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Islands and plants: preservation and understanding of flora on Mediterranean islands

Fig. 12. Limonium lojaconoi is a plant endemic of Egadi Islands and western Sicily
(photo L. Scuderi).

Natural processes and conservation policies
How to cope with land-use change?
The high level of species and habitat-richness of the circum-Sicilian islands
and islets cannot be maintained by a strategy of non-intervention. Recent field
investigations of succession on the circum-Sicilian islands have demonstrated
that in the absence of low and regular disturbance regimes (e.g., monitored
agricultural and pastoral activities), the patchy vegetation of some islands
(especially the volcanic ones) will change into monotonous and rather species-
poor pre-forest and forest communities within a few decades (Rühl et al., 2006;
Pasta et al., 2007a; La Mantia et al., 2008; Rühl & Pasta, 2008). As a consequence,
many cultural landscapes will vanish along with many noteworthy plant
species, like the dwarf annual species that thrive in the ephemeral prairies or in
the fallows. On the other hand, the intervention required for promoting forest
recovery and for maintaining local species-richness must be carefully planned.
To prevent the irreversible loss of many island ecosystems, we emphasize
the urgent need to apply the land-use measures already described in the
Management Plans of the Natura 2000 Sites concerning Sicilian satellite islands
(http://www.artasicilia.eu/web/natura2000/index.html).

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