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An urgent appeal, which sounds like a formal ecological warning, that the Legambiente “Città dello Strait” APS club has addressed to the mayor and the technical offices of the Municipality of Reggio Calabria. The object of the dispute is the start of the extraordinary cleaning of the city’s coasts: the environmentalist association calls for an immediate stop to the use of bulldozers, tractors and crawlers, urging exclusively manual and selective interventions to avoid “irreversible damage” to an already fragile coastal ecosystem.
While acknowledging the extenuating circumstances of the new municipal administration, which recently took office and is not responsible for the delays in the roadmap, Legambiente sets an insurmountable limit on the operating methods. According to the association, the protection of biodiversity cannot be waived, not even for beaches that are outside the “Natura 2000” protected sites.
An invisible ecosystem under the sand: the risks for fauna
The use of heavy vehicles, especially at the beginning of summer, coincides with the peak of the reproductive period of species protected by national and community regulations. In the sights of environmentalists there are in particular two symbols of Mediterranean fauna:
The Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus): This small bird, at great risk of extinction, nests by depositing its eggs in minimal depressions in the sand, camouflaging itself perfectly with the environment. The passage of heavy vehicles would lead to almost certain destruction.
The Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta): The Reggio coast is a potential hotspot for the nesting of the species. The weight of the crawlers not only risks crushing existing nests, but compacts the sand and alters the morphological profile of the beach, preventing turtles from digging to lay their eggs. Precisely in these days, Legambiente volunteers are scouring the coast with monitoring transects to promptly identify the traces of cetaceans’ ascent.
Not just animals: flora and seagrass against erosion
Ecological criticism does not stop at fauna. Mechanized cleaning, explains the note, erases pioneer dune vegetation – the first line of natural defense against the advance of the sea – and indiscriminately removes organic biomass, such as Posidonia oceanica leaves. This plant material, often mistaken for waste, is actually vital for holding sand and ensuring the stability of beaches against coastal erosion.
The appeal to the new administration
The request at Palazzo San Giorgio is clear: remove only waste of anthropic origin (plastic, glass, cans) and do it exclusively by hand.
«A choice of this type – concludes the Legambiente Reggio Calabria Club – would represent a concrete act of protection of our natural heritage, but also a significant sign of good administration, capable of characterizing the action of the new municipal team from the beginning».