Sicily needs (new) protected areas

Italy is the nation with the highest levels of biodiversity in the whole of Europe and Sicilyin particular, is one of the regions that have the greater number of species in the Mediterranean.

There are many reserves which were established on our island precisely to protect the flora and fauna, also in consideration of an incontrovertible fact, namely that Sicily is an obligatory stop for many migratory species, which come from the far north of the continent or from Africa.

As far as we have a treasure chest of biodiversity that we are envied all over the world, however our region is in extreme difficulty in to monitor And protect this large number of species, not even considering the marine animals that frequent our coasts.

To solve this problem and ensure constant renaturalisation of our territory, various environmental associations and local committees have long been asking regional and national administrators to increase the number of protected areas present in Sicily, so as to also satisfy the requests of the European Union, which through the “Biodiversity Strategy” and the Green Deal asks all governments to increase the protected surface area of ​​each region to 30%.

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Legambiente has always been one of the environmentalist associations that has fought most in this field, proposing various projects or ideas that have improved the ecosystem conditions of the region over time.

Precisely by virtue of this historic commitment and in anticipation of the next European elections, which will mark the economic and environmental policies of the EU in the coming years, this association has therefore decided to present its own national document, which reflects on the health conditions of our biodiversity .

Through this reports – entitled “Report on the state of health of living species, on the main risk factors and on the strategies to be adopted to deal with the loss of biological diversity” and available on the Legambiente website – the association has thus clarified its proposal onestablishment of new nature reservesproviding a contribution for the possible identification of the areas that should be included in that famous 30% of territory envisaged by the European Strategy for Biodiversity.

Considering Sicily exclusively, the areas foreseen by this association are truly many, but given that our island still remains the largest region of our country and also the one with the greatest number of ecosystems in danger, there is no doubt that in order to bring For the region to have 30% of its territory protected by 2030, the number of reserves and natural areas subject to protection must be significantly increased.

There Legambiente’s proposal first of all, it involves the creation of some Regional and national parkswhose establishment has been blocked for some time or is in the process of being created.

These parks should be those of the Iblei, Sicani, Aeolian and Peloritani mountains, while the Etna Park – currently belonging to the region – should become a national park.

Subsequently the association proposes the establishment of a large number of land reserveswhich would have the aim of protecting local biodiversity and some very important naturalistic glimpses for our region.

These should be the Bosco di Santo Pietro nature reserve, the RN of the Simeto lava gorges, the RN Pantani of south-eastern Sicily, the RN of the island of Capo Passero, the RN Isola delle Correnti, the Isola dei Porri nature reserve and the Capo Murro di Porco Nature Reserve, which includes the Maddalena Peninsula.

As it is possible to see, these reserves are scattered throughout all the provinces of Sicily, including some that were foreseen by the ancient regional reserve plan, promulgated in 1991. However, it does not end there.

Legambiente, in its report, also proposes the establishment of several marine protected areas, fundamental for protecting our seabed and the species that live there. Among these there are the Aeolian marine area and the Egadi national park and the Trapani coast, which are in the establishment procedure.

To these are also added the MPAs of the Stagnone di Marsala, the two MPAs of the Island of Pantelleria and the nearby Banchi di Graham and Terribile, which are located in the Strait of Sicily, the MPA of the Promontory of Monte Cofano and the Gulf of Custonaci, near Macari, the MPAs of Capo Passero and the Pantani di Vendicari.

According to the association, these protected areas (together with those already established previously) would guarantee our region to become a leader in Europe regarding nature conservation and would allow us to meet the demands of European environmental strategies.

However, at the same time as the presentation of this report, Legambiente Sicily wrote a document addressed to the Sicilian Region, the coastal municipalities and the Port Authorities, where he highlighted the extraordinary importance of coastal environments and beaches, increasingly threatened due to our behavior and climate change.

Environmentalists have thus asked politicians for urgent interventionsto safeguard the coasts from speculation and dangers that occur during the summer season, as the beaches are precious ecosystems in which various protected species live, including “the Caretta caretta turtle” (species protected by Directive 92/43/EEC “Habitat ”), the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus (a small shorebird protected by the Birds Directive) and the sea lily “Pancratium maritimum”.