The challenge of fulfilling the Habitats Directive’s commitments: animal species working group experiences from the project “MonitoRARE” in Tuscany

The Project “MonitoRARE”, underwritten by the Tuscan regional government in 2018 with the Universities of Florence, Pisa, and Siena (Regional Resolution n° 1047, 02/10/17), predicted an interdisciplinary monitoring program for protected animals, plants, and habitats under the Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 (Habitat Directive) within the regional territory. The Project was structured in two stages, i) a preliminary updating of the distribution maps of the species and habitats included in the Directive, using conventional and grey lliterature, unpublished data and recent museum records; ii) a consequent field trial aimed to test the applicability as well as the cost-effectiveness/timing of monitoring protocols suggested by ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale) and MATTM (Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, now renamed and implemented as Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica, MASE) in their Manuals 140/16, 141/16 and 142/16. In the present manuscript results obtained from bibliographic screening and field monitoring of selected animal species and sites are reported. Moreover, experienced animal field-based monitoring issues in the light of national guidelines aimed at mapping local biodiversity were critically analysed and discussed. Concerning the results of the first project stage (i.e. bibliographic screening), the distribution maps of 61 species (2 molluscs, 10 arthropods, 6 fish, 10 amphibians, 10 reptiles and 23 mammals) were updated with new records fitting to a total of 752 10 × 10 km grid squares, mainly from central and southern Tuscany. Moreover, two records of species never reported up to now in the Tuscan region were included. During the on-field stage, 26 species (2 molluscs, 6 arthropods, 5 fishes, 4 amphibians, 3 reptiles and 6 mam-mals) and 30 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC - corresponding to about 22.4% of the SACs in the Region), were selected to cover a wide array of ecological features and distribution across the regional territory and to test the reliability of the monitoring protocol. Each species was monitored in a subset of the selected SACs. The application of monitoring protocols permitted to detect the presence of 88.9% of the target species in the selected areas, including 10 species that were not previously reported in 13 out of the selected SACs, together with 30 additional animal species of conservation interest. Obtained results allowed to highlight ongoing pressures on the selected target species as well as potential limits and issues of the suggested monitoring pro- tocols, especially considering the significant needs in term of funding and qualified staff, necessary to perform a simultaneous monitoring plan on numerous taxa and study areas.