Ecological risk mapping in nature conservation and restoration plans

Tools supporting the decision-making process are necessary when planning nature conservation and performing ecological restoration actions. A decision-support tool for the management plan of Vincheto di Celarda Nature Reserve, based on the relative ecological risk assessment, was developed within the LIFE Project LIFE04NAT/IT/000190. This method includes: i) the preparation of a georeferenced catalogue of the threats to plant communities and zootopes; ii) the estimation of the hazard level for each threat, i.e. the probability of its occurrence; iii) the estimation of the nature value and vulnerability of plant communities and zootopes, obtained through field surveys, expert judgment and interviews with the reserve managers. By calculating the product of hazard level, value and vulnerability, the method allows analyzing, explicitly and on a spatial scale, the risks, which the species and habitats suffer due to human and natural disturbances, and identifying management options to reduce the risk level. The latter is achieved by giving semi-quantitative values to the different factors which contribute to the calculation of risk, before and after the actions included in the management plan have been carried out. The methodology is described through some examples. This method has proven to be a useful instrument for the management of threats to species and habitats with conservation value.