In 1993, the Spina Verde Regional Park was officially established in the province of Como. It is a natural expanse stretching more than 1,000 hectares, from the Como hills to the Swiss border, in the shape of a thorn. Traditionally, Spina Verde Park is considered as a “cultural” park because of the many historical artifacts within its perimeter. Yet, a park without greenery would not be called so. Therefore, we decided to protect Spina Verde forests, which are losing biodiversity year after year due to extreme weather events, invasive species infestation, and reduced habitat maintenance. The overall goal of the project is to rehabilitate 36 hectares of forests by removing plants that are perishing, dead or crashed by strong winds. In addition, a wetland area will be restored, since its importance for local amphibians such as Lataste’s frog, damaltine frog, and great crested newt. To enjoy this heritage, we will create a new nature trail and expand the visitable areas. With these interventions, Boschi della Spina Verde will be able to continue to provide services to the community that we often take for granted: carbon capture, groundwater recharge, pollutant retention, and soil conservation, all of which are key to environments dedicated to recreation and well-being.

This project is co-funded by the Lombardy Region’s Biodiversity and Climate Call (BioClima) and supported by Fondazione Cariplo. Bioclima is an initiative created within the framework of the Lombardy Plan and the LIFE GESTIRE 2020 project that 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.