The protection of Sicilian biodiversity
The protection of Sicilian biodiversity
Sicily is an area of great naturalistic interest, a true biodiversity hotspot.
Suffice it to say that to protect it with the Natura 2000 Network, 245 sites have been established which protect over 470 thousand hectares, equal to 18% of the island’s land surface and an even larger marine surface (over 650 thousand hectares) around the small islands which surround the island and in the most intact coastal stretches around Sicily itself.
A heritage which, however, is increasingly threatened by anthropic action that is not carefully planned and regulated, in the general disinterest of citizens and institutions, whose slowness to act often determines some critical issues.
Furthermore, the lack of skills of professionals in the sector (Agronomists and Foresters, Naturalists, Biologists, Environmental Engineers, Geologists, etc.) in the island’s Public Administrations create many dysfunctions, including political ones, in what should be the correct planning and solutions.
Thus, phenomena such as desertification, loss of biodiversity, management of natural resources (such as the protection and safeguarding of waterways, naturalistic areas, etc.) are often addressed with erroneous technical choices.
However, there is no shortage of cases of good management and protection of natural areas, many of which fall within nature reserves and regional parks.
It is precisely the enormous biodiversity of Sicily that demands a different way of management and protection and, with it, therefore, a substantial change in Sicilian policies and its administrative and scientific structures.
Despite the efforts made by Sicilian universities, ISPRA, ARPA and the LIFE program of the European Union, to name a few, which promote and conduct projects for monitoring species, restoring habitats and conserving fauna and flora, the protection of this huge heritage, also in terms of connected GDP, are highly deficient and, above all, not coordinated by a clear political project and by well-connected and supported administrations.
Returning to the biodiversity of Sicily, just think that the island has a high percentage of that of Europe, especially if related to the extension of the island compared to the entire continent.
Substantive studies tell us that in Sicily the fauna is estimated at over 58,000 species, of which approximately 55,000 of Invertebrates (95%), 1,812 of Protozoans (3%) and 1,265 of Vertebrates (2%), with an overall incidence of endemic species equal to approximately 30%.
The flora is instead estimated at 3,252 specific and infraspecific, native, adventitious and naturalized taxa, divided into 880 genera and 134 families. Therefore, despite the strong anthropization and degradation of natural ecosystems, the Sicilian flora is still surprisingly rich thanks to the notable variety of environments, bioclimates, types of soil and rocks, orographic configurations, etc.
Moving from natural to agricultural biodiversity here the discussion becomes even more serious and complex. For decades we have been witnessing a dangerous erosion of biodiversity which then reaches our tables, negatively affecting not only agricultural biodiversity but also food biodiversity, with negative effects on our diets and our health.
Yet the slogan that we hear most often is that of the excellence of Sicilian agricultural products, without ever connecting it to the global quality of agricultural products with natural and social ecosystems; question that smacks of greenwashing in the same way as the word sustainable in the ecological field.
In this sense, although Sicily issued a law in 2021 for the protection of Sicilian natural and agricultural biodiversity (L.R. 21 of 29 July 2021, concerning “Provisions regarding agroecology, protection of biodiversity and Sicilian agricultural products and technological innovation in agriculture.”) to date, still on the subject of political inefficiency, no implementing decrees have been issued.
Yet the Sicilians and Sicily would benefit greatly, not only in exclusively numerical terms of recovery of a huge biodiversity, expertly selected by farmers over hundreds of years of observation, care and selection, but also in terms of the advantage of the offer of products not often present in any other territory outside the island and therefore, precisely due to the law of supply and demand, much more economically advantageous.
Thus the programming of the PSP 2023-2027, i.e. the strategic plan of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), will not be able to exploit the advantages linked to this law (which provides for a reward for agroecological companies, and therefore also more biodiverse), frustrating the effort EU towards an ecological transition and also calling into question the European Court of Auditors.
In detail, in Europe (and therefore also in Sicily) there is a significant decline in the number and variety of animal species present in agricultural land, the “so-called biodiversity in agricultural land”.
In past programming, we have examined whether EU agricultural policy has contributed to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity on agricultural land.
Given the insufficient and ineffective results, the EU Court recommended that the Commission improve the design of the future biodiversity strategy, strengthen the contribution made to biodiversity by direct payments and rural development action, allow more precise traceability of expenditure related to biodiversity and develop reliable indicators, suitable for monitoring the progress achieved in terms of biodiversity in agricultural land.
Unfortunately, the structure of the current PSP and the related notices already issued in Sicily, omit this important criterion, disregard (despite stating the opposite, given that in the final part they mention their compliance with regional legislation) the fundamental principle of ecological efficiency of spending of the EU (for which findings and infringement rules await us soon).
In short, a political fool that is the result of such a high level of improvisation that it does not exist in any other human sphere. Imagine if in football, in music or in the professions (to name some more well-known sectors) the criterion of however and anyone was in force; therefore not on the basis of skills but on that of “chosen”. And the results are there for all to see.
Thus, to conclude, taking up the delicate problem of the protection of Sicilian biodiversity, as mentioned a hotspot within Europe, we need a policy that makes Integral Ecology its guiding ideology, without dusting off old, and now unworkable, acronyms party politics, ideologies of the past and anachronistic visions of times gone by. The story goes in only one direction.
A direction that shows us that, only by safeguarding our huge natural heritage, can we provide real well-being for its citizens and future generations.
The entire policy (if you find exceptions, report them) comes out heavily rejected.
Guido Bissanti