The Naturetrek Reserve in Italy

In February 1981, when I first visited Nepal’s Koshi Barrage and Koshi Tappu Wildlife Sanctuary, 50,000 wildfowl wintered there. Today one is lucky to see 50. At much the same time, winter rains in Morocco’s desert regions would set the landscape abloom with carpets of colourful flora attended by myriad butterflies. Today, Morocco has suffered five consecutive years of drought, recorded a temperature of 50°C in 2023 for the first time in the country’s history, and now endures water restrictions during, traditionally, its wettest season. I could go on… and on… recounting the changes that we’ve observed during the 38 years we have been offering Naturetrek holidays around the world. We cannot deny it, our privileged experience has given us as frightening an overview as any of the catastrophic decline in our planet’s natural history and biodiversity. So, as advancing years see Maryanne and me pull back from day-to-day involvement in the operational side of our business, we are more determined than ever that Naturetrek capital and profits should be put to good purpose in the acquisition and protection of key wildlife habitats around the world, in partnership with selected wildlife conservation organisations… remunerating the one constant – and the key – contributor to our business over the years, our natural world.

Thus, on 23rd December, in a notary’s office in Rome, our son Tom, both a Naturetrek director and a freelance consultant to larger players in the corporate world in matters of nature restoration, carbon offsetting, biodiversity net gain and ‘net zero’ projects, signed off Naturetrek’s purchase of the 120-acre ‘Macchietelle estate’ in the Italian Apennines from the Manna family. These vendors could not have been more supportive of our goal – to pass the land, by way of an initial 30-year stewardship agreement, to the Italian conservation charities Salviamo L’Orso (Save the Bear) and IntraMontes, with the land to be known hereon as ‘the Naturetrek Macchietelle Reserve, in partnership with Salviamo L’Orso and IntraMontes’. What they will be doing, without delay, is applying to the local authority to ban hunting from our new reserve and putting in place a system of anti-poaching surveillance. We also hope, in due course, that we can restore the old, ruined farmhouse on the land so that it may be used both as a base and a research, training and interpretation facility for the two conservation organisations. These are just a couple of the many exciting conservation plans we have for the reserve.

It is Salviamo L’Orso’s goal (in conjunction with Rewilding Apennines) to build protected corridors between the two national parks and three regional parks/reserves of the Apennines, and to extend all these protected areas for the benefit of the endangered Marsican Brown Bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus), a distinctive subspecies of which just 60 individuals remain. In this respect, our partnership with SLO in Italy, to help enable such a goal, mirrors neatly our partnership with EcoMinga in Ecuador where our corridor-building between the Sangay and Llanganates National Parks benefits the Spectacled Bear, amongst a wealth of other wildlife. Our Italian acquisition, which lies, at an altitude of between 3,500 and 3,900 feet, in the buffer zone of the ‘Collemeluccio-Mortedimezzo Alto Molise’ UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and adjacent to the Collemeluccio Natural Reserve, will become Salviamo L’Orso’s first reserve – a base and template from which to launch a wealth of exciting conservation projects, with the primary aim being one of nature restoration and biodiversity enhancement, with such apex predators as bears and the Apennine Wolves a priority.

For the benefit of the Marsican Brown Bear, our partners plan to plant native fruit trees, and manage existing ones, to provide a rich autumn food resource, thereby supporting the creation of a metapopulation of this critically endangered subspecies in the Alto Molise region of the Apennines. They will also be removing all barbed wire, unused tanks, fencing and other ‘bear hazards’. While, for the benefit of the Apennine Wolf, the prevention of both poaching and hybridisation (by way of the vaccination, spaying and neutering of the area’s pet and feral dog population) will be primary goals. A little further afield, both SLO and IntraMontes will be working hard to improve human-large carnivore coexistence, trying to minimise or even eliminate the infliction of Wolf and Bear damage on livestock farms and apiaries throughout the region, especially those partaking in the EU’s LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors Project. SLO and IntraMontes also intend to restock and to introduce native species of flora and fauna in accordance with the guidelines of the EU Habitats Directive.

The reserve holds several species of rare herpetofauna, including Northern Spectacled Salamander and Italian Newt (and such of their predators as European Polecat), for which the restoration of the watering hole on the reserve, and the area around its source, as well as further wetland enhancement and pond creation, should be beneficial. Also of interest on the reserve to local conservationists is the native Silver Fir and Yew woodland, the former species a relict of the last ice age which will benefit from a programme of careful forest management that will encourage their diffusion and natural regeneration, as well as create valuable micro-habitats. Where beneficial to our aims of habitat and biodiversity enhancement, we will also be planting and managing native trees and shrubs and, in so doing, looking to achieve such eco-system services certifications as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and biodiversity, water and carbon credit certification – the latter not just useful in contributing to our company net zero ambitions, but also in offsetting Naturetrek’s historical carbon footprint. We will additionally be removing exotic species, especially those amongst the site’s flora.

One thing we are particularly excited about is the prospect of ‘working with bees’ on site. As well as creating ‘bug hotels’ in all their forms to enhance the reserve’s insect-life, with the help of expert local bee-keeper, Maurizio Salzillo of IntraMontes, we will be positioning (and experimenting with) ‘bear-proof’ beehives across the reserve. Not only do we wish to encourage the pollinators needed to maximise the reserve’s yield of fruit and berries for visiting bears and other species, but the bees will also assist us in the monitoring of the reserve’s biodiversity by enabling the recording of the area’s flora through the study of pollens present in hive products. Additionally, honey sales and the opportunity for visitors to the reserve to be able to experience the health-giving and restorative properties of bee therapy both have the potential to generate a little of the income that SLO and IntraMontes will need to manage the reserve effectively. Other minimal-impact entrepreneurial projects that they wish to look into include hides for photographers, visitor accommodation opportunities, workshop and training events and guided wildlife walks.

For now, trail cameras, nesting boxes and static bat detectors are being installed… and the important task of recording, monitoring, conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of the site, and rewilding, is beginning, with priority given to those species listed in the Natura2000 management plan and those protected by law to ensure we have our own optimum Macchietelle management regime in place to maximise biodiversity conservation and enhancement.

All this is not new to Naturetrek. It was in 2000 that we became concerned by the carbon emissions caused by our holidays and first encouraged Naturetrek clients to consider offsetting emissions generated by their flights. Then, in 2007, when we began to contribute ourselves to such off-setting, becoming one of the very first tour operators to do so… our contributions enabling our purchase of the aforementioned Naturetrek Reserve in the Ecuadorian Andes which we continue to expand to this day. As for ‘rewilding’, this is something we began 30 years ago, purchasing 25 acres of paddyfields adjoining Koshi Tappu and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserves in Nepal and transforming them into small woodland, wetland and grassland mosaics on which we have now recorded some 350 bird and 35 mammal species (with breeding Fishing Cats and visiting Asian Elephants and wild Water Buffaloes amongst the latter), not to mention an extraordinary, wider biodiversity that attracts them. We’ve enjoyed similar small-scale rewilding projects in Australia and on our 12-acre site surrounding our Naturetrek office in Chawton. Hereon, it is my and Maryanne’s wish that such projects become the primary target for Naturetrek support and investment. Indeed, in these fast-changing times, our support for nature restoration and conservation is imperative, not least because the current feeding-frenzy, generated by natural capital speculators, well-meaning philanthropists and large corporations looking to secure biodiversity and carbon credits for in-house off[1]setting and open-market sale, is driving land prices in the UK, Europe and beyond to heights way beyond the means of the trustees of our wildlife and conservation charities. Hence we can help… purchasing land to be managed by these charities for the benefit of our natural world.

Watch this space! It should be an exciting one.