The MedIsWet project in Sicily and Sardinia. An opportunity for improving wetland knowledge and conservation. Preliminary results

The MedIsWet (Mediterranean Island Wetlands) project is responding to the Ramsar Resolution XII.14 aiming for the conservation of Mediterranean Basin islands wetlands. The project is funded by the MAVA “Foundation pour la Nature”. MedIsWet contributes to the implementation of a network of nine Mediterranean countries involved in the completion of the inventories of all the Mediterranean islands wetlands, dissemination of knowledge and promotion of certain conservation measures at local, national and Mediterranean scale. Within the MedIsWet partnership, the University of Catania (Sicily) and the University of Cagliari (Sardinia) are adhering to the initiative by implementing the project for a large representative set of Mediterranean island wetlands. As far as Sicily is concerned, the ongoing investigation, based on GIS tools and field trips has allowed us to catalog over 11,400 wetlands of various sizes, from around 1000 square meters to several hectares. Most of the natural wetlands fall into protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites and parks, while artificial ones are mostly related to unprotected agricultural lands. The same pattern, for the identified 2500 wetlands, was found in Sardinia. With respect to previous knowledge, numbers are surprisingly very big, the highest for the Mediterranean Islands. Such a high number is due to the underestimation of small basins and artificial tanks connected with agricultural practices. Many of them are relatively recent, being excavated in the last twenty-thirty years thanks to the support of European funds for agriculture; nonetheless, there is also a large set of seminatural wetlands of different sizes and in different edaphoclimatic conditions, which have been created since the Iron Age up to more recent periods. While a great deal of data was found on the vegetation of natural coastal and inland wetlands, very few was instead recorded for the artificial ones. Field surveys on a robust sample of artificial basins and all natural or semi-natural areas are going to fill the existing knowledge gap and to identify the vegetation types, habitats and their conservation status. First results indicated that efforts in including the underrated set of artificial and semi-natural wetlands will allow to re-evaluate these areas as possible ecological corridors and, sometimes, as important sites for plant diversity.