(ANSA) – TURIN, 29 JUN – Orchids receive a lot of funds (about one million euros per species) and species with a more “Nordic” distribution or with larger ranges are more financed. The aesthetic factor, such as the color of the flowers, is also important: species with blue or purple flowers are more funded. At the same time, the risk of extinction is unrelated to the financial strain. They are among the findings of the study “Dimension and impact of biases in funding for species and habitat conservation”, published in the journal Biological Conservation, conducted by the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology of the University of Turin, with the National Research Council (Cnr) headquarters of Verbania-Pallanza, the University of Helsinki, the University of Minho and the Department for Research and Monitoring of the Swiss National Park. have tried to investigate the factors that determine the methods of financing in the protection of protected plant species and their habitats, exploiting the data available for LIFE projects, the main funding program for nature conservation implemented by the European Union.
Between 1992, the year the Life project was founded, and 2020, animal species received three times more funding in euros (over 2 billion euros) than plants (690 million).
But disparities are also evident among plants. Instead, it was observed how habitat conservation, despite not being well aligned with the conservation status of the environments, is less influenced by aesthetic bias, confirming that orienting biodiversity conservation programs towards habitats, rather than towards individual in particular, it would make it possible to increase the effectiveness of the programs, especially in extremely fragmented and man-made geographical areas. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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