI and 67 SPAs.

The Management of Natura 2000 Network Sites

Legislation

  • D.P.R. 357/97 “Regolamento recante attuazione della direttiva 92/43/CEE relativa alla conservazione degli habitat naturali e seminaturali nonché della flora e della fauna selvatiche” (Regulation for the implementation of the Directive 92/437EEC regarding the conservation of natural and semi-natural habitats, as well as of the wild flora and fauna).
  • D.M. 3 September 2002 “Linee guida per la gestione dei siti della Rete Natura 2000” (Guidelines for the management of Natura 2000 Network Sites)
  • DGR Veneto no. 2371 of 27.07.2006 “Approvazione del documento relativo alle misure di conservazione per le Zone di Protezione Speciale ai sensi delle direttive 79/409/CEE e 92/43/CEE e del D.P.R. 357/1997” (Approval of the document regarding the conservation measures for the Special Protection Areas according to Directives 79/409/EEC and 92/43/EEC and D.P.R. 357/1997). It includes the general and particular conservation measures for 67 Special Protection Areas, useful also for drawing up the Impact Assessment. Regione Veneto has designated the SPAs whose conservation measures include the approval of specific Management Plans. The special conservation measures are temporarily applied until approval of the Management Plans.

What is a Management Plan?
The Management Plan is a territorial planning instrument whose main aim is the safeguard of the structure and the function of the habitats and the long-term conservation of the species, considering at the same time the social and economic factor characterizing the area.

Management Plans must achieve the goal to maintain, improve, or recover the good state of conservation.
The Management Plans of Natura 2000 Sites enable a positive working of Natura 2000 Network that will finally reach an adequate fulfillment level after the stages of designation and geographical and legislative stabilization of the latest years.
The basic knowledge to draw up the Management Plan is represented by the Habitats Cartography DGR Veneto no. 1066 of 17th April 2007. It includes the specifications to draw up the cartography of the habitats of Natura 2000 Network. With a special agreement, Regione Veneto has entrusted to Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park the preparation of the cartography of the habitats of the following Natura 2000 sites:

  • SPA/SCI IT3230083 “Dolomiti Feltrine e Bellunesi”
  • SPA/SCI IT3230035 “Monte Coppolo”
  • SPA IT3230087 “Versanti sud delle Dolomiti Feltrine”

The cartography of the habitats and species habitats was ready in September 2008.
With DGR no. 4240 of 30.12.2008 for the approval of the cartography of the habitats of the SPAs of Veneto, the special conservation measures mentioned in annex B of DGR no. 2371 of 27.07.2006 come into force.

List of the official names of the Habitats

D.G.R. 4572 of 28th December 2007 Regione Veneto designates the competent subjects (Provinces, Mountain Communities, Park Authorities, Veneto Agricoltura) for the drawing up of the management plans.
D.G.R. no. 4241 of 30.12.2008 Specifications for the drawing up of the Management Plans of Natura 2000 Network sites. Procedures for the training and approval of the Management Plans.
Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park Authority was entrusted by Regione Veneto to draw up the following Management Plans:

  • SPA/SCI IT3230083 “Dolomiti Feltrine e Bellunesi”
  • SPA IT3230087 “Versanti sud delle Dolomiti Feltrine”

Participation
In the preparation of the Management Plan, it is necessary to involve the local stakeholders, associations, and public subjects having competences in the involved area, in order to agree on and better define with them the choices of the plan. Consultations are carried out according to what established in the “indicazioni operative per la redazione dei Piani di Gestione per i siti della Rete Natura 2000” (specifications for the drawing up of the Management Plans for the Natura 2000 Network Sites). Each subject can submit written comments to the Park Authority using the facsimile you can download from this web site.
Consultation guarantees the respect of the right of information and of the participation to the decisions. In particular, it guarantees the right:

  • to a complete and accessible information
  • to express opinions and comments
  • to better understand the reasons of the results of these comments.

The Management Plans for Natura 2000 Network sites must not be considered an achievement, but a starting point which, considering the minimum requests of the European Community about it, stimulate the involved public administrations to confront themselves at a local level for the sustainable development.

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