A bird, the Ural Tawny Owl, and an
insect, the Alpine Rosalia, along with the waters of rivers,
lakes, and streams, will be the natural indicators used to
understand and enhance biodiversity between Italy and Slovenia
by the cross-border project E-Nat2Care" in which the University
of Udine is participating with five other Italian and Slovenian
partners.
The university announced this project today, specifying that
"the objective of the research, which has just started, is to
conserve and restore the richness of the ecosystems of the
Julian Alps and Karst in the cross-border area, which is in
danger, also due to deforestation, climate change and
unpredictable and violent natural events, such as fires and
floods."
The two-year project, which aims to help strengthen the
coordinated management of these areas to stem the decline in
biodiversity and the worsening conservation status of habitats
and species, has a budget of about 741,000 euros, of which
593,000 is funded by the EU from the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF) under the Interreg Italy-Slovenia
2021-2027 program.
The University of Friuli, given a share of about 140,000
euros, is participating with a research group from the
Department of Agri-food, Environmental and Animal Sciences. The
other partners are the Julian Prealps Regional Nature Park and,
for Slovenia, the National Institute of Biology (lead partner),
Škocjanske Jame Park, and the University of Primorska.
"E-Nat2Care" will pursue three specific goals, Udine
University points out. The first is to establish innovative,
joint cross-border monitoring approaches through indicator
groups for fauna composed of an insect, Rosalia alpina, found in
the rotting woody mass, and a nocturnal raptor, the Ural Tawny
Owl. The second goal is to strengthen local communities'
awareness of "ecosystem services," i.e., the services that
natural systems provide to benefit human settlements; the third
goal is to enhance cooperation between science and society, both
locally and regionally.
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