Our infrastructure is present throughout almost the entire country. Our activities run into territory with varying morphological features. For this, we design and set in operation suitable measures to safeguard and to restore the environment, in order to recover its natural value.
During the year, environmental restoration activity following the laying down of new pipelines has involved mainly the regions of the North (Friuli Venezia Giulia - Veneto - Piemonte - Liguria and Emilia Romagna) and of the South (Calabria - Basilicata - Sicily). Specifically, the Company restored about 270 km along pipelines and reforested about 27 km of woods. The purpose of vegetative restoration and reforestation is not only to re-establish the wooded areas affected by the construction of pipelines, but to re-establish in general the landscape and to restore the biological functionality of the planted areas affected by the work, above all their role as a habitat for fauna with specific features of biodiversity.
“Cultivation“ (agronomic activity to maintain seedlings set aside) was carried out on about 191 km of areas reforested in previous years. These activities go on normally for about five years after planting.
The Company continued environmental monitoring projects along some pipelines that interfere (even if only marginally) with natural environments having high wildlife or ecological value. The purpose of the monitoring is to verify the re-naturalisation of the areas affected by our work, by comparing environmental conditions after restoration (post operam) with the original environmental conditions (ante operam). Monitoring is carried out for the most significant habitats identified during the design phase through special investigations to detect and correlate the principal environmental parameters, documenting the actual degree of biodiversity. Monitoring continues during the realisation of the work and after the work is completed. During 2009, the Company conducted monitoring on about 550 km of pipeline.
The table below shows the Environmental Impact Assessment Decrees (EIA) obtained and submitted during the year.
safeguarding and the sustainable use of biodiversity in the design, construction and decommissioning of gas pipelines
In proclaiming 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon published three fundamental messages: “Biodiversity is essential for the well-being of the humanity, because without it we would all be poorer in economic, social and cultural terms. The current rate of biodiversity is extremely serious and the loss of even a single species weakens the capacity of ecosystems to provide their precious support and represents the final loss of a unique and precious asset. Everyone must contribute at various levels to stop the loss of biodiversity. First of all, governments and the scientific community have the responsibility to cooperate to prepared effective strategies to stop the loss of biodiversity” (www.cbd.int/2010/; www.minambiente.it/).
On the occasion of this celebration, sponsored by the United Nations, we wanted to anticipate our contribution by preparing the Technical Operating Instruction “Safeguarding and the sustainable use of biodiversity in the design, construction and decommissioning of gas pipelines”, in late 2009.
The document explains our approach to biodiversity, which is understood to be the ensemble of all genetically different animal or vegetable forms that are present in the Earth and the ecosystems related to them, with reference to current legislation on the subject, compared with the criteria normally applied in some of our operating activities.
The document consists of two parts: the first part explains how the entire life cycle of gas pipelines (planning, construction, dismantling, restoration, monitoring) relates to the issues of biodiversity, highlighting the species and habitats that are most often affected by our operations on the land, even if only potentially. The second part describes the documentation to be produced and the principal actions to take to reach the objectives set to safeguard biodiversity and sustainable use of the land.
The document also includes four appendices containing:
- conventions, international, European, transnational and national agreements on biodiversity;
- the regulatory frame of reference for the planning and construction of gas pipelines;
- the state of biodiversity in Italy;
- references.
We prepared this document for two purposes: to provide guidelines and direction to carry out the best actions possible to assure the respect and sustainable use of biodiversity by pipeline-related activities, and to provide additional useful knowledge to company personnel, even if they are not directly involved from an operational point of view, in order to help disseminate an ecological culture and environmental sustainability.
The principal collaborations undertaken during 2009 by Snam Rete Gas with local bodies overseeing environmental restoration activities are shown below.
Following the realisation of the Malborghetto – Bordano pipeline, the Company continued collaborating with the Regional Parks Office concerning a project for planning and international environmental protection, sponsored by the European Union (INTERREG Project 3), monitoring the vegetative restorations done along the pipeline path. Specifically, along the path of the pipeline near Val Alba, the Company continued the 10-year wildlife research and monitoring activity, with the help of international experts. At the end of the year, the Company completed the first five years of monitoring. In addition, thanks to a participation process that involved us with the local population and other operators, the regional planning project for Val Alba was completed with the official establishment of the “Val Alba natural reserve”, which was entrusted to the management of the PreAlpi Giulie Natural Park.
After the realisation of the pipeline that crossed the “Paludi di Gonàrs”, Site of Community Interest (SCI), in cooperation with local agencies, the Company continued environmental recovery operations within the site on some pieces of public property. It also launched a project to monitor the spontaneous process of renaturalisation of these areas, taking phytosociological samples. During 2009, it carried out the first annual post operam monitoring of the five scheduled.
The Company continued its collaboration with the State Forestry Agency of the Region of Sicily to produce indigenous tree species for replanting woods along the path of pipelines laid within the Nebrodi Regional Park. During 2009, it conducted monitoring on a total of 1.6 km of pipeline.