Events and News

Peace with Nature: Research, Organizations and Institutions together

Thanks to its strategic position in the Mediterranean, its varied geomorphology and the extraordinary diversity of habitats, Italy is the European country with the greatest variety of living species and the highest rate of endemic species.

Furthermore, Italy is one of the few nations in the world to have established the defense of biodiversity as a fundamental principle in its Constitution. In February 2022, in fact, the Constitutional Law of 11 February 2022, no. 1 was approved by Parliament, which recognizes an express importance to the protection of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems in the part dedicated to Fundamental Principles.

The contemporary challenges presented by the biodiversity crisis, which include efforts to address the direct factors that are at the root of the crisis itself, such as the destruction and degradation of habitats, the excessive extraction of biological resources, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change, transcend national borders.

"Teveremolluschifantastici...and where to find them" excursion on March 15th at the Nazzano Tevere-Farfa Regional Nature Reserve

On the occasion of the International Day of Action for Rivers, which is celebrated on March 14, ISPRA researchers will be in the Nazzano Tevere-Farfa Regional Nature Reserve as part of the participatory science project "Teveremolluschifantastici...e dove trovarli" to monitor the presence and distribution of native and alien molluscs in the Tiber River.

Nature restoration law and European, national and regional strategies for biodiversity conservation

The initiative will focus on the EU Regulation 2024/1991 on nature restoration, an innovative and unique regulation in the world, which is fundamental for the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030. This regulation provides binding targets for the restoration of degraded ecosystems, both in protected areas and in agricultural and urban areas, contributing not only to the protection of biodiversity, but also to the fight against the climate crisis and the revitalization of rural areas.

The spring season of openings at the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano starts again on March 15th

Guided tours will be held on weekends, until Sunday, June 15; visitors will be able to choose between three different tour routes: the historical-artistic one, the archaeological one and the naturalistic one, which - for this season - will concern the Campo di Rota itinerary.
ISPRA conducts, in collaboration with the Estate, research and monitoring activities of the fauna present in the area through the use of the most advanced techniques for studying animal species, from ringing of bird fauna to understand their migratory dynamics, to radiotelemetry to track the movements of animals, from photographic traps to detect the presence of different species remotely, to the use of thermal cameras that detect their presence in the total absence of light.

Course to recognize cetaceans and turtles

On the Life Conceptu Maris website there is a simple course available in four languages ​​to identify all the cetaceans and turtles of the Mediterranean Sea.

The course provides simple and interesting interactive videos that explain which species of cetaceans and turtles can be found in our seas, also giving useful indications to recognize them. The videos are part of the course on biodiversity conservation and collision risk, dedicated to cetaceans and marine turtles created by Fondazione Cima.

ISPRA is a partner of the Project.

First Forum on Biodiversity, Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services in the Po District

The Po River District Authority and the Foundation for Sustainable Development are organizing the First Forum on Biodiversity, Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services in the Po District on 12 and 13 March in Milano.

The Po River District Authority and the Foundation for Sustainable Development are collaborating on a research and development project for the valorization of biodiversity in the Po District, aimed at the implementation of territorial policies that combine biodiversity conservation and water protection, also in relation to ongoing climate changes

Man, nature and the climate crisis

The Eutopie project, dialogues between science and society for research on human beings was born from the need to create, within the university community, a space for reflection on scientific issues of great social relevance. Between March and June 2025, four monthly debate meetings will take place at the Sapienza University of Rome. Each appointment will see the participation of experts, through whose reports we will try to stimulate open discussion and dialogue with the public.

360° ornithology

The meeting, organized by MUSE of Trento, will be an opportunity to raise awareness of the fascinating world of birds that populate the Italian skies, the secrets revealed thanks to new technologies and the latest ornithological studies.

World Wildlife Day 2025

On 20 December 2013, at its 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 3 March (day of signing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), World Wildlife Day 2025 to celebrate and make aware public opinion on animals and wild plants of the world.

