Biodiversity monitoring and management in a hilly olive grove agroecosystem – the Italian case study from the FRAMEwork project

Abstract: To implement successful biodiversity conservation strategies, management should take place at landscape scale since most organisms have a high mobility. Local farmers and citizens of the local area should be involved. In the municipality of Calci, (Pisa, Italy) we involved 16 olive growers and we organized them in a farmer cluster to define biodiversity objectives and to reach a coherent landscape management plan. In 2021, we carried out baseline biodiversity sampling in six km2, and in six more km2 as control sites in the nearby municipality of Vicopisano and we sampled butterflies using transect walks. We found the sampling effort sufficient and butterflies were more abundant and rich in June. Only a few butterfly species determined a variation among habitats, but the data scarcity hampered to draw conclusion about their conservation value, neither their role in the habitats. By contrast, mean butterfly vagility, i.e. the ability to move in the environment, did change through the season and habitats, thus in future we may concentrate our efforts in specific habitats and sampling time to better understand the role of these in supporting the butterfly communities.