Frammentazione ambientale, connettività, reti ecologiche

208 Reti ecologiche
Identification and design of nature reserves derives from political input as well
as conservation criteria: therefore, they may not spatially coincide with the habitats
and corridors identified in the functional ecological network. From the comparison
among thematic layers, it will be possible to evaluate the level of efficacy of the
protected area system, focusing on conservation gaps. In order to reduce these
gaps, it may be helpful to involve and coordinate different types of managed/protected
areas (e.g., Special Areas of Conservation sensu Dir. 92/43/CE, game reserves)
to common conservation goals.
Finally, the stratification of the structural/functional data, with those relative to
the anthropic system will allow the identification of the critical areas, in order to
select defragmentation and restoring actions.
Conclusions - It is strategic to insert the ecological priority in landscape planning.
Planning in ecological networks, analyzing the impact of habitat fragmentation
on diversity and ecological processes, suggests a range of mitigation procedures
through a spatial and dynamic approach which extends to the whole territory. In
order to make such a strategy effective, a synthetic and operative scientifically-based
process of planning must be structured, integrating urbanistic and ecological
sciences.
Ecological networks may not be a panacea, due to the complex factors related to
fragmentation and to the irreversibility of many processes. However, they allow us
to acquire concepts and criteria of conservation in ordinary planning where, traditionally,
the anthropic and natural systems are analyzed independently.
Finally, this field of research, giving us, as it does, the opportunity to integrate
our knowledge of natural and planning sciences, leads us on to further studies in
theoretical (e.g., species-specific sensitivity to area, isolation, edge) and applied
ecology (e.g., nature reserve design, fragmentation-sensitive species as indicators).