Events and News

NbS Italy Hub Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the NbS Italy Hub will be dedicated to territorial regeneration through Nature-based Solutions, with a special focus on the urban environment. The event will bring together different perspectives — from designers, entrepreneurs, researchers and public administrations — to explore how NbS can contribute to addressing major urban challenges, including climate change, air quality, economic and territorial regeneration, development of a production chain and a labor market linked to NbS, as well as the definition of specific regulations and standards.

Involving local communities in safeguarding ecosystems

Workshops and Citizen Science activities dedicated to local biodiversity

The National Biodiversity Network, in collaboration with the Castelli Romani Regional Park and the Naturalistic Civic Museum of Monti Prenestini, are promoting an event dedicated to the involvement of local communities in the protection of ecosystems. The initiative is divided into two days, the first includes a workshop in which the role of the Naturalistic Museum in the protection of biodiversity will be presented, the monitoring activities of species and habitats connected to the Natura 2000 Network and the initiative "Natural Path of the Parks" which also includes the area of ​​the Prenestini mountains. The results of some studies conducted at a local level on flora and fauna, the European Regulation on the restoration of Nature and the activities of the National Biodiversity Network will be presented. The second day includes a Citizen Science activity with a field trip.

The initiative represents an opportunity for scientific study and awareness, aimed at both local administrators and citizens, with the aim of promoting shared and responsible participation in the conservation of natural heritage.

Understanding and studying fauna: ISPRA meets local schools

As part of the 2024/25 Environmental Education and Sustainability Initiatives Program, more than 80 students from two schools in the province of Bologna were able to experience first-hand what it means to study fauna for the purposes of its management and conservation, participating in activities that simulate the monitoring and field recognition of terrestrial mammals, and exploring conservation genetics laboratories to discover how the study of DNA can contribute to understanding and safeguarding wild populations.

Conservation of Mediterranean Trout and its Habitat: Roadmap towards a National Action Plan

The Round Table includes a discussion with the bodies responsible for implementing the conservation measures for the Mediterranean Trout included in the Guidelines published in the ISPRA Manuals and Guidelines series (MLG 207/2024) in order to outline any critical issues in their implementation and define a road map for their implementation and a policy recommendation document to reach a National Plan for the management and conservation of the species and its habitat. In addition to the bodies responsible for implementing the guidelines, representatives of scientific, environmental and fishing associations, stakeholders and experts are invited to the meeting.

ISPRA and pollinators in "La Fuori Festival" - Science and Arts Festival

ISPRA is present with a stand on pollinators at La Fuori Festival, the Institute's researchers will explain how pollination works. It will be possible to watch videos and images to learn how to recognize bees, wasps and hornets and discover where they live.
It will be shown how a hive is made and how bees live inside the hive.

The good use of green and blue spaces for the promotion of health and well-being: the role of stakeholders

The territorial events for the dissemination of the PNRR-PNC project “The good use of Green and Blue spaces for the promotion of health and well-being”, funded by the Ministry of Health, continue. The next one will be held on June 19 in Rome, at the Forma Spazi Congress Center in via Cavour, where the activities concluded and those in progress will be presented, with the aim of continuing the dialogue with all the institutional actors involved and the interested stakeholders who have accompanied the activities since the first steps of the project.

Communicating ecology with science: the Pescasseroli Charter journey at the Montefiascone Integral Ecology Festival

In view of the next edition of the European Night of Researchers, which will take place on September 26 and 27 in various Italian and foreign cities, NET - scieNcE together, in collaboration with Stampa Romana and the Rocca dei Papi Association, continues its commitment to training and dissemination on the crucial themes of Italian science and research. On June 19 and 20, as part of the Festival of Integral Ecology that will take place in Montefiascone (VT) from June 19 to 22, two training days dedicated to science will be held.

The new video of the JoNeF project – “Joint Network for wild Fungi”, promoted and coordinated by ISPRA, to be launched at the IMPEL Nature Protection Expert Team meeting

We are pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the new video dedicated to JoNeF – Joint Network for wild Fungi, a project promoted and coordinated by ISPRA within the European IMPEL network. The video will be officially launched on 20 June 2025 during the Nature Protection Expert Team meeting.

Through field footage, interviews, and testimonials, the video shares JoNeF’s vision, the collaboration among experts and institutions from 19 European countries, and the joint commitment to placing fungi at the heart of nature conservation policies. It highlights the essential role of fungi in ecosystem health and the need for their full integration into environmental legal frameworks.

