Patella ferruginea is listed in Annex IV of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC “HABITAT”, among the strictly protected species; it lives in a border between the habitats “1170-Cliffs” and “1240-Cliffs with vegetation of the Mediterranean coasts. In this framework, the RELIFE project represents a good opportunity to merge the prioritization of this species and of the habitat where it lives. In order to comply with the indications dictated by the Habitats Directive, RELIFE Consortium is working on the submission a formal request to the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Land and the Sea through the Region, to include P. ferruginea in the standard forms of the terrestrial sites of Bergeggi, Portofino and V Terre. In this contest, the managing bodies of the involved terrestrial sites of the Natura 2000 network are the Municipality of Bergeggi, the Regional Park of Portofino and the National Park of the V Terre.
LIFE funds could be a good tool to manage sites and the project represents an opportunity to improve the protection in Natura 2000 sites. Portofino MPA represented Italian MPAs on behalf of Federparchi in a Webinar focused on the management of Natura 2000 sites.
RELIFE it became also a good dissemination tool for the topic of Natura 2000.
The concept of Natura 2000 sites seems to be difficult to understand by common people that usually don’t have specific environmental education. In this way RELIFE could represent an easier way to transfer information and the importance of protection of Natura 2000 sites, starting from the safeguard of the species Patella ferruginea.
Besides, since some years, the Ligurian MPAs are implementing an assessment of the natural capital of the different protected zones and of the main habitats but the boundary between the marine and terrestrial ecosystem is usually neglected. The assessment of the natural capital of the littoral fringe in the framework of the project will fill the gap. In this sense, the reintroduction of P. ferruginea species will contribute to an increasing of the natural capital of the Marine Protected Area as well as the one of the Natura 2000 site.