Agricultural Landscapes and Biodiversity Conservation in Italy

Abstract

In the last decades, agricultural areas have been acknowledged as important areas forbiodiversity conservation and provision of ecosystem services. Several international and nationalConventions have promoted the development of multifunctional agriculture and the maintenance oftraditional cultural landscapes. In this general context, this paper presents some relevant researchexperiences carried out in Italy at different spatial scales, from national to local (Province andMunicipality of Rome). The results of these studies confirm that traditional agricultural areas supportthe conservation of habitats and species of national and European interest and represent importantelements for environmental quality at the landscape scale. Moreover, they highlight the importance oftaking into account the biophysical environment, together with historical and cultural features, formapping and charactering traditional agricultural landscapes, as well as the need to focus on thedynamics of agricultural land, which is threatened by land cover change.