Partnership

COORDINATING BENEFICIARY

D.R.E.Am. Italia (DREAM)

www.dream-italia.it

Referent
Marcello Miozzo

miozzo@dream-italia.it

DREAm is a cooperative society made up of technicians specialized in forestry, nature and environment. It was established in 1978 and since then, after having carried out important experiences in forest planning in the Tuscan territory, it has worked with its projects throughout Italy. Its activities are always aimed at the sustainable management of natural resources, particularly in the areas of rural development, nature conservation, prevention of environmental disasters and landscape protection.

For years it has developed an important sector of activity in the field of conservation of species and habitats of Community interest, both through the preparation of LIFE projects, realized in collaboration with other subjects, and through the implementation of management plans for Sites of Community Interest and Zones of Special Protection. Some of these tasks have directly affected the SPA “Pastures and mountain bushes of the Pratomagno”, as the LIFE project “Conservation of the mountain prairies of the Tuscan Apennines”, within which, among other things, DREAm has overseen the realization of the ornithological monitoring, and updating of the Site Management Plan. In the naturalistic field it has acquired considerable experience in the design and implementation of environmental monitoring, in particular using birds as indicators. Among the tasks performed, in addition to LIFE projects (six are those in which he oversaw the design and implementation of ornithological monitoring), we find studies on avifauna in over 15 Natura 2000 sites and numerous monitoring of the impact of infrastructures and wind farms. Since 2009 it is part of the technical secretariat of the MITO2000 project (Italian Ornithological Monitoring) funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

ASSOCIATED BENEFICIARY

Unione dei Comuni del Pratomagno (UCPRATO)

The Unione dei Comuni Montani del Pratomagno (Union of Municipalities of Pratomagno) is a public local body with statutory autonomy, created to manage, in an associated form, a series of municipal functions. Its territory includes the Regional Forest Complex “Pratomagno-Valdarno”, which falls entirely in the province of Arezzo and extends for about 3,300 ha, of which 2,700 ha within the SPA “Pastures and mountain bushes of Pratomagno”. The management interventions of the Forestry Complex are planned according to a 15-year Management Plan, subjected to Incidence Assessment and approved by the Tuscany Region. The Management Plan has among its objectives the preservation of the biodiversity of the Complex and provides management indications in line with the objectives and priorities identified by the SPA Management Plan, such as maintenance of summit pastures. Precisely in this context, the Agency participated in the LIFE 00 NAT/IT/7239 project “Conservation of the Tuscan Appennines Mountain Grasslands” in the period 2001-2005, with a co-financing of € 128,966 and, more recently, it started forms of collaboration and support for the development of farms and zootechnics with the aim of restoring the ecological functionality of the traditional agricultural landscape. Some interventions, recently realized and aimed at managing the risk of fires, have allowed to restore about 40 ha of open areas in areas occupied by invasion shrublands.

ASSOCIATED BENEFICIARY

Betadue social cooperative of type b ONLUS (BETA2)

www.betadue.org

Referent
Simone Cipolli

simone@bpuntoand.it

Betadue is the social cooperative of work integration, in terms of size and design skills, more relevant than the entire province of Arezzo and one of the most significant of the Tuscany Regional. Betadue is a social cooperative that deals with integration and job inclusion, born in 1998, for a spin-off process by Koinè. Over the years, Betadue has tried to strive to “pursue the general interest of the community in human promotion and the integration of citizens”. For its statutory purposes, the cooperative intervenes in the policies of job placement for subjects with low social and labor contracts, considering work activities and training as a primary means for integration. Betadue is an integral part of the “Koinè network” which represents a group of non-profit organizations that tend to develop social and participatory economies.

Betadue works in the field of community empowerment in social inclusion projects to enhance local development: BTL PROJECT Temporary Labor Bank Loro Ciuffennaa, BETA BAR (Terranuova Bracciolini) – Promotion and creation of youth aggregation and self-organization through an accompanying process, LA MACCHIA (agricultural social cooperative) – budding and accompanying new society that deals with social farming in valdarno, ANIMATION MOUNTAIN – social / economic animation activities in the mountain of Pratomagno aimed at building “activities” to improve services and quality of life (Ostello Orma di Lupo, Alimentari – La Trappola, Merenderia Il Meriggio, District Heating Management Carda), CORPORATE BOMB’S INCUBATOR – Betadue is partner of the Cavriglia incubator, in loc. Bomb for the management of incubator activities related to collective companies.

Furthermore, Betadue adheres to the Projects: Valdarno Rural District, Territorial Network of Opportunities, Valdarno Mental Health Pact.

ASSOCIATED BENEFICIARY

Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences University of Turin (DISAFA)

www.disafa.unito.it

Referent
Davide Ascoli

d.ascoli@unito.it

The research group of Forest Ecology and Mountain Silvicolture of the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISAFA) carries out activities aimed at deepening the following lines of investigation:
– Cultural models and sustainable forest management, with particular reference to the protective and ecological function of the forest;
– Studies of dendronology aimed at researching the correlations between forest dynamics and factors such as disturbances, changes in land use, climate change;
– Renewal, biodiversity and impact of forest management on wildlife;
– Long-term survey (LTER) in old wood (old growth forests), processes of naturalness, mortality, competition, regimen of disorders;
– Models of habitat vocationality (habitat suitability model) for plant and animal species and prediction models of forest landscape dynamics following disturbances of natural and anthropic origin;
– Forest management of exotic species (containment, eradication);
– Restoration ecology applied to environmental compensation measures carried out in the context of large-scale construction projects in the Piedmont Region (high-speed railway);
– Definition of methodologies for calculating carbon credits produced in forestry;
– Study and application of the fire prescribed in the forest environment.
As regards the experience acquired in the project proposal, it is emphasized that since 2004 the DISAFA working group has carried out projects to conserve habitats of Community interest through the use of the fire prescribed both in the Mediterranean and in the continental environment. Furthermore, within the LIFE CARABUS project, he gained experience in forest management aimed at the conservation of priority species.