The international day 2025 “Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet" explores how we can work together to make our current insufficient financial flows more effective and sustainable to build a resilient future for both people and the planet.

With over 1 million species estimated to be threatened with extinction, and facing the intensifying triple planetary crisis, innovative finance for wildlife conservation is more urgent than ever. More than half of the world’s GDP is dependent on nature, making biodiversity loss a significant threat to financial stability.

World Wildlife Day 2025 will serve as a platform for exchange and exploration of innovative financial solutions for wildlife conservation. It will showcase financial innovations, the challenges faced by civil society, governments, organisations, and the private sector, and the collaborative approaches needed to ensure sustainable funding for biodiversity.

World Wildlife Day 2025

March 3, World Wildlife Day, is the day in which we celebrate the conservation of wild flora and fauna

The invention of the concept of "wild" begins to manifest itself in human culture with the domestication of animals and plants. In the Latin etymology of the two words, silva, forest, is contrasted with domus, house, highlighting the meaning and horizon of values ​​that our culture attributes to these two categories. It should be noted that nowadays, in some of the few human populations of hunter gatherers present in very small and remote areas of our planet this distinction is not linguistically present.

World Wildlife Day (WWD), established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, celebrates "wild" nature. Global phenomena such as the destruction and fragmentation of habitats, pollution, climate change, the introduction of invasive alien species, poaching and trade of wild species, unsustainable hunting and fishing activities are among the main threats to biodiversity of which wild fauna and flora are an integral part. On March 3, 1973, the Washington Convention (CITES) was signed with the aim of regulating, monitoring and prohibiting the trade of plant and animal species at risk of extinction as well as their products and derivatives.

COP 16.2 concluded

On 27 February 2025, in Rome, Governments agreed on the strategy to raise the funds necessary to protect biodiversity and achieve the action objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), successfully concluding the work of the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, COP16, suspended in Cali, Colombia, in 2024.

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity worked into the early hours of the morning to finalize agreements on biodiversity financing, planning, monitoring, reporting and review, as well as the full set of indicators to measure global and national progress towards the implementation of the KMGF, agreed in Montreal at COP15 in 2022.

After intensive negotiations, the Parties to the Convention agreed on a path forward in terms of resource mobilization, in order to close the global financing gap for biodiversity and achieve the goal of mobilizing at least US$200 billion per year by 2030, including US$20 billion per year in international flows by 2025, rising to US$30 billion by 2030.

“Green wire for a sustainable Jubilee” the SNPA events to reflect on ecology, science and faith

In March, on the occasion of World Water Day will start the initative “Green wire for a sustainable Jubilee"  with the first three regional events organized by Arpa Friuli Venezia Giulia, Arpa Liguria and Arpa Umbria (which will start as early as March 20th). This is a series of events which, involving the entire Italian territory at a regional level and, finally, at a national level, with  meetings, seminars, nature trails and city celebrations.

World Whale and Cetacean Day: ISPRA and ARPA Sicily celebrate the sea with students

On the occasion of World Whale and Cetacean Day, on 21 February, ISPRA and ARPA Sicilia are organizing a day-event dedicated to the sea and to the students of the classes participating in the courses for transversal skills and orientation - PCTO 2024-25 DLands of ISPRA (Liceo B. Croce, Palermo) and the classes of the PCTO 2023-24 ReStreet (Address Construction, Environment and Territory of the M. Rutelli Institute, Palermo), at the Roosevelt buildings in Palermo. A path along 16 stations between the structures of ARPA Sicilia and ISPRA to explore the marine environment through science, history, art and literature, thanks to the participation of important research bodies such as CNR-IAS, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, INGV and the Superintendency of the Sea

The event is financed by the Scienze Together NET project, a European network that unites ISPRA with the main Research Institutions and Universities to promote scientific dissemination alongside scholars and researchers. Educational stations, laboratories and information points will be available with researchers and technologists from the participating institutions, exhibitions and exhibitions of scientific and historical finds

The PNRR-MER at the Eudi Show in Bologna: an "environmental restoration" to save our seabed from ghost nets

Ghost nets suffocate our seas. At the Eudi Show in Bologna, the most important event in Italy dedicated to the world of diving, Cecilia Silvestri of ISPRA, on 22 February, will illustrate the initiatives for the recovery of ghost nets envisaged in the PNRR-MER project, the largest PNRR program on the restoration of habitats and seabeds.

