Objective
To tackle the falling water levels and the lotus invasion, the Park Service will focus on a series of test actions to restore the variety provided by the original habitats of the Valli del Mincio. In particular, reeds will be mowed and transported out of the site over a 60-hectare area in order to diversify the landscape structure and allow other plant species to re-establish themselves. Seven small watercourses inside the park will be cleared out and reopened to improve water flow and, as a consequence, restore optimum conditions for birds to nest and rest. Finally, using state-of-the-art techniques with low environmental impact, the lotus will be eradicated over about 30 hectares in the most inaccessible parts of the wetland. This will be done using boats able to navigate in the narrowest channels and reach the most secluded patches of open water, equipped with tools to tear up the roots and collect the rhizomes. The project management intends to closely involve the interest bodies traditionally concerned by this natural area, such as the fishermen and the association of cane and reed harvesters. Such harvesting (which employs 20 people) is in fact in danger of disappearing as local economic activity. The cane and reed harvesters will be involved in the project's management of the reedbeds through seminars and public meetings and by involving them in the site restoration works, it is hoped to obtain their full and whole-hearted participation in the daily management afterwards, which is to be funded through Regulation 2078/92.EEC.
Located right in the middle of the Po River basin, the Valli del Mincio is a first-class staging point for migrating birds, which find refuge and an abundance of food here. Some 10,000 birds belonging to 80 different species stop over here en route to and from the Alps. The site covers about 1,000 ha and is administered by the Mincio park authority, whose technical staff are backed up by ten conservation experts. It includes the vale of the river Mincio, the moraine valleys which are tributary to it and a 200-hectare wetland consisting of patches of open water alternating with marshes, surrounded by extensive reedbeds and dense thickets of willow and alder along the riverbanks, which makes it quite unique in the Po basin.
However, this central wetland is under threat from terrestrialization. This is because the river Mincio, which, amongst others for reasons of flood control, has been diverted into a series of channels, is bringing less water into the wetlands. The problem is compounded by the increasing biomass of the lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, a fast-growing, aggressive exotic plant which, besides hampering the flow of water through the channels in the nature reserve, is suffocating the original native flora and threatening to exterminate it.
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
46100 Mantova
Italy