WetFlyAmphibia - Conservation of amphibians and butterflies of wetland of open areas and their habitats at the Foreste Casentinesi National Park
LIFE14 NAT/IT/000759
Object
Guidelines for the management of drinking troughs and ponds aimed conceived for farmers to favour the conservation of amphibians in parallel with the management of grazing
Objective
Involve, train and raise awareness of farmers that manage pasture areas to ensure that drinking troughs and pools are useful not only for grazing animals, but also for the conservation of threatened amphibians, such as the Apennine yellow-bellied toad.
Good Practice Description
Guidelines have been written with the participation of the farmers who have in concession grazing areas within the Park. The guidelines list a series of actions to be carried out in the normal management and maintenance of drinking troughs and pools. Thanks to small but important measures, it is possible to use these structures both for grazing animals and, at the same time, as a habitat for some threatened amphibians, such as the Apennine yellow-bellied toad.
The guidelines concern, for example, the periods and methods of cleaning of the drinking troughs, the creation of rumps to allow the amphibians to access the tanks and the installation of floats to ensure an optimal water temperature.
Territorial Context
National Park of the Casentinesi Forests, Mount Falterona and Campigna. The construction sites are grazing areas owned by the region (Emilia-Romagna Region) given in concession to farms.
Replicability conditions
A direct involvement of farmers is necessary at all stages of drafting the guidelines, in order to discuss with them the practices to be performed, while, at the same time, raising awareness on the issue of biodiversity conservation.
Dissemination material
From the LIFE GoProFor database, in the final part of the sheet, it is possible to download some material related to the project, including the guidelines.