Biodiversity is in great danger, both on a local and global scale, threatening mankind; land use and fragmentation are among the most serious threats.

Parks, reserves and protected areas are precious to fight these threats, but not enough: without a network able to connect the large (and even the small) natural systems, wild animals and plants are condemned to a progressive isolation that inexorably weakens their vitality. Over the past 50 years, urbanized areas are often welded together because cities tend to spread in a linear way, along the roads.

The urbanized area has grown enourmously and today, in Lombardy, the new buildings, such as settlement, industrial and commercial areas as well as infrastructures, consume more than 10 hectares per day of natural or agricultural land. This results in a progressive fragmentation of natural areas making it difficult or even impossible the movement for wild species.

The maintenance and creation of new ecological connections is therefore essential to ensure to wildlife a greater areal and a chance to move.

This is particularly important in densely populated lowland areas with intensive agriculture; in these areas there is often the need for interventions aimed at ecological reconnection of the territory also to ensure the provision of ecosystem services.

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