IMPACT OF CHIAIANO’S DUMP ON THE PARK OF NAPLES HILLS (SOUTH ITALY).

The Park of Naples hills (Italy) was instituted by the regional law 17/2003 with the aim of the green area’s safeguard of the town hills. But, in consequence of the waste emergency of the Campanian region, the Italian government decided the opening of a dump in the Park, in Chiaiano. Utilizing the birds as bioindicator, we studied the environmental quality of the whole area before and after the opening of the dump, correlating the avifaunal indices to some landscape indices. Before the opening, generally we note that the various areas of the park were constituted from a fragmented landscape and not many mature faunal communities. The dump site, called Chiaiano wood, is not so different from other areas of the park because of a similar landscape, formed from old chestnut coppices alternated to cultivation and buildings. In this site is important the nesting of some predators, as Falco peregrinus and Falco tinnunculus and of some Chiroptera. This is why the dump might cause the lost of rocky habitats in the Chiaiano wood with a remarkable impact on the ecosystem. The data collected in the first year of the dump’s activity showed some differences, increasing with the time, as the presence of the Herring gulls (Larus michahellis), eating urban waste, appeared in the last months, probably for breaking of the anti-gull nets or for the almost filled dump. The predators are still present, but there is an increase of sinanthropic species, as pigeons, potential vectors of illness. We think that need to continue these studies, because the dump impact shows its effects in longer time.