The recovery of ghost networks represents a true "environmental restoration". In fact, the technical underwater operators dive with meticulousness and respect towards the submerged heritage, freeing the seabed from abandoned nets that damage precious ecosystems.

The protection of marine ecosystems, the techniques for removing the so-called 'ghost nets' - missing or abandoned fishing tools that continue to trap marine fauna - will be at the center of the intervention of the ISPRA researcher. Thanks to the initiatives launched as part of the PNRR-MER project, the joint commitment of institutions, sector operators and volunteers, the aim is to recover and recycle these nets, thus giving new life to the seabed and protecting biodiversity.

BiodiversiTalk#6 -Research on the Green Plans

Series of seminars part of the Spoke 5 research activities of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)
The BiodiversiTalks series of seminars aims to stimulate discussion and fuel the research activities of Spoke 5 of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), offering reflections and good practices to understand how plans, projects and co-creation processes can contribute to conserving and increasing biodiversity in urban contexts.

The landscape and beauty of our cities. Is planting trees easy and right?

On 19 February 2025, as part of the Myplant & Garden (International Green Expo) event at the Milan - Rho fair, will take place the conference "The landscape and beauty of our cities. Is planting trees easy and right?" with he participation of operators and experts in the sector at an international, national and local level.
ISPRA will illustrate the PNRR-PNC project "The good use of green and blue spaces for the promotion of health and well-being", started in 2023 and implemented with the technical and financial support of the Ministry of Health.

Avian botulism and wild birds: first report in Italy of a severe outbreak in a protected area

Between late summer and early fall 2019 and during the following three years, the outbreak occurred in a wetland of Northern Italy, in Regional Park ”Delta del Po Emilia-Romagna”. A study, published in “Animals” MDPI journal and written by ISPRA researchers, analyzes the sequence of events in relation to environmental conditions and mitigation management measures.

Darwin Day 2025

Darwin Day is a celebration honoring Charles Darwin held on the anniversary of his birth on 12 February.
Kosmos, the natural history museum of the University of Pavia, in collaboration with the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and with the “Lazzaro Spallanzani” Department of Biology and Biotechnology of the University of Pavia, is organizing a conference in which researchers and university professors will address the different aspects of evolution

Environmental protection and economic activity to reflect on the prospects three years after the modification of articles 9 and 41 of the Constitution

Three years after the constitutional amendment of articles 9 and 41, WWF Italy is organizing an event that will explore the relationship between environmental protection, economic activities and public intervention in the economy, with the contribution of academics, institutions, business representatives and civil society.

12th National Food Waste Prevention Day

National Food Waste Prevention Day is celebrated on February 5th, this year's theme, #timetoact, underlines the importance of immediate action to combat this phenomenon and achieve United Nations goal 12.3

ISPRA has just published the update on food waste in the new 2025 indicator database. The sad discovery, a dozen years ago, that a third of food is not consumed but wasted, aroused enormous interest from governments, academia and the sector private. Since then, although awareness and efforts have increased, food waste has not decreased. Compared to the first global estimates by FAO in 2011 (1.3 billion tonnes), recent studies that also consider losses in the field report 2.5 billion tonnes, equal to 40% of production (WWF, 2021)