Press tour of the Life SeaNet project on the island of Montecristo

ISPRA participated today in the Press Tour of the Life Sea.Net project, which took place at the Site of Community Interest of the Island of Montecristo. During the tour, journalists were able to visit the site, learn more about topics regarding the management of Natura 2000 Sites and some of the activities carried out within the project.

The project Life Sea.Net coordinated by Legambiente and which benefits from the participation of ISPRA as the main scientific partner, it aims to improve the management of the marine sites of the Natura 2000 Network and to increase knowledge of the Network and its role in the conservation of marine biodiversity. To provide concrete contributions to improving management, ISPRA has created some operational tools during the project that are part of a real "toolkit" : Handbooks for monitoring species and habitats of Community interest (EU Directives 92/43/EEC and 09/147/CE) in Italy: marine environment and Manual for the application of Appropriate Assessment procedures in marine sites

Restoration Nature between Sustainability and Economy

Is it enough to protect Nature or do we really need the Nature Restoration Law? Our species has caused enormous damage to Natural Capital, using it beyond its possibilities and significantly altering 75% of the land and 66% of the seas. According to the IUCN, in the next 30 years we could lose half a million to a million species, with catastrophic consequences at the ecosystem level. So how should we proceed?

Green&Blue Festival 2025

“Let’s start from scratch. Numbers for the future of the planet” is the theme of this fourth edition. There is, in fact, only one way to address the climate crisis: rely on science. Three days of discussions, conferences, live shows, workshops, exhibits and think tanks to discuss, numbers in hand, the future of the planet. Numbers are the key element to photograph the current state of health of the Earth and, at the same time, to set the objectives necessary to guarantee a future for the planet and especially for its inhabitants.

World Environment Day 2025

The World Environment Day 2025 has been celebrated since 1972 and is the United Nations’ main vehicle for encouraging global awareness and action for the environment.
This year’s theme for World Environment Day is plastic pollution, which permeates every corner of the planet, even in our bodies in the form of microplastics. World Environment Day 2025 calls for collective action to tackle plastic pollution.
Drawing inspiration from nature and presenting concrete solutions, the campaign will encourage individuals, organizations, industries and governments to adopt sustainable practices that drive systemic change.

This year’s World Environment Day falls exactly two months before countries reconvene to continue negotiating a global treaty to end plastic pollution.

Every year, approximately 100,000 mammals and one million seabirds die due to entrapment in abandoned fishing nets or after ingesting the fragments they release into the sea. 86% of marine waste found on the seabed is attributable to fishing activities, with a clear prevalence of abandoned, lost or disused fishing lines, ropes and nets (ISPRA data). Ghost nets are therefore one of the most insidious forms of marine pollution.

For this reason, ISPRA, the implementing body of the PNRR MER project, has entrusted the economic operators Fondazione Marevivo, Castalia Consorzio Stabile and CoNISMa, the National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences, in the “GhostNets” operation, with the recovery of fishing nets and gear abandoned or accidentally lost at sea.

Abandoned nets represent one of the most dangerous threats to the ecosystem, because when they settle on the seabed they become deadly traps for many living species. Their deterioration into tiny fragments also generates the release of microplastics that are ingested by animals and end up, consequently, in the food chain.

The meeting of the Multidisciplinary Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (MESAG) of the seventh edition of the Global Earth Outlook is underway in the Republic of Korea

From 2 to 6 June, the Authors and Multidisciplinary Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (MESAG) meeting of the seventh edition of the Global Earth Outlook (GEO-7) will be held at the Halla University Convention Center, on the island of Jeju-do, Republic of Korea.

GEO is the flagship report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and provides a comprehensive assessment of the state and prospects of the global environment. UNEP is entrusted with study and operational functions, to provide technical assistance to developing countries, including in the field of environmental legislation.

The last edition, GEO-6, published in 2019, focused on the theme "Healthy Planet, Healthy People" and aimed to provide policy makers and society with potential solutions to achieve the environmental dimension of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (known as SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda for 2030.

Comparison on the implementation of the National Guidelines for the conservation of Mediterranean trout and its habitat

On May 29, a meeting planned by the LIFE STREAMS Project will take place at the headquarters of the Casentinesi Forests, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park at the Park Visitor Center in Premilcuore (FC), to verify the implementation of the Guidelines for the conservation of Mediterranean trout and its habitat (Action C.5 - ISPRA Manuals and Guidelines 207/2024), in person or online.

