LIFE - RARITY project
Programme: LIFE+ Nature & Biodiversity
Project Title: Eradicate invasive Louisiana red swamp and preserve natIve white clawed crayfish in Friuli Venezia Giulia
Acronym: RARITY
Duration: 2011 – 2014
Total Budget : € 2.674.744,00
Web site: http://www.entetutelapesca.it/pagine/rarity.htm
Summary:
The main objective of the project is to preserve and enhance the stock of the native crayfish populations of Austropotamobius pallipes in the whole area of the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia.
This objective is particularly important if we consider that the dimension of this species’ population is still remarkable in Friuli Venezia Giulia – compared to other Italian regions – and there are some endemic subspecies that represent an important genetic heritage for biodiversity.
Now the recent appearance and wide spread of an Invasive Alien Species (IAS) – P. clarkii – is actually representing a great threat to the regional population of A. pallipes, which may risk rapid decline or complete disappearance.
To achieve the goal of conserving A. pallipes, the project settles two specific and integrated objectives that can be summed up as follows:
1. to contrast the diffusion of the IAS P. clarkii, which is not only concerning the region Friuli Venezia Giulia and a large number of European countries, but also threatening crayfish native species, biodiversity, and even in some cases human health;
2. to enhance the populations of the indigenous crayfish A. pallipes at the same time.
In this context, the project sets one more objective that is functional to those mentioned above:
3. to issue and effective regional regulation regarding fishing of crayfish species in Friuli Venezia Giulia, promoting the conservation of A. pallipes, and tackling the development of populations of P. clarkii.
The above-illustrated objectives will be accomplished by carrying out various actions, ranging from monitoring to fishing, from collection of epidemiological data to analysis of pollutants and toxins, from reproduction and production of hatchery-reared juveniles of the native crayfish to dissemination of the information among institutional subjects and the various social segments.
All these actions will merge into an integrated strategy of intervention that will be applied at regional scale in all Friuli Venezia Giulia territory, thus providing results that will be transferrable to other European countries or contexts.
Although the adopted techniques are scientifically consolidated and validated, the project aims to develop an “integrated” method of intervention which will be fine-tuned. This represents one more objective of the project, whose results could be utilized in other contexts in Italy and Europe.
Contact person in ISMAR: tiziano.scovacricchi@ve.ismar.cnr.it
Partnership:
- ETP – Ente Tutela Pesca del Friuli Venezia Giulia
- CNR-ISMAR – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze Marine
- DSV-UniTS – Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste
- DBE-UniFI – Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, Università di Firenze
- IZSVe – Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezia
