Species Monitoring

In European nature conservation practice, the specific protection of animal and plant species plays a central role. In this context, individual species with special ecological requirements are used as indicator species for the entire biocoenosis to which they belong. The Birds Directive and the Flora-Fauna-Habitat Directive (Directive Species for short) have given special importance to a number of species. In South Tyrol there are many Directive Species that belong to several taxonomic groups of flora and fauna. The conservation status of these species must be constantly monitored and documented by the member states, i.e. also by the regions and autonomous provinces. Besides the Habitats Directive, Red Lists are a central instrument for nature conservation. They quantify the endangerment status, i.e. the concrete probability of extinction of individual species. For South Tyrol, however, these lists are only partially available or are no longer up to date. The compilation of such lists requires comprehensive data bases and a great deal of expert knowledge. Scientific institutions are therefore of central importance for the completion of these tasks.

Together with the Office of Nature, Department of Nature, Landscape and Spatial Development, the Institute for Alpine Environment and the Museum of Nature, Eurac Research surveys and monitors the populations of protected and endangered invertebrate and mammal species.

The main objectives of the project are:

1) adaptation and further development of methodological bases for the survey of the conservation status of Directive Species of invertebrates and mammals

2) survey, mapping and monitoring of protected and endangered species, above all those species listed in the Habitats Directive. All collected data will be entered into the database of the Museum of Nature and thus made available for official nature conservation. Any improvement measures for the conservation of the species will be proposed

3) Contribution of technical expertise in connection with project evaluations and nature conservation projects

4) Basic work for the writing of Red Lists.