7120 Torbiere alte degradate ancora suscettibili di rigenerazione naturale.

The Habitat Directive requires Member States to implement surveillance of the conservation
status of habitats and species of Community Interest. The aim of this handbook is to outline the
methodological instruments for the implementation of a monitoring program of the Italian habitat
types, as required by art. 17 of the Habitats Directive, with particular regard to the data collection at
site level.
The European guidelines (Evans & Arvela, 2011. Assessment and reporting under Article 17 of
the Habitats Directive - Explanatory Notes & Guidelines for the period 2007-2012 -Final Draft.
European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity, p. 1-123) require the assessments to be carried out by
compiling information on specific parameters and at biogeographical scale. Each parameter is
considered separately, eventually combining all parameters in an evaluation matrix thus providing the
overall assessment.
For each habitat type several parameters have to be considered: “Area”, “Range”, “Structure and
Functions”, “Future Prospects”. While “Range” and “Future prospects” need to be assessed only at the
biogeographical scale, “Area” and “Structure and functions” can be assessed aggregating data
collected at the site level; in this handbook, for each habitat of community interest present in Italy, we
present monitoring forms for these two parameters.
Altogheter, the handbook contains 124 forms, referring to 10 Coastal and Halophytic Habitats; 11
Coastal Sand Dunes and Continental Dunes, 15 Freshwater Habitats, 5 Temperate Heath and Scrub, 11
Sclerophyllous Scrub (matorral), 15 Natural and Semi-natural Grassland Formations, 8 Raised Bogs
and Mires and Fens, 10 Rocky Habitats and Caves, 39 Forests.
Each monitoring form has been produced with the support of leading national experts and sent to
regional authorities for a review. The monitoring forms report the most effective available monitoring
techniques for collecting the required parameters and variables, and define operational guidance for
data collection.
The monitoring forms describe priority variables (e.g. vegetation-plot based analysis) that need to
be collected for complying with the Habitat Directive, and also indicate some optional or habitatspecific
variables (e.g. substrate condition, water quality, etc.).
The activities and methods suggested in this Manual are aimed at enabling the Regions and
Autonomous Provinces to implement monitoring activities based on the collection of harmonized data
by means of standardized technical protocols. A standardized basis of information is indeed essential
for producing comparable data and generating reliable assessments on the conservation status of each
habitat type at national level.
Some important elements, such as the Favourable Reference Values and optimal thresholds for
some of the parameters, are still under discussion at the European level and therefore will need to be
further clarified in the near future.