Beigua: urgent interventions for priority grasslands

"The Monte Beigua pSCI is a mountainous area in the Ligurian Apennines on the border between the provinces of Genova and Savona. It is the most important bottleneck in northern Italy for the spring migration of falcons, including the priority species Falco naumanni and Falco eleonorae. The northern slopes of the pSCI are covered by deciduous woods while the southern slopes are covered in pines. It has 15 Habitats Directive habitat types, of which 6 are priority habitats. The area is within Italy’s high-risk zone for wildfires. These fires, always caused by human actions, are, together with erosion, leading to the degradation of the grass swards which in turn is altering the plant communities of the meadows, opening the way for invading species to spread at the expense of the more ecologically relevant ones. The meadows are also affected by overgrazing by sheep while the site’s wetlands are gradually terrestrializing as a result of natural succession." (1).