TROIA, Angelo

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Costas Kadis, Costas A. Thanos & Emilio Laguna Lumbreras(eds)PLANT MICRO-RESERVES:FROM THEORY TO PRACTICEExperiences gained from EU LIFE and other related projectsThis book has been published within the framework of the project LIFE08 NAT/Y/000453, which was co-funded by the European Commission under the LIFE+ programme.chapter 00.indd   3 17/6/2013   7:41:30 μμPLANT MICRO-RESERVES:FROM THEORY TO PRACTICEThis work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Greek Copyright Law, 2121/1993, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Utopia. Violations are liable to prosecution under the Greek Copyright Law.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publica-tion does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are ex-empt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.Utopia Εκδόσεις ΕΠΕ42 Argolidos Str , 115 23 AthensTηλ.: ++30 210 6997706e-mail: utopiapublishing@gmail.comwww.utopiapublishing.grISBN: 978-618-80647-2-0Experiences gained from EU LIFE and other related projects© Utopia Publishing, Athens 20139 786188 064720ISBN 978-618-80647-2-0Cover and Text Designer: Ioanna DimopoulouProject Editor: Athe na ParnassasProduction Coordinator: Haris Kiriakopouloschapter 00.indd   4 17/6/2013   7:41:33 μμ9Proposals of Plant Micro-Reservesin Sicily (Italy) Angelo TROIADipartimento di Biologia ambientale e Biodiversità, Università degli Studi di Palermo, via Archirafi  38, 90123 Palermo, Italy I. Introduction Similarly to the Valencian Region, where Plant Micro-Reserves (PMRs) were con-ceived and  rst realized, the island of Sicily (and surrounding islets) is rich in local endemics, often in small, scattered and restricted populations, sometimes surrounded by cultivated  elds or built-up areas.The Region of Sicily, founded by a Royal Decree in 1946 (before the foun-dation of the Italian Republic, 1948), is the  rst established region and has the widest legislative power in Italy. It has a special form and condition of autonomy pursuant to the special statute adopted by constitutional law. Under the art. 117 of the Italian Constitution, the Region of Sicily has exclusive legislative powers in all  elds that are not expressly covered by State legislation. In spite of the inclusion of ‘protection of the environment and of the ecosystem’ in these  elds, in Sicily only Regional Natural Reserves and Regional Natural Parks exist, accord-ing to a Regional Law on Parks and Reserves (1981) that preceded the National Law (1991). Although Sicily has a good legislation on natural parks and reserves, it is one of the 3 only Italian regions (out of 20), which has no speci c law to protect the wild  ora, yet, the regional Red List of vascular plants is up-to-date (Raimondo et al., 2011) and could be the basis for this law. In any case, the tool of the PMRs could help to protect plant populations, especially the ones occurring in small sites outside protected areas. II. Objectives and MethodologyThe possibility to introduce the tool of PMRs in Sicily, and in the Aeolian Archi-pelago in particular, emerged within the LIFE-Nature project ‘Eolife99 - Conser-vation of priority plant species in the Aeolian Islands’ (LIFE99 NAT/IT/006217, http://web.tiscali.it/ecogestioni/eolife/). During that project, Dr. Emilio Laguna (PMR pioneer, Generalitat Valenciana) came to Lipari to participate in a work-shop in April 2002, and he explained in detail the idea of PMRs to protect specif-chapter 09NEW1.indd   83 15/6/2013   11:23:26 πμPART 4  OTHER PROJECTS 84ic areas of high  oristic value. Therefore, establishing a PMR could be a suitable measure to protect the Silene hicesiae (Fig. 9.1) population in its locus classicus, the Panarea island. S. hicesiae is a strictly endemic species, occurring only in two of the Aeolian islands, with a total population of 350 individuals. It is included as ‘priority spe-cies’ in the Annex II of the Habitats Directive. The small population in Panarea, occurring within a Regional Natural Reserve and a Site of Community Interest, was actually subject to various potential disturbances, mainly anthropic (e.g. wild! res, alien species, touristic pressure) but also natural (e.g. landslides). The PMR could be the right tool to manage that situation. This proposal follows the model of an ‘intensively managed PMR’.  Unfortunately, the di"  cult normative and administrative situation, and then the end of the LIFE project, did not even-tually allow the implementation of  the idea. III. OutcomeMore recently, the idea emerged again. This time, in the opposite part of Sicily, namely Trapani, near Palermo. Here, in February 2010, an international meeting was held about the protection of an endangered endemic, Calendula maritima: Figure 9.1Silene hicesiae (photo: E. Laguna).chapter 09NEW1.indd   84 15/6/2013   11:23:26 πμ85CHAPTER 9   Proposals of Plant Micro-Reserves in Sicily (Italy) this species is not included in the Annexes of the Habitats Directive but, as one of the most threatened Mediterranean insular species, it was selected (togeth-er with Silene hicesiae and others) for the IUCN ‘TOP 50’ project (Montmollin & Strahm, 2005). One of the invited speakers of the meeting was Patricia Pérez-Ro-vira, from the Generalitat Valenciana’s PMR team, who presented the experience of the PMRs and the results achieved in Spain (Troia & Raimondo, 2011). Again, establishing a PMR was proposed to protect to protect the Calendula maritima populations occurring outside protected areas. And, again, the idea got tempo-rarily lost, waiting for a successful synergy among the Region Government, local authorities and botanists. IV. ReferencesMontmollin, B. de & Strahm, W. (eds), 2005. The Top 50 Mediterranean Island Plants: Wild plants at the brink of extinction, and what is needed to save them. IUCN SSC Mediterranean Islands Plant Specialist Group. IUCN, Switzerland and UK: Gland and Cambridge.Raimondo, F.M., Bazan, G. & Troia, A., 2011. Taxa a rischio nella  ora vascolare della Sicilia. Biogeo-graphia 30: 229-239.Troia, A. & Raimondo, F.M. (eds), 2011. Proceedings of the International Meeting ‘The Calendula of Trapani, an emblematic threatened Mediterranean endemic’, Trapani, Sicily, 20 February 2010. Il Naturalista Siciliano 35: 1–129. Also available on the internet: http://www.sssn.it/indice.htm  (accessed: 30 November 2012).Image on next page: Scrub and low forest vegetation of Quercus alnifolia (photo: M. Andreou)chapter 09NEW1.indd   85 15/6/2013   11:23:26 πμ

Proposals of Plant Micro-Reserves in Sicily (Italy)

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Proposals of Plant Micro-Reserves in Sicily (Italy)

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