Since late May, the Italian partners of LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors have been implementing a new initiative to engage local communities, to support the development of Bear-Smart Communities in the Central Apennines.
In Pettorano sul Gizio, the Bear Smart Community Genzana will be able to boast of having a unique, original place that is able to connect natural and human history in a permanent exhibition that will surprise everyone!
Everything is ready in Gioia dei Marsi for the three days dedicated to the protection of biodiversity, the restoration of ecosystems, the socio-economic benefits of living in healthy nature and the practices of human-wildlife coexistence.
Rewilding Apennines joins the numerous associations that have organized a demonstration in memory of the Amarena the bear, to ask the authorities and law enforcement agencies for greater control of the territory and commitment to the protection of fauna and for citizens to actively participate in putting into practice a real coexistence. The initiative will be held on Sunday 10 September at 10:00 in Piazza Mazzarino in Pescina (AQ).
The aim of the LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors initiative is to enhance human-bear coexistence in Italy, Greece, and further afield. The initiative’s well-attended first two public meetings, in the towns of Pettorano sul Gizio and Vastogirardi in the Central Apennines rewilding landscape, proved very positive and educational events.
A high participation of people characterized the first public event of the LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors in the Bear Smart Community Genzana, the first to be established in Italy 8 years ago.
The initiatives of the LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors project are as necessary as they are desirable in the areas of new expansion of the Marsican brown bear, such as Alto Molise. And here it is essential to meet the communities.
The LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors project gets underway to meet the communities and ask: “Is it possible to live in an area where bears also live? And how?”
Coexistence between large predators and humans is essential to conservation. An innovative map, created thanks to the collaboration between scientists and local communities, highlights the critical areas and contributes to the planning of coexistence and conservation measures designed to meet the needs of the territory.
A new study has confirmed that Marsican brown bears play a valuable role promoting the Central Apennines as nature-based tourism destination.