Modern Concepts for the Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources in the Mediterranean Natural Protected Areas: The Case Study of the Alta Murgia Park (Italy)

The high specific richness of the vascular flora of the National Park of ‘Alta Murgia’ (Apulia, Italy) has been originated by a long co-evolutionary process of biophysical and anthropic systems. Natural disturbances on the one hand and the anthropic on the other, as years go by, in their mutual interaction, have created suitable conditions for the coexistence of a high number of taxa. Following an ecological and floristic survey of grasslands of Alta Murgia, many species of great phyto-geographical value or, however, threatened by genetic erosion and/or extinction together with other plants traditionally employed by man as officinal and for food and non-food purposes, were recorded. The ecological conditions that allow the persistence of these plant communities must be searched in the delicate equilibrium established among the natural dynamics and the set of disturbance regime, for great part due to the traditional land use. The actual social and economic transformations of the area, without safeguarding programmes to be carried out according to sustainability criteria, can produce a serious biodiversity decline. Starting from the ‘sustainable use’ definition of the CBD, the present paper deals with some focal points to realize the sustainable management of the biodiversity of the Park of Alta Murgia.