Frammentazione ambientale, connettività, reti ecologiche

Abstract
Introduction - Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation is one of the main threats to
biodiversity. Destruction, reduction, isolation, and habitat transformation, the main
components of such process, affect the structure and dynamics of populations,
communities, and ecosystems, as well as ecological processes.
A number of strategies have recently been proposed with the aim of counteracting
this process by means of appropriate landscape planning and management.
Among these, planning in ecological network provides the ecological conditions
necessary for ecosystems and species populations to survive in a fragmented landscape.
This concept, developed from theories of island biogeography and population
dynamics, allows a shift away from the “topologic” approach to conservation,
involving only protected areas, and to the landscape “chorological” approach, involving
the whole territory.
To apply the theoretical indications fostered by ecology, this planning must take
into account the “real world”, whose interpretation needs a multidisciplinary approach:
applied ecologists and wildlife managers will have to interact with landscape
planners and politicians, although their languages are different.
The emphasis placed on this strategy does not relate to a proper knowledge of
the basic problems of conservation. Moreover, the planning is usually developed by
public institutions in a time too short for making an appropriate ecological analysis.
Finally, planning in ecological network is often performed through the use of
cartographic tools, which are limited to, if not devoid of, ecological/functional
analysis. Also they are not concerned with sensitive indicators of the processes and
follow procedures not coherent with the theoretical knowledge of this issue.
Such a kind of approach may give rise to a plan which is low in conservation efficacy.
Hence, the need to provide the planners with adequate methodologies in accordance
with the theoretical background of ecology and conservation.
The aim of the present work is to propose a definition of a conceptual framework
for planning on the basis of theories linked to habitat fragmentation.
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