RETI ECOLOGICHE E CORRIDOI FLUVIALI IN CALABRIA Modello di corridoio ecologico-fluviale nella Rete Ecologica Regionale della Calabria: il caso studio del torrente Verri

This paper aims to investigate the notion of ecological networks increasingly important in terrestrial biosphere where human impacts in nature are the primary cause for biodiversity loss in fragmented and human-dominated landscapes. The frame of an ecological network is composed of core areas, buffer zones, ecological corridors and stepping stones connected in a complex structure. In Italy, the negative impacts of landscape fragmentation produce habitat isolation and are the main threat to species survival leading to a process of biodiversity loss. The establishment of the National Ecological Network (REN) is the ideal way to protect and to improve our natural heritage in a land-sea conservation program for an integrated landscape planning. Also in Calabria, it is thought to establish a functional connectivity amongst protected areas, supported by buffer zones, through fluvial and ecological corridors along the regional catchments. In this new approach, Verri stream basin could represent a model of ecological and fluvial corridor able to connect two potential areas of the Regional Ecological Network (RER).1. Introduzione