Le aree agricole di interesse naturale come elementi di connessione ecologico-ambientale

This study faces the issue of the improvement of the ecological functionality of the Nature Network in Europe (“Habitat” Directive, 92/43CEE) by a surveyaimed to the recognition of the role of the high nature value farming areas as elements of ecological functional connection between high environmental value sities, particularly related to the Nature 2000 Network (ecological network recognized at European normative level). In relation to the results of the “Habitat” Directive in the Member States and to the territorial distribution of the sites which constitute Nature 2000 Network (Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas) a particular attention is allowed to the “core areas” of the ecological network in comparison to the assigned weak role to the elements of ecological connection. This condition, extended to other policies in the areas of natural interest,risks to question the innovative model of preservation of the biodiversity puts forward in the disciplinary sphere of the Landscape Ecology with the ecological networks, promoting the traditional “insular” model of preservationof the protected areas (parks and reserves) which in time has shown tobe inadequate to grant very good levels of preservation of the biodiversity. The research is aimed at identifying rules for the regulation of ecoconnective function of the nature value farming areas into the planning tools, through the definition of the measures and levels useful for the classification of the different typologies compared with the function of ecological connection. The urban and territorial planning constitute the main tools able to face systemically the function of ecological connection of the high nature value farming areas and in an integrated way, the preservation of the biodiversity in the policies of land use regulation and the sustainable development of the territory. In the research, the goal to save the biodiversity is integrated with the necessity not only to safeguard the environment, but also to help the economic growth and improve the quality of life.