Since 2017, on the occasion of 4 October, WWF Italy has organized and coordinated “Urban Nature”, an events network throughout the country, aimed at enhancing the urban nature and urban green spaces.
Urban biodiversity and its conservation are among the themes most dear to us at K’ Nature, engaged for years in ecotourism and environmental education activities, focused on the discovery of the many species that coexist with man in the city and on the importance that they play on the man-made environments.
Our interest in this type of activity prompted us already in 2018 to participate in the national video contest linked to Urban Nature, which saw video makers, creatives, students and enthusiasts compete in the conception and production of a spot extolling nature in the city .
The spot “A taste of biodiversity”, created in collaboration with the friends of ControlZeta Lab and arrived among the top 10 classified, documented the extraordinary variety of life forms present in Naples.
Last year, however, coordinated by WWF Naples, we set up an information banquet in Villa Floridiana, in Naples. Welcomed with great enthusiasm by young and old people, our staff introduced visitors to the different components of urban and peri-urban ecosystems, showing feathers, finds and traces of wildlife.
So we finally arrive at this year. On October 4th, on the occasion of San Francesco, protector of animals, we will be in Agnano with a new event!
In collaboration with WWF Naples, with the support of the Consortium of Reclamation of the Conca di Agnano and the Phlegraean Basins and with the patronage of the Agnano Therms, we will organize a BioBlitz.
The Agnano Crater, included in the Phlegrean Fields area, despite the strong anthropic pressures and changes that have occurred over the years, still retains a considerable degree of naturalness and interest from a conservation point of view.
This, in fact, is included in the Natura 2000 Network with the homonymous SCI (Site of Community Importance) “Wetlands of the Agnano Crater”, aimed at the conservation of lake enviroments, which still remain among the crops and infrastructures, and of some animal species, which use the area as a breeding and/or home range site.
These species are the following: the Great Capricorn Beetle (Cerambyx cerdo), included in the Red List of Italian saproxylic beetles; the Southern Damselfly (Coenagrion mercuriale), included in the Red List of Italian dragonflies, the Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and the Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), included in the Red List of Italian Vertebrates.
A very effective tool for promoting the naturalistic heritage of an area is to involve the local population with citizen science project, in order to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the landscape and its biodiversity, an aspect that is often little considered in urban and peri-urban contexts and even underestimated.
In addition to bringing people closer to nature, a database of observations useful for science and conservation is created in parallel. Suffice it to say that there are not a few cases in which following such events there are reports of new species for a given location!
The BioBlitz “The biodiversity of Agnano” will therefore take place forming several groups led by a different expert, so that participants will be able to investigate different aspects relating to the Taxa – groups of plants and animals – that populate the Crater. The groups, for safety reasons, will made of a maximum number of 15 participants each, compulsorily equipped with masks and disinfectant gel.
Participation is free and requires reservations to be made at knature.wildlife@gmail.com, indicating names, date of birth and telephone number. Registrations will be accepted by 18:00 of the previous day, until the maximum number foreseen (15 per group) is reached.
The results will then be collected and disseminated on the website and on social, through reports and audiovisual material.
