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Countries
| Area size | Status | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | 1,080,000 ha | Several National Parks | Central Apennines |
| Total area size | 1,080,000 ha |
Habitat description
The general landscape shows limestone mountain ranges. Altitude ranges from 400-2,900 m above sealevel. Many peaks are higher than 2,000 meters, 65% of the Central Apennines region is above 700 meters. Grassland and alpine pastures characterize the landscape above 1,800 meters. 95% of the region is covered by forests or agricultural land, with beech woods (mainly coppice) dominating the forested area. The habitat is characterized by beech and oak forest and alpine grassland (Trifolietum-thalii), rocks and cliffs. Mixed forests of Carpinus ornus, Ostrya carpinifolia and Quercus pubescens and Ilex are also present.The irregular and steep orography protects habitat from an intensive landuse and provides a quite good chance for the conservation of natural ecosystems. The climate is a subcontinental temperate.
Large carnivores map
Background information
Gran Sasso and Abruzzo are located east of Rome ranging from southern Umbria to northern Lazio and Molise. It contains parts of the provinces Perugia, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara, Teramo, Frosinone and Isernia. In the Central Apennine region the mean human density is 110 people/km2. If major centers are not considered, mean density drops to 50 people/km2. Main population centers are located in the core of the area (the part with the lowest altitudes), are L'Aquila (40,000), Avezzano (30,000) and Sulmona (20,000). The mean road density is about 1,2 km/1 km2.
A very important net of protected areas, consisting of 4 National Parks and 1 Regional Park has been established:
- Abruzzo National Park (44,000 ha core area + 60,000 ha of buffer protection zone)
- Gran Sasso Monti della Laga National Park (203,000 ha)
- Maiella National Park (83,000 ha)
- Sibillini National Park (70,000 ha)
- Velino - Sirente Natural Park (about 50,000 ha)
Gran Sasso mountain - Campo Pericolo panorama
Inside the parks hunting is prohibited. There is no strict tourism regulation except some integral reserves where tourists are restricted to the marked paths.
Agriculture in not well developed with very few grain fields and meadows, some vegetables and potatoes. There is no intensive farming except in Avezzano plain and no great industrial districts. Some small and middle size companies produce clothing and traditional handicraft (hand-manufactured articles).
Tourism plays a very important role for the local economy and it is rapidly and constantly increasing (but not still comparable to the amount of Alpine tourism). About two million visitors per year come mainly because of the unspoiled nature. All these human activities are compatible with large herbivores.
A lot of control plans and management strategies have been developed in the past, both in the hunting districts of each province and in natural and national parks (i.e. Sibillini Nationalpark; Gran Sasso Nationalpark; the hunting areas and the buffer zones between Gran Sasso and Majella Nationalpark). Despite that the hunting methods and management are badly organized.
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Presence of species in landscape
Large herbivores
Large carnivores
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Maps
Interactive map
Hotspot Central Appenine to enlarge in Google maps
Further map information
If you have any comments on this map, please send your suggestions for improvement.
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Opportunities
- The area is considered as being a key area for the conservation of large carnivores (bear, lynx and wolf) in Italy
- The Central Apennines includes all important types of habitat for the present large herbivore species. The four parks include the highest parts of the Abruzzo region and almost the entire potential distribution area for Appenine chamois. The situation is different for the other species that are or could be present also outside the parks. Especially the distribution of wild boar and red deer in the parks represents only a part of the whole distribution range.
- It is important to outline and implement an action plan for the conservation of Abruzzo chamois (discussion and photos).
- In the Abruzzo National Park a wide buffer zone around the actual park was planned. This kind of zoning should permit a more strict regulation of hunting activities (hunters are tied to smaller hunting areas).
- The National Wildlife Institute is producing guidelines for planning and implementing ungulates conservation and is developing an experimental strategy to improve wild boar management to limit damages and to allow more regulated hunting methods
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Threats
- Conflicts between farmers and hunters because of wild boar damage are quite common. Economic damages refunded both by provincial administration and hunters associations sum up to several hundreds millions Italian Lire for each province per year.
- Space and food competition with livestock, especially domestic caprins but also free ranging cattle, seems to be the main limiting factor for the Abruzzo chamois. Overlap between sheep, cattle and chamois can be very high during summer. A small number of alpine meadows in the chamois habitat have been left out of livestock grazing to reduce competition. This action may generate cautious optimism about the species future. But the number of domestic sheep is still high and further limitations in pasture access could lead to some problems. The same can happen in other areas, when restocking or reintroduction programmes will start.
- A problem in large herbivore management are the badly adapted hunting regulations. No change in the national law has ocurred for a quite long period. Ungulate hunting regulations strictly depend on regional legislation and the situation is very different from region to region. At present ungulate hunting with selective methods is common only in northern and (part of) central Italy (in the Apennines only in some part of Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and in the Province of Pesaro). In Abruzzo only wild boar is hunted with dogs. This hunting practice in general is one of the most important limiting factors in increasing population of roe deer.
- The problem of feral and stray dogs has been discussed for some years. The present legislation does not allow to control them. Environmental organizations are strictly against killing straying dogs and the public generally supports this attitude. So the dogs can only be captured and kept in kennels, but no budget is available.
- A special problem concerning the Abruzzo chamois is the very low genetic variability which is a result of population bottlenecks during world wars.
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Experts and Scientific Referees
Pedrotti, Luca
Chamois
Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica
Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica
Contact
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Library
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All comments on Central Apennines
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