Liguria Region and Protected Areas of the Maritime Alps: the Life WolfAlps project continues with the Gaia Observer app

Green light for the agreement between the Liguria Region and the Management Body of the Protected Areas of the Maritime Alps for the implementation of further activities of the Life WolfAlps Eu project through new forms of access, use and management of the Gaia Observer telematic platform. The agreement does not involve charges to the regional budget, being free and providing for the use of the Gaia Observer application, which has already proven effective for wolf monitoring.

“The Liguria Region has been paying attention to the presence of the wolf in the territory since 2007 – explains the interim president of the Liguria Region – with the implementation of various initiatives to monitor the predator's population, as well as the establishment of procedures aimed at preventing and compensating for damage caused by it to breeders. All this continued and received further impetus with the participation of the Region in the European project Life Wolfalps EU (2019-2024), which aims to develop coordinated actions to improve the coexistence between the wolf and human activities. Among the various initiatives implemented, we highlight first of all the monitoring of the presence of the wolf which strengthened the national one of ISPRA, the collection of data and their insertion into the telematic platform "Gaia Observer". The monitoring was carried out on a total of 113 officially monitored transects equal to 489,945 km traveled per year, including 2023, with the participation of the Forestry Carabinieri, the Regional surveillance staff, the Parks and the Provinces and partly also by specially trained volunteers. Now with this subscription the monitoring data collected for the period 2023-2024 will be transmitted directly to the Liguria Region, through the creation of a specific account providing direct and timely information, significantly shortening the collection work which will no longer pass as an intermediate step to the Management Body of the Protected Areas of the Maritime Alps”.