Launch of the new video of the Network for the study of mycological diversity

On the occasion of the XII Scientific Committee of the Umbrian Mycological Association A.MI. (Foligno, May 30-June 2), the new video of the Ndm network, promoted by ISPRA to support the national census of macromycetes, will be officially presented.

The video describes the census initiative, together with the objectives and tools created by ISPRA for the involvement of mycologists, experts and institutions in the study and protection of fungal diversity in Italy.

Bio-AT – Biodiversity and scientific research in the Tuscan Archipelago

On the occasion of the celebrations that in the month of May put the Parks, biodiversity and the environment at the centre of national and international attention, the Tuscan Archipelago National Park is promoting an important scientific and institutional event: "bioAT - Biodiversity and scientific research in the Tuscan Archipelago", scheduled for 27 and 28 May at the headquarters of the Park Authority, in the Enfola area of ​​Portoferraio.

Italicus second edition

The wolf in Italy, between conservation and coexistence

Two round tables dedicated to the most fascinating and controversial Italian predator, a day to get to know it, exploring together with experts, breeders, professionals and Associations the many aspects that involve conservation and coexistence.

European Parks Day, 24 May 2025. Citizen Science Initiative at Castelli Romani Regional Park

On the occasion of the European Parks Day, May 24, 2025, the National Biodiversity Network participates and supports the Citizen Science initiative promoted by the Castelli Romani Regional Park Authority. The initiative aims to raise awareness among participants of the role that protected areas play in the management of territories for the purpose of conserving biodiversity. The topic of the main European and national regulatory instruments will be addressed - National Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the European Regulation on nature restoration - and how much they recognize the importance of the active involvement of citizens and local communities. Park rangers and ISPRA experts will also illustrate the important contribution made by protected natural areas to nature conservation and the dangers represented by the fragmentation and degradation of natural habitats.

Urbe, volcanoes and mammoths: the metamorphoses of the ancient Appian Way

The Appia Antica, one of the most fascinating archaeological parks in the world, will be the narrative center of a trek led by university professors and researchers from ISPRA. The change in the landscape will be investigated with the help of zoology, geology and urban planning to account for the multiple perspectives from which the history of the Regina Viarum can be read.

On July 21, 2024, after a process lasting about 3 years, the Regina Viarum will be included in the places protected by UNESCO as a world heritage site. It joins the other 67 places recognized in Italy.

To celebrate this important recognition, ISPRA, as part of the NET European Night of Researchers project, will organize three scientific excursions led by researchers.

World Turtle Day

On the occasion of World Turtle Day 2025, ISPRA presents a video about the monitoring activities of the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) at the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano (Rome), a protected area of ​​great value for the biodiversity it preserves. The European pond turtle is a native species classified as “in danger of extinction” in the IUCN Red List of Italian vertebrates (2022), whose populations have drastically reduced in the country due to the degradation and disappearance of suitable aquatic habitats and competition with invasive alien species, such as the Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans).

International Day for Biological Diversity 2025

The May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity established by the United Nations to celebrate Biodiversity. The purpose of the celebration is to highlight the multiple values ​​of biodiversity, underline the importance of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and to promote support for its implementation, together with that of the Cartagena Protocol (which aims to help ensure an adequate level of protection in the field of safe transfer, handling and use of Living Modified Organisms) and that of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.

The landscape and beauty of our cities. A walk through Italy 2025

On May 22, 2025, the event "The landscape and beauty of our cities. Walk through Italy 2025" will take place in Bologna, with the participation of operators and experts in the sector at international, national and local level, as well as the President of the National Committee for the development of public green spaces.
For ISPRA, Silvia Brini, Head of the Area for monitoring air quality and operational climatology, will illustrate the PNRR-PNC project "Vebs - The good use of green and blue spaces for the promotion of health and well-being", launched in 2023 and implemented with the technical and financial support of the Ministry of Health.

ISPRA analyses the three events of 2025 that led to the death of three Marsican brown bears and the captivity of a cub for reintroduction

The central Italian brown bear population is one of the most threatened worldwide, classified as Critically Endangered in the most recent IUCN Red Lists (European assessment: Huber 2025; National assessment: Rondinini et al. 2022), and is considered in poor conservation status in the 4^th Habitat Directive Report (2013–2017). It is therefore a population of national and European priority conservation concern.

