Vol. 32 – 2006 - Ecologia Mediterranea

MASSIMO TERZI, MARCO MARVULLI
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plus grandes populations italiennes de faucon
crécerellette (Falco naumanni). Dans la zone
étudiée, les faucons crécerellettes nichent pour
la plupart dans les centres historiques des villes
autour des parcs et se nourrissent dans des
grandes zones ouvertes, occupées principalement
par les récoltes de céréales et par les prairies.
De par son rôle écologique et la grande
valeur de conservation de cette espèce, le projet
des deux parcs devrait inclure ces zones afin
de préserver la population locale. Afin de déterminer
si les variables de la steppe (superficie et
type, à différentes distances des sites de nidification)
étaient des variables prédictrices significatives
de la taille des colonies de faucons crécerellettes,
une régression linéaire multiple a
été réalisée. Cette étude a démontré que la
taille des colonies était corrélée à l’abondance
de la steppe dans un rayon de 7,5 km autour du
lieu de nidification. Sur la base de ces résultats,
nous avons identifié et délimité dans chaque
parc les « Zones prioritaires », c’est-à-dire les
zones qui devraient être le point crucial des
efforts de conservation. Ensuite nous avons
comparé les limites de ces « Zones prioritaires »
avec celles des parcs, telles qu’elles étaient déjà
définies, en mettant en évidence les implications
pour la conservation de la biodiversité.
Introduction
The Mediterranean Basin, cradle of ancient
civilizations, has a long history of coevolution
between human and biophysical systems
(Naveh & Dan 1973; Naveh 1982). Agro
sylvo pastoral landscapes, such as dehesas or
Mediterranean steppe, are an exemplary synthesis
of this interrelationship. In these landscapes,
moderate interference by traditional
human activities has allowed the preservation
of a high level of biodiversity, with several
threatened species (Delpech 1989; Joffre et al.
1991; Pineda & Montalvo 1995; Suàrez et al.
1997; Blondel & Aronson 1999; Verdù et al.
2000; Le Houérou 2001; Muller 2002; Perrino
et al. 2006). The importance of these landscapes
is confirmed by the fact that a high
percentage (25%) of Mediterranean protected
areas belongs to the IUCN V category, whose
particular objective is the safeguard of the traditional
people nature interaction (IUCN 1994,
2004; Phillips 2002). However, following
departures from the traditional way of life and
the development of new demographic, economic
and social trends (Naveh 1998), conflicting
views on protected areas may arise,
privileging either conservation or socio-eco-
nomic development issues. A compromise
may lie in the concept of “sustainable use of
protected areas”. According to this concept,
the use of natural resources should take place
within the environmental ranges and constraints
imposed by conservation needs and
not cause a decline in biodiversity (Perrino et
al. 2006). First, the environmental ranges are
defined through the careful design and zoning
of protected landscapes in order to determine
where and which activities should or should
not be carried out. Several criteria have been
proposed in order to design and zone protected
areas. Among them, the protection of
large native carnivores, i.e. “rewilding”, is one
of the latest advances in the history of scientific
conservation (Soulé & Noss 1998; Soulé
& Terborgh 1999). Obviously, “rewilding” is
not advisable as a primary criterion in the
Mediterranean Basin, where the protection of
ecosystem types and of endemic, rare and
threatened species may take precedence
instead (Noss et al. 1999). However, given the
importance of top predators in top-down regulating
and their controlling role over the
diversity of the lower trophic levels (Soulé &
Terborgh 1999; Terborgh et al. 1999; Schmitz
2003), an approach based on the remaining
Mediterranean top predators, even if not large
carnivores, may yet be considered important
and complementary to the other criteria. The
need to protect remaining top predators partially
corresponds to the keystone species conservation
approach.
This paper takes into consideration the study
case of two neighbouring parks, both sited in
the Murge hills (SE Italy), that harbour the
largest Italian population of the lesser kestrel
(Falco naumanni). The lesser kestrel is a top
predator whose main trophic areas are the
large expansions of Mediterranean steppe
grassland where Pamphagus marmoratus, its
most important prey, lives (Pantone 2001),
while its breeding sites are located in the historical
centres of the towns surrounding the
parks (Palumbo 2001).
In accordance with the criterion of protecting
the remaining Mediterranean top predators,
the purpose of this paper is to identify the
steppe zones that, given the present landscape
structure, require immediate protection and
management in order to preserve and possibly
increase the local population. It is evident
that several factors could threaten the lesser
kestrel. However, with the aim of designing
and zoning the parks, we examine which
ecologia mediterranea – Vol. 32 – 2006