Page 19 - BEST PRACTICES_ENVIRONMENTAL

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Description

Best life project 2018

Actions and means involved:
The main goal of the WOLFALPS project – to implement and coordinate wolf conservation actions in key
core areas and beyond in the Alps ecosystem, from West to East, to further support the natural wolf
alpine recolonization process – will be reached thanks to several coordinated conservation actions.

In each core area, depending on local priorities, the main actions are:
● establishment of Wolf Alpine Conservation and Communication Groups, increasing coordination in
conservation measures and amplification of positive results;
● development of reliable wolf surveys for the evaluation of the wolf conservation status considered as
an ex-ante and ex-post action, and characterization of conditions of conflicts which will allows optimal
● implementation of concrete actions;
● exchange and transfer of experiences from West to East, training of local actors involved in
anti-poaching actions, assessment of wolf population parameters, as well as identification of local scale
and alpine scale good practices;
● control poaching events, especially poisoning, by enforcement of new coordinated strategies;
● preventive measures adoption in recent recolonized areas;
● develop, test, and implement new ad hoc preventive measure strategies in the Alps context to
decrease wolf attacks on livestock;
● develop local land management plans to protect the species and its reproductive sites from habitat
loss, in coexistence with human activities. Implement plans and develop effective wolf eco-tourism;
● detection and control of wolf-dog hybridization events and coordinate wolf captive facilities over the
Alps and Italy;
● evaluate the genetic status of this new alpine population and support genetically important wolves
with eco-tourism campaigns;
● awareness campaigns for the general public, locals, hunters, and livestock owners on the ways of
coexistence between wolf and human activities: educational programs with schools, web site,
conferences;
● development of wolf alpine population level guidelines for optimal management and increase of
technical knowledge at the management level through thematic workshops.

Major achievements

● coordinated actions for the long-term conservation of the Alpine wolf population.
● identification of functional strategies to ensure stable coexistence between the wolf and traditional
economic activities, both in areas where the wolf has already been present for some time and in areas
where the process of natural recolonization is currently underway.