AFTER LIFE CONSERVATION PLAN Life09NAT/IT/000160 ARCTOS Project “Brown Bear Conservation: coordinated actions for the Alpine and the Apennines range” 1/9/2010 – 31/12/2014 1 Index INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 3 THE BROWN BEAR IN ITALY ......................................................................................................... 4 Apennine Population ....................................................................................................................... 4 Alpine Population ............................................................................................................................ 5 THE LIFE ARCTOS PROJECT .......................................................................................................... 6 THREATS AND NEEDS FOR CONSERVATION (SWOT) .............................................................. 7 Threats to the Alpine Population (*threats that the actions of the LIFE ARCTOS helped mitigate).........7 Assessment of the situation in the light of the actions undertaken in the LIFE ARCTOS project the for Alpine populations: what concrete actions have achieved their objectives and which need to be continued?......................................................................................................................7 Post-LIFE ARCTOS conservation objectives for Alpine populations .......................................... 10 Threats to the Apennine Population (*threats that the actions of the LIFE ARCTOS Project has helped to mitigate).…………………………………………………………………………….. 15 Assessment of the situation in the light of the actions undertaken in the LIFE ARCTOS project for the Apennine population: what concrete actions have achieved their objectives and which need to be continued?.............................................................................................................15 Post-LIFE ARCTOS conservation objectives for Apennine populations ..................................... 18 List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………….25 2 INTRODUCTION This document completes the final report of the LIFE ARCTOS (LIFE09NAT / IT / 160) and responds to the need to plan activities considered to be priorities for ensuring the conservation of the brown bear in Italy, as a continuation of the activities in the LIFE ARCTOS project. The drafted text presents the current situation of the two brown bear populations in Italy (Alpine and Apennine) and clearly identifies which urgent actions are needed to continue in order to ensure the survival of this important plantigrade. As stated in the final report, the situation of the two populations is far from achieving a favorable conservation status (sensu Habitats Directive and supporting documents); because both require urgent and decisive actions, that need to be developed in cooperation between various local and national entities involved in management and conservationist measures. This need, with a context of fragmented administrations as in Italy, can hardly be met without a strong political will, even with a high commitment of all the involved technicians. For both populations the necessary actions that must continue have been identified, for each of them a cost analysis was made and an evaluation of the eventual resources to be found. In some cases, these resources may come from projects in progress, in other cases, the involved administrations have agreed to make available their own funds to cover at least the biennium 2015- 2016 by seeking other sources of funding (community projects, funds or other PSR) for their continuation. It is hoped that this document can serve as an address for the future, in order to drive short and medium term profits for the conservation of the two bear populations, underlining the substantial differences that characterize them and the importance of the fact that based on equal threats, the status of the Apennine population is significantly more critical. All project partners have approved this Plan through formal acts that commit the administrations involved in implementing the actions indicated (the acts of approval are attached). 3 THE BROWN BEAR IN ITALY The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is present in Europe, disjointed, with 10 distinct populations, some of which are completely isolated from others (Chapron et al. 2015). In Italy there are two populations, characterized by completely different historical elements but tied to some similar problems (Figure 1). Figure 1 - Map of the brown bear distribution in Italy, with two disjunct populations Apennine Population The Apennine population, isolated for over 500 years and consisting of a subspecies (Ursus arctos marsicanus, Loy et al. 2008), should be considered as an evolutionary and conservationist unit on its own since it has never disappeared from the original area (Pacifiers & Boitani 2008) and has an extremely limited distribution area, essentially reduced the area of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise and neighboring areas. Over the last 10 years there has been a progressive occupation in areas that are part of a so-called zone of expansion, males first then, recently, females that have also occupied permanently territories belonging to the Majella National Park and the Monte Genzana Nature Reserve as shown by genetic evidence. The size of the population occupying the so-called core area is around 50 individuals, but the effect of genetic isolation and the impact of anthropogenic mortality will jeopardize the survival in the medium and long term. 4 More complex instead is the evaluation of the overall consistency of the nucleuses outside the core area where, up to date, 10 new individuals (3 females and 7 males) in the Park Majella - M. Genzana area and 5 new genotypes were also sampled in the potential distribution area of Lazio (Cicolani and Monti Simbruini). The presence in the Lazio area are males only so far, never genetically accounted for in the core area. In Majella National Park in 2015 a female with two cubs has been spotted although it was not possible to collect samples to be tested genetically to see whether or not she belonged to known genotypes. The MATTM has promoted, since 2009, the development of coordinated activities for the conservation of the Apennine bear population through the Action Plan for the Protection of the Bear Marsicano (PATOM). This action plan, formally adopted by many of the institutions involved in the activities of conservation of the species, was recently endowed with a Management Authority and a Technical Board of experts who met regularly. The activities of the Management are those indicated in PATOM and have been confirmed and integrated in a separate Ageement signed between the MATTM, the Lazio Abruzzo and Molise Regions and the PNALM in March 2014. The mandate of the Technical Board in its current composition, for reasons of expediency was made to coincide with the Coordination Board of the Apennine LIFE ARCTOS project, has expired with the end of the project. The Ministry is proceeding with the creation of the new Technical Board. Alpine Population In the Central Alps the bear population was reduced to a few individuals in the 90's, when an operation of re-introduction of 10 bears from Slovenia (3 males and 7 females) was successfully undertaken through the LIFE URSUS - protection of the Brenta brown bear population promoted between 1999 and 2002 by the Adamello Brenta Nature Park, in close collaboration with the Autonomous Province of Trento and the National Institute for Wildlife (now ISPRA). During the first 10 years after the release, the population increased according to plans and there were natural dispersal events that led some individuals to arrive temporarily in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In the eastern Alps bears from the Slovenian population have continued to sporadically frequent territories of Carinthia, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and eastern Trentino. Moreover, this phenomenon has not registered significant increases compared to the beginning (the 60s of last century) and has never involved females except in very few cases, and only in the Slovenian Alps. In the Central Alps, the growth trend seems to have interrupted the last couple of years but more time is needed to evaluate this phenomenon: in addition the inbreeding among individuals, even in the face of a good level of heterozygosity attested by ISPRA in late 2014, raises particular concerns for the high mortality rate in these years and especially the sharp drop in the support by local communities (confirmed by opinion polls conducted by the PAT in 1997, 2004 and 2011). The population estimate of alpine bear according to the Final Report of the action of Life E4 ARCTOS for 2014 is around 54 (42-76) individuals. In conclusion of the LIFE URSUS project, with the coordination of the PAT, an interregional Action Plan was prepared for the Conservation of the Brown Bear in Central Eastern Alps (PACOBACE), which was developed and adopted by all the Italian Alps administrations affected by the presence of bears and approved by the Ministry for the Environment. Although not equipped with a formalized technical board, the entities endorsing the action plan 5 meet regularly to evaluate the validity of the plan and the implementation of the activities contained in it. LIFE ARCTOS PROJECT The LIFE ARCTOS allowed to carry out a series of actions to mitigate some of the most pressing threats to