Safeguarding the Common Home for the Harmony of the Planet

A Green Thread for the SNPA Jubilee
The event is part of the broader project “Green Line for a Sustainable Jubilee”, promoted by the National System for Environmental Protection. On the occasion of the 2025 Jubilee, in fact, SNPA proposes a series of events throughout Italy, in agreement with local dioceses, to promote communication and awareness activities that involve environmental issues and those of faith, ecology and creation, science and religion.

Alien species Dreissena polymorpha identified on the Tevere River

As part of the citizen science project “Tevere molluschi fantastici” (Tiber Fantastic Molluscs), coordinated by researchers from ISPRA, several specimens of the bivalve mollusc Dreissena polymorpha—commonly known as the zebra mussel—were discovered in Umbria, in the middle Tiber Valley near Alviano (TR). Although the species has a distinctive and easily recognizable appearance, its identification was confirmed by two expert malacologists involved in the project.

Previously reported in the Tiber River only near Rome a few years ago, the zebra mussel has been present in Italy since 1971. While its distribution remains localized, it is found in various freshwater systems across the country. This species is considered invasive and was listed in a 2017 scientific study among the 100 most invasive species in Europe. In countries where it has become highly invasive and widespread —such as Spain—it causes not only serious harm to biodiversity but also significant economic damage. The mussels tend to colonize pipes and aquatic infrastructure, resulting in high costs for maintenance, control, and restoration.

At present, the species is not expanding in Italy, but its spread should be carefully monitored and controlled to limit the risk of further diffusion. Many species, in fact, go through a 'latency' period before expanding and becoming invasive, eventually posing a threat to the ecosystem.

The discovery has been recorded in the web-GIS platform of the National Biodiversity Network (NBB), as well as in other relevant databases, as notification or warning issued to inform the public, scientists, conservationists, or authorities about the presence, spread, or risk in the riverine system were the species was found. A scientific report will also be prepared by the project coordinators to document and disseminate the finding.

Bees, Beekeepers and Protected Areas

On the occasion of World Bee and Beekeepers Day, the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park will be the site of an important event dedicated to the protection of pollinators and the enhancement of the role of beekeeping in protected areas. The meeting will see the participation of researchers, technicians and representatives of the beekeeping and environmental world.

World Bee Day 2025

Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly threatened by human activities.

Pollination is, however, a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world's wild flowering plant species depend, entirely or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with over 75% of the world's food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Pollinators not only contribute directly to food security, but are also essential for the conservation of biodiversity.

“GHOSTNETS”: nearly 3 tons of ghost nets removed and 52 thousand square meters of seabed restored in Sicily

The first marine ecosystem restoration operations included by the PNRR MER - Marine Ecosystem Restoration – Intervention A12 “GhostNets” have been completed

Every year, approximately 100,000 mammals and one million marine birds die due to entrapment in abandoned fishing nets or after ingesting the fragments they release into the sea. 86% of marine waste found on the seabed is attributable to fishing activities, with a clear prevalence of abandoned, lost or disused fishing lines, ropes and nets (ISPRA data). Ghost nets therefore represent one of the most insidious forms of marine pollution.
For this reason, ISPRA, the implementing body of the PNRR MER project, has entrusted the economic operators Fondazione Marevivo, Castalia Consorzio Stabile and CoNISMa, the National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences, in the “GhostNets” operation, with the recovery of fishing nets and gear abandoned or accidentally lost at sea.

Innovative Technologies for Monitoring Marine Protected Areas

The DigitAP project dedicated to Marine Protected Areas (MPA) is getting underway, with the start of the delivery phase of the equipment intended for environmental monitoring of species and habitats and anthropic pressures.

This involves high-tech equipment, including two different types of drones: a first model equipped with a laser light LiDAR sensor, ideal for 3D mapping of the territory and submerged structures, and the other equipped with a multispectral probe, capable of detecting environmental parameters, including the characteristics of vegetation and water quality.

Blu Livorno. The Biennial of Sea and Water

As part of the Biennale del mare-Blu Livorno On May 14th, starting at 2:30 p.m., the conference "Marine biodiversity: 20 years of scientific and educational collaboration between Italy and China" will take place in the panoramic hall of the Livorno Aquarium. The conference is organized by ISPRA together with the Italian Embassy in Beijing and the University of Pisa, as part of the 3rd bilateral workshop on scientific research and advanced training applied to marine sciences, which will see the participation of professors from the Zhejiang Ocean University and a large delegation of students.