Alien Species Awareness Program (ASAP) LIFE Project was finance by European Commission.
The general goal of ASAP is reducing the introduction rate of alien invasive species and their impacts due to an increase of Italian public awareness on the topic and a higher active participation in their management.
Invasive alien species (IAS) are widely recognized as one of the main causes inducing biodiversity loss, as well as heavily damaging human economic activities and health. Biological invasions are rapidly increasing, and the insufficient public awareness towards this problem and their mismanagement are the main constraints for prevention and mitigation of IAS impacts, particularly in Italy. It is thus crucial to increase public awareness on IAS through well-planned and focused communications strategies for different target groups.
The coordinating beneficiary of ASAP is ISPRA, the Italian Institute for environmental protection and research and the associated beneficiaries are: Lazio Region Protected Areas Agency, Europarc Italia, Legambiente ONLUS, NEMO srl, University of Cagliari, Unicity Spa.
Alessandro, associate of Ecolinfa, is one of the designer of ASAP LIFE Project.