Rural Development Programme 2014/2020

Measure 16 - Operation 16.5.1 - Cooperation programme with environmental purpose

Cooperation project with environmental purpose on terraced landscapes and extensive agriculture of the Network of Bondone Nature Reserves

Objectives

The current cooperative project with environmental purpose - stage A aims at contrasting the progressive depletion of extensive agricultural areas of the Network of Bondone Nature Reserves. It does that through a well balanced set of actions that aim at restoring the landscape and actively preserving environments; they are socially agreed and supported by a solid base of technical-scientific knowledge.

This is possible only thanks to the integration and coordination in the realisation of:

actions recognised in the Implementation Project for the enlargement of the Network of Bondone Nature Reserves - Soprasasso and municipalities of Cimone, Garniga Terme, Vallelaghi and Villa Lagarina;
actions suggested by the Inventory of active conservation and connectivity reconstruction in the Homogeneous Territorial System of Monte Bondone.

The project wants to offer an example of recovery and good management programme for a number of local agricultural landscapes of the Trentino region following the logic of maximum effectiveness (= ability to reach the established goal) and maximum efficiency (= ability to reach the established goal with the maximum saving of resources).

This good management aims at improving the conservation state of the habitat and animal and vegetation species of community interest that live in the Network's area.

Alongside this major objective, we also have to mention the conservation of local agricultural activities and the contextual conservation of touristic agricultural landscape.

Moreover it is an opportunity to show the local community how the Network of Nature Reserves can be a precious source that enables the promotion of sustainable economic development of local communities.

In the section below we will outline the ways through which these objectives will be reached.

Methods used

The project will be implemented through a good mixture of cooperative study, research, activities and planning that will lead to the composition of the "cooperation territorial project with environmental purpose". This project will aim to reach the objectives stated in the previous section.

Its implementation will be realised through a series of connected logical steps that will be analysed and described in the following scheme and pages.

A. Implementation of scientific monitoring. It is extremely important to identify emergencies related to flora and fauna and more in general to describe the natural and landscape context and the environmental issues concerning the different areas in which the project operates. Only after establishing which are the species living in the territory and what are their management needs, it is possible to scientifically define the actions of landscape recovery and conservation of environments in order to reach a better management of them. To that end, the project intends to realise specific monitoring that aims at "picturing" the flora and fauna of different areas and comparing it to the current environmental situation in order to identify problems or room for improvement. In this phase the conducted studies and the information already found on the territory will be taken into account.

B. Definition of cadastral structure of intervention areas. Alongside with the studies and researches mentioned in A, the understanding of cadastral structure of intervention areas is fundamental in order to create feasible actions instead of only "good resolutions". The accurate knowledge about the property of different agricultural plots will allow to contact the owners, invite them to take part in the assembly mentioned in D and convince them to collaborate on the project.

C. Technical and preliminary identification of actions. Thanks to the information gathered in A and B, a first definition of the possible landscape recovery actions and active conservation of environments of the different areas of the project will be realised. This preliminary definition will be exclusively based on technical-scientific evaluations and considerations and will form the reference document for the development of phase D. The technical and preliminary individuation phase will refer to the implementation plan of the Network of Nature Reserves and to the Inventory of the Homogeneous Territorial System of Monte Bondone.

D. Activation of a participated information, sharing and planning process. The "social validation" of the actions in C is an important central part of the project. Experience has shown that even the best conservation strategy from a technical point of view can fail if it is created neglecting social and economic needs of the local communities, or even worse if it goes against them. First of all, in order to avoid this mistake and in order to fulfil the Operation 16.5.1 guidelines, it will be gathered an assembly with all the territory's stakeholders: from farmers to hunters, from agricultural technicians to local administrators. Because of the assembly it will be possible to describe and share the project and its objectives and also to create a socially shared planning of the landscape recovery and active conservation of the habitat.

E. Determining of shared actions. Taking into consideration the evaluations and analyses made by the assembly mentioned in D, it will be possible to precisely define a set of landscape recovery and habitat's conservation actions that are going to be accurately geo-referenced. These actions will be confirmed under a technical-scientific and socio-economic perspective.

F. Implementation of agronomic evaluation. In order to respect the instructions provided for phase A of the Operation 16.5.1, for every geo-referenced action of E it will be applied an agronomic evaluation in order to finance them in the next phase B. This evaluation's aim is to precisely explain every expense in order to get a subsequent financing.

G. Preparation of the "cooperation territorial project with environmental purpose". Landscape recovery ad habitat conservation actions (= E), that are geo-referenced and defined by cadastral and cooperation means (= B), socially valid (= D) and they have their expenditures explained by the agronomic evaluation (= F), will form the "cooperation territorial project with environmental purpose" alongside with all the data collected during the scientific monitoring (= A) and with the detailed results of the shared planning process (= D).

More in detail the "cooperation territorial project with environmental purpose" is articulated in:

description of the naturalistic and landscape context and of the environmental issues that the project faces, with particular reference to species and environments from Natura 2000 and/or IUNC Red List (Prosser 2001, IUNC, etc.);
specification of the single actions to adopt, complete with technical evaluation, identification of every plant protection product and related conductor. Furthermore the project will collect particles found on the territory that during phase B could substitute the plant protection products previously selected. The latter will guarantee the coherency of the project's objectives and of the criteria selection;
establishment of R.D.P. 2014-2020 measures to which every action can refer to;
accurate explanation, through agronomic evaluation, of the actions' expenditure that will be directly financed on the 16.5.1. measure;
list of the cooperation territorial project's subscribers;
timing and duration of the project;
cooperation management modalities;
description of the expected results;
description of the divulgation phase.

The "cooperation territorial project with environmental purpose" will be the reference document for the actual realisation of all landscape recovery and habitat conservation actions in order to proceed with phase B of the Operation 16.5.1 that will constitute the next project.

Financing

The capital contribution payment of 20.000,00 Euro is divided into:

- 42,980% as EAFRD's share equal to 8.596,00 Euro;
- 39,914% as State's share equal to 7.982,80 Euro ;
-17,106% as Autonomous Province of Trento's share equal to 3.421,20 Euro.

Fur further information about the financing opportunities visit the website of the RDP www.psr.provincia.tn.it and also the webpage of the European Commission about EAFRD here.