The municipality of Canneto sull’Oglio, in the province of Mantua, contains areas of great importance for biodiversity. In fact, it is granted the status of Special Area of Conservation (SAC “Lanche di Gerra Gavazzi e Runate”), part of the Oglio Sud Regional Park. The oxbows are now-dry, typically crescent-shaped tongues of land. They furrow the incessant action of the water that shaped the landscape by changing its course with each flood, describing wide and sinuous curves in the river valley. Under these conditions, nature takes its course and new trees, both native and invasive, grow. During the past years, some areas have been redeveloped, including with reforestation. Now it is time to direct young forests to an optimal structure and species composition. Doing so prevents some plants from taking over from others and prevents excessive tree density from slowing down forest growth. In addition to these forest development interventions, which aim to protect the delicate mosaic of environments created by proximity to water, the project wants to create breeding pools for amphibians, one of the vertebrate groups that are suffering most from the climate crisis.

This project is co-funded by the Call for Proposals “Biodiversity and Climate” (BioClima) implemented by Regione Lombardia and supported by Fondazione Cariplo. Bioclima, created under the LIFE MANAGEMENT 2020 project, aims to create public-private financing models to catalyze investment in biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation projects in Lombardy’s forests and protected areas. If you are a company and would like to contribute, visit www.wownature.eu/aziende/bioclima.