In order to estimate waste in the entire Italian food system (systemic waste) ISPRA includes, in addition to losses in production and consumption chains such as FAO and UNEP, also overfeeding beyond recommended needs and the net loss in livestock farming resulting from input conversion edibles for humans (wheat, soy, corn, etc.). The updated result is that approximately 66% of the food energy produced is wasted. This tells us that three times what is needed on average is produced and is distributed unfairly and wasted. In terms of kcal/person/day there is an increase of 17% between 2015 and 2021. Faced with a population reduction of 2.7%, the country's waste (kcal/day) increases by 14%. The causal trend already identified by ISPRA is confirmed. The growth of industrial efficiencies generates increases in overproduction and supply which then amplify waste and impacts (an effect known scientifically as the Jevons paradox or "bounce").

Computing riverine inputs of macrolitter into the Central Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean Sea) from the Tiber River during the 1st post-pandemic year

Published in the "peer reviewed" journal Science of the Total Environment, a joint ISPRA and Uniroma Tre study on the floating macrolitter that reaches the sea from the Tiber river through its two mouths (Fiumara grande and Canale di Fiumicino) with a particular temporal focus on 1 ° post-pandemic year.
In the period investigated, the results confirmed the high number of macrolitter transported by the river, with an estimated density at the mouth equal to 1170±151 objects/km2; However, compared to previous years, a reduction in macrolitter was detected with a percentage increase in single-use macro-waste linked to both packaging and objects linked to the pandemic period. Furthermore, much of the waste reaches the sea already fragmented.

Further information

Reportage "Tarquinia salt pans, a treasure chest of biodiversity and geodiversity"

The Saline di Tarquinia Nature Reserve is a hyperhaline wetland area, among the few remaining in the Tyrrhenian Sea, in whose extension various geological-environmental aspects are represented. The area is mostly occupied by shallow water basins, almost all communicating, salty and hyperhaline, separated by stone and wooden embankments. The Tarquinia Saline, currently SPA (Special Protection Area) and SAC (Special Conservation Area), became a protected area in 1980, as it was recognized as having a high naturalistic value, with environmental characteristics particularly suitable for stopping and the nesting of numerous migratory birds.

World Wetlands Day 2025

The World Wetlands Day on February 2, celebrates the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 1971, and aims to raise awareness around the world of the great importance of wetlands for people and for our planet.
The Ramsar Convention defines wetlands as “marshes, bogs or reservoirs, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with stagnant or flowing water, fresh, brackish or salt, including expanses of marine water whose depth, during low tide, does not exceed six metres". The Convention is the only international treaty on the environment that deals with these particular ecosystems which, in addition to hosting and conserving a rich biological diversity of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates, guarantee huge resources of water and food and play a fundamental role in mitigating climate change. The integrity of these environments is threatened by human activities.

Tales of monitoring and river molluscs

On the occasion of World Wetlands Day 2025, the Participatory Science project "#teveremolluschifantastici...e dove trovarli"" is organizing an excursion on 1 February to the Nazzano Tevere-Farfa Regional Nature Reserve to talk about river ecology, freshwater molluscs and water monitoring with practical experiments. The project aims to increase awareness of river biodiversity and contribute to the conservation of inland water ecosystems, also by mapping the presence and distribution of molluscs, with a pilot project on the Tevere river; the data collected flows into the portal of the National Biodiversity Network.

World wetlands day and the Puglia campaign carried out by ISPRA

The number of aquatic birds has been one of the main metrics for assessing the conservation status of wetlands since the Ramsar Convention: an accurate method that is not affected by political pressure or exploitation. This January too, ISPRA carried out its share of field activities, together with the vast network of external detectors that widely covers the national territory as a perfect example of citizen science. The Institute's cars have been spotted everywhere, from the frozen reservoirs of Cadore to the mud of Capitanata, with demanding stops in the Venetian lagoons and some visits to the Tyrrhenian side.

Bees & Vespa orientalis. A challenge for the ecosystem

Understand and act to save bees

The conference "Api & Vespa orientalis. A challenge for the ecosystem" will be held on Tuesday 28 January in Rome. Experts in the sector will address the topic to help people understand the phenomenon and take action to protect bees.
In the meeting will participate an ISPRA researcher who will talk about the importance of correct communication of risks to the general public

The Blue Crab containment plan presented to MASAF in the presence of ministers Lollobrigida and Pichetto Fratin

On 22 January at the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, the extraordinary commissioner for the Blue Crab, Pref. Enrico Caterino, accompanied by the Director of the Department for monitoring and protection of the environment for the conservation of biodiversity of ISPRA, Luigi Ricci , illustrated the contents of the "Intervention plan to contain and combat the phenomenon of the spread and proliferation of the blue crab species".

The result of joint work carried out with the technical support of ISPRA and with collaboration the National Research Council, CREA, Port Authorities, Ministries and territorial bodies of the Regions most affected by the emergency. The plan, with a total financing of 10 million euros - allocated in the Legislative Decree. Agriculture - for the two-year period 2025-2026, aims to protect the biodiversity of the affected habitats, contain and combat the proliferation of the invasive species, prevent further economic damage and promote the resumption of farming and fishing activities.

The Barcelona Convention: ISPRA at the practical training course for the conservation of cartilaginous fish of the Adriatic Sea and beyond

On January 21-23, the practical course on monitoring, identification and advanced research techniques for the conservation of cartilaginous fish in the Adriatic Sea was held in Vlore (Albania). Organized thanks to the joint efforts of UNEP-MAP (Barcelona Convention) and Sharklab ADRIA, and financed by MASE. Umberto Scacco and Massimo Dalù from ISPRA were present at the course under the expert guidance of Dr. Andrej Gajić from Sharklab ADRIA, and the supervision of the head of the SPA/RAC - Barcellona Convention, Lobna Ben Nakhla. During the course, samples of cartilaginous fish species of conservation interest from a marine area particularly rich in biodiversity in the waters of Vlora were analyzed.

New update of the ISPRA indicators database

More than 200 indicators from the ISPRA environmental indicators database have been updated, the objective is to promote greater environmental awareness and involve the scientific community, in particular that of environmental statistics and information, in the crucial environmental issues of our time.

The database of environmental indicators, organized into 39 environmental themes, with over 300 indicators (ISPRA core set), is the most complete collection of statistical data and information on the state of the environment in Italy created and managed by the Institute for the Protection and Environmental Research (ISPRA) in collaboration with regional agencies and autonomous provinces within the National System for Environmental Protection (SNPA).

The indicators, classified under Environmental Themes, are structured in sheets containing descriptive information (metadata) such as, for example, the objectives to be achieved, the assessment of the state, the trend and data represented with graphs, tables and maps.

The international census of water birds begins for the 35th consecutive year

Coordinated for Italy by ISPRA, the Wetlands International project promotes the counting of water birds around mid-January across the entire European territory

These days, censuses of wintering waterbirds are starting in more than 2000 Italian wetlands as part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC) project. The project is coordinated by ISPRA, which makes use of a network of over 500 expert detectors and at least triple the number of collaborators, distributed throughout the country. Now in their 35th year of continuous activity across the entire national territory, the IWC censuses represent one of the longest-running coordinated Italian study projects, certainly the first in terms of capillarity and regularity of coverage at a geographical level.

Water birds are a fundamental component of wetlands. Diversity and number of individuals provide crucial information on the health status and environmental quality of frequented sites, but also opportunities to enhance wetlands for recreational purposes in a sustainable way. The protection, improvement and where possible the restoration of Italian wetlands have implications that go well beyond the protection of the species they host, including for example the elimination of carbon from the atmosphere, the protection from extreme meteorological events, the mitigation of effects of climate change.

Waterbirds represent a shared wealth among peoples: their long and complex migrations unite wetlands and people, regardless of cultural and political borders.