This nation does not comply with the European Biodiversity Strategy (EBS), points out this report on ‘Endangered fauna in Italy’, of the environmentalist group, elaborated in view of the celebration in Rome of the complementary session of the United Nations Conference on this subject (Cop16) next March 3.

Since the approval six years ago of this strategy, the protected area of this country did not increase a single hectare, so, according to Legambiente “Italy must commit to achieving the 2030 goals of the SEB and in this second Cop16 promote the achievement of an ambitious financial agreement along with its monitoring and verification.”

In this peninsula, according to this analysis there are 46,300 endangered species reported in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as well as 58 natural ecosystems at risk, of which seven are Critically Endangered (CR), 22 Endangered (EN) and 29 Vulnerable (VE).

The national area at risk is 19.6 percent, which corresponds to almost half of the area covered by natural and semi-natural ecosystems, with a percentage of 46.3 points with respect to the Italian territory, the study states. There must also be constant monitoring of species at risk and specific investments that adopt strategies for conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, and there is still time to reverse the trend and protect wild species, added Raimondi.

mh/abo/mem/ort