10 January 2018

This will be a challenging and fundamental year for PonDerat and for all the people working on it with passion and commitment.

Now that the new year has just started, we take the opportunity to summarize what has