Mont Avic Natural Park – Management Supported by Scientific Research and EMS

Abstract

The Mont Avic Park protects an area of the south-eastern Aosta Valley (Italy) with particular landscapes and natural features which, until the late 1980s, remained almost unexplored from a scientific point of view. In the course of its twenty years of operation, the park administration has promoted a substantial series of environmental monitoring research projects and campaigns and the protected area is now one of the best-known of the Western Italian Alps. For the last seven years, the park has also implemented an Environmental Management System which, in 2003, led to its ISO 14001 certification as well as to EMAS registration, thus becoming the first protected area in Italy and in Europe to have received this prestigious recognition by the European Community. The management policy for the protected area, developed through this innovative approach, provides for a continual improvement of the knowledge about the various environmental components through specific scientific research activities, enabling the park administration to create a framework of reference material, which is increasingly comprehensive and constantly updated, and ensuring that adequate management and planning strategies are carried out to protect the biodiversity and promote the territory, with additional positive effects on the local communities and local economy.