Like all the other EU/28 countries, in 2019 Italy developed the 4th Italian Report
ex-Art. 17 on the conservation status of the Habitats of Annex I to the 92/43/EEC
Directive. Institutional referent of the process, on behalf of the Ministry for
Environment, Land and Sea Protection (MATTM), was the Italian Institute for
Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) with the scientific support of the
Italian Botanical Society (SBI). A huge working group composed of thematic and
territorial experts was formed with the task to collect, analyse, validate the data
resulting from Annex I Habitat monitoring in Italy for the period 2013-2018, whose
collection is in charge to the regional administrations. Data on 124 types of terrestrial
and inland water Habitats present in Italy have been processed in order to assess their
overall conservation status in the Biogeographic Regions of occurrence. The carried out
activity led to the compilation of 278 assessment sheets. The work included a critical
analysis of the data and a broad scientific confrontation aimed at finding
methodologically robust solutions to fill the gaps. The work was structured so as to
guarantee the traceability of the information and to allow the collection of "gray"
literature and scientific articles, phytosociological surveys and unpublished material of
the specialists, composing a substantial pool of data useful for starting a long-term
process to support the next reporting cycles. Cartographic outcomes, associated
databases and additional data used for the assessments will be available online on the
ISPRA Portal as soon as the validation process by the European Commission will be
completed. A freely accessible online archive of phytosociological surveys
representative of the various Annex I Habitats in Italy is being set up within the national
"VegItaly" database, managed by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science, by way of a
dedicated archive named "HAB_IT". Such a long-term vision, oriented to the storage
and enhancement of knowledge, represents an important innovative aspect and a
significant progress towards the construction of an effective monitoring system for the
conservation of Annex I Habitats in Italy