Hortus Europae Project

The Monte Baldo, situated to the southern margin of the Alps, is an area with a wide selection of very different environments, from sub-Mediterranean ones on the shores of Lake Garda to alpine ones that are 2200 meters above sea level. In this mountain of about 300 square kilometres – one thousand times smaller than the whole of Italy – we find half of all the species of Italian orchids and a good 2.085 different species of butterflies, corresponding to 40% of all those registered in our country. An exceptional biological variety that indeed allows this area to be counted among one of the sites with the highest biodiversity not only in Italy, but in all Europe. The conservation of biodiversity can take place “in-situ”, that means on the site through the establishment of protected areas, parks and nature reserves or in structures like the Botanic Garden of the Monte Baldo. More than 700 plant species grow and reproduce themselves in this garden on the massif of the Monte Baldo which botanists of the past described and identified as the “The Garden of Italy”.

Since the summer of 2006 BaldoNatura, a temporary Association of Bodies, charged the WBA to attend the scientific direction of the Botanical Garden of the Monte Baldo, in Novezzina (Ferrara di Monte Baldo). Object of the accord is to conduct common activities volved to the conservation and reproduction of rare endemic or threatened species of the Monte Baldo. A first group of species studied by the Project are: Callianthemum kernerianum, Sorbus chamaemespilus, Cistus albidus, Phillyrea latifolia, Gentiana lutea and Physoplexis comosa.

In the course of 2009 and 2010  two research campaigns named “Biodiversity Week” have been organized by WBA in Monte Baldo to “Malga Zovel” and “Malga Zocchi”. In these occasions WBA naturalists made investigations on fauna and flora of different environments of the Baldo Chain. The collected materials have to be studied by the specialists.

Video WBA Biodiversity Week 2010