LA DIRETTIVA 92/43/CEE ED IL PATRIMONIO AGRO-FORESTALE, PRE-FORESTALE E FORESTALE SICILIANO: ALCUNE NOTE CRITICHE

The 92/43/EEC Directive and the Sicilian agro-forest, pre-forest and forest heritage: some critical remarks – In order to redact the management criteria for the agro-forest and the autochthonous pre-forest and forest heritage within the Sicilian CSI Management Plans, during 2008 a critique analysis of the Interpretation Manual of European Union Habitats “Eur27” has been carried out. This manual treats quite adequately the mesophilous coenoses, the sclerophyllous forests and the conifer ones; on the other hand, some discrepancies need to be pointed out: for instance, some habitats quoted for Sicily (e.g. “matorral with Juniperus phoenicea” and “with Zizyphus lotus”) actually correspond to very rare and often poorly represented communities, while many others, as garrigue, mantle and maquis communities have been neglected or even omitted. Many gaps of “Eur27” have been filled by the recently published “Italian Interpretation Manual of 92/43/EEC Directive Habitats”: for instance, a habitat code has been given to the Sicilian pubescens-oak and Turkey-oak woods. On the other hand, many question are still unsolved and many interpretation sound quite unsatisfactory and/or ambiguous (e.g.: abandoned tree cultures such as former ash-tree, olive or pistachio orchards; acidophilous evergreen maquis, spiny oak communites, etc.). Furthermore, the number of vascular plants listed within B, D and E Annexes of the 92/43 Directive appears totally inadequate with respect to the real conservation value of the Sicilian pre-forest and forest plant communities. In the conclusions the need to combine a correct description of habitats with some management proposals is underlined, taking into consideration that many plant and animal species and communities which live within community interest habitats depend upon enduring human presence and disturbance within CSIs.