Fabio Corsi

Spatial-explicit assessment of current and future conservation options for the endangered Corsican Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) in Sardinia

The Corsican red deer, a sub-species of the European red deer endemic to Sardinia and Corsica, was abundant on both islands at the beginning of 1900. It went extinct in Corsica and reached a minimum of 100 individuals in Sardinia by 1970. Numbers have recovered in Sardinia with more than 1,000 rutting males now present; in the 1980s the deer was reintroduced to Corsica, but the Sardinian population remains fragmented. We developed a potential distribution model in Sardinia using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis. To assess the deer’s protection status we compared the model with the existing and proposed conservation areas and investigated different conservation scenarios in relation to the expansion of its current range and resilience to future changes in land use and predicted trends of desertification. According to our results over 70% of Sardinia is unsuitable to the deer, nevertheless high suitability areas (Mediterranean forests away from main roads) are available throughout the island, particularly in the south and in the central-eastern part. Existing protected areas do not provide for the conservation of the deer but public owned forests, where hunting is prohibited, extend some level of protection, and the protected areas proposed by the Regional administration, if implemented, will be increasing this protection. Three main areas have emerged as conservation priorities to guarantee adequate conservation potential in the future. Our approach provides valuable data to inform conservation policy, and could be easily replicated in other parts of the Mediterranean.

Application to the terrestrial vertebrates of Italy of a system proposed by IUCN for a new classification of national Red List categories

The criteria for classification set down in the new system of the IUCN Red List categories were applied to national distribution areas. Application of the new criteria to national distribution areas calls for an estimate of the rate of immigration. Classification was applied to the Italian autochthonous terrestrial vertebrate species that reproduce in Italy (Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves and Mammalia). Species with both marine and land habitats were included, but Cetaceans were excluded. Eighty-eight species of the autochthonous species that reproduce in Italy were classified in the threatened categories at the national level. One of the main purposes of the present classification of the risk of extinction in national distribution areas is to provide the information needed to define global conservation priorities of species present on national territory. The species nationally and/or globally endangered or at lower risk were grouped into four priority classes, on the basis of their reproductive phenology on national territory and the size of temporarily present contingents. Of the 551 species present regularly or seasonally on Italian territory, 149 (27.0%) are in the initial indicative list of conservation priorities.