LIFE BACCATA and Sardinia networking seminar on forest habitat conservation

The LIFE BACCATA project aims to improve the conservation status of the 9580* habitat in 15 SACs in the Cantabrian Mountains, acting on the habitat conservation status indicators: area of occupation, structure and functions and future prospects. The project has successfully implemented its conservation and restoration strategy, generating a high level of interest in other actors and entities in the European Union where yew forests are also one of the unique elements of the landscape, such as in Sardinia (Italy), where sustainable forest management has been carried out for several decades to ensure the conservation of forest habitats.

Thus, on 6 July, a networking seminar was held between LIFE BACCATA and entities from Sardinia (Italy) on the conservation of forest habitats, working on how to manage them in the short and medium term, in order to improve their conservation status. The seminar has served as an exchange system for the restoration actions carried out by the partners of the LIFE BACCATA project (IBADER, Junta de Castilla y León, CESEFOR, HAZI and TRAGSA), as well as the important knowledge generated with regard to the conservation of the badlands of the North of the Iberian Peninsula, with the Regional Forestry Agency of Sardinia (FoReSTAS) represented by Enrico Salaris, and with the Centro Conservazione Biodiversitá of the Universitá degli Studi di Cagliari, represented by Gianluigi Bacchetta. The seminar has also allowed the transfer of the results of LIFE BACCATA to other national and international organisations, and therefore its application in other territories or situations, thus contributing to the replicability of the project.

The seminar was attended by 28 participants from Natura 2000 and forest management administrations from Spain and Portugal, members of different governmental entities from Sardinia (Italy), environmental NGOs, universities, research centres, environmental consultancies and local entities. The LIFE BACCATA team has been very satisfied with the participation, and we believe that the event has gathered an audience very involved in the subject, due to the quality of the speakers from Sardinia and the high interest of the topics to be presented by them.