HABITAT 4030
“My sister Emily* loved the moors. Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed in the blackest of the heath for her; out of a sullen hollow in a livid hillside her mind could make an Eden. She found in the bleak solitude many and dear delights; and not the least and best-loved was – liberty.”
Emily Brontë, author of the novel "Wuthering Heights"
from Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë (trans. Simone Buffa di Castelferro), Milan, La Tartaruga edizioni, 2006, p.130.
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H4030: European dry heaths
Occurring in 2335 European sites, this habitat is present on 58.71 km2 in the Italian Continental Region.
Conservation status: favourable for range, and inadequate for area, structure/functions, future perspectives, complex.
Trend: declining.
European Red List of Habitats: vulnerable.
In the project area, this habitat shows peculiar floristic compositions (vascular and lichen species) that make it different from heaths in Central Europe. This is due to its localization at the southern limit of its distribution range.
Threats at the project sites (which have led to a loss of over 50% of the habitat in the last 40 years 
):
> Invasion of woody species, both non-native and native.
> Increase in soil nitrogen levels.
> Lack of an efficient management model and abandonment.
Without proper management actions, this habitat is expected to disappear within approximately 20 years.
Area of actions 135.450 m2
LIFE18 NAT/IT/000803
The Drylands project is funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union
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