DOLOMITES - Annexes 2-8 - Provincia di Udine

NOMINATION OF THE DOLOMITES FOR INSCRIPTION ON THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE LIST UNESCO
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and heighten the natural dynamics. The positions of wells and springs also tend to move, under the
influence of sliding detritus and new accumulation that also interfere with the evolution of certain
wetlands.
The Dolomites’ territory is unequalled in the entire world. Based on the documents available, there
exists no orographic system capable of proving the historical exploitation of resources made by mankind,
in all valleys, also the most distant and isolated. The “laudi”, or the rules applying to the utilization
of soil established by the Communities and the Family Communions, dating back to before
year 1000 (Ampezzo), or the forestry rules, and the forest management land registers established and
published by the Serenissima Republic of Venice in early 1500, are documents that do not exist in
any other area on earth. And just for the reason of this historical documentation, the primary activities
were abandoned, in a decisive manner as from the second half of the last century; significant
changes are taking place in the meadowland and forest ecosystem’s structure which are largely dependent
on and comparable with previous situations which can be documented by historical findings.
This obviously applies to either changes resulting in negative situations and those which are
becoming evidence of a natural re-colonization on a large-scale basis, having an extraordinary scientific
value. This is also proved by the researches that are being carried out on a national and international
level, regarding:
– The progressive advancement towards the higher lands, formerly grazing lands, by new forests,
– The systemic structure of newly-formed woods,
– The new forms of humus that are rising in newly-formed arboreal systems,
– The calibration of naturalness indicators associated with ecosystems whose composition was almost
unknown.
Also, one should not neglect the fact that in Western Europe forests are being increasingly exploited
– because of the productivity of woods located on the plain (e.g. Poland, Scandinavia), as well as
in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic, etc.) for reason of the new, interesting markets that
have opened in these low-cost labour countries, while the alpine woods and above all those located
in the Dolomites - now presented for nomination – are practically no longer utilized and therefore
they are playing a leading role in an exceptional ecological process of epigeal ligneous biomass and
hypogeal necromass accumulation which, above and beyond the benefits it brings from a naturalistic
standpoint, is universally considered fundamental for the storage of carbon dioxide. Another just as
important aspect, and unequalled in any site of the World heritage, is the recovery of biological balanced
structures in a single area, the first supported by evidence, affected by ecosystem deterioration
processes originating from the phenomenon known as “acid rain”. In the area of the Parco Nazionale
delle Dolomiti Bellunesi (National Park of Dolomites located in the Belluno area), around the proto-industrial
site of the Imperina Valley (pyrite and iron mining, casting and processing), large forest
strips were destroyed for this reason in the XVII and XVIII centuries and now, after approximately
fifty years from the final divestment of that activity, this testifies the slow progressive evolution of the
ecosystem. Recovery of nature in areas abandoned by mankind and its activities has fostered another
significant and fantastic process, i.e. the return of the big predators: lynxes, bears and probably also
wolves. These species are in fact increasingly returning to these mountains and this may sound incredible
if one thinks that the Dolomites, already highly urbanized and crossed by huge infrastructures,
are grasped within a system of highly populated territories, of which the Po valley is the most
significant, with a population density amongst the highest in the world.