The Habitat Monitoring under Article 17 of the 92/43/EEC Directive in Italy: the contribution of vegetation science.

In order to to fill a number of gaps still affecting the former versions of the Italian Reports of the 4th National Report ex Art. 17 of the 92/43/EEC Directive in Italy, a nationally shared protocol for monitoring the vegetation-based Annex I Habitats is currently under development. The most prominent issues addressed by the ongoing project are: i) fixing standardized, updated and scientifically grounded methodological tools, on the basis of the European guidelines (Evans & Arvela 2011, ETC-BD); ii) providing comparable data at national and European level; iii) harmonizing the territorially fragmented knowledge and iv) supporting nationally standardized measures for the conservation of terrestrial, brackish and freshwater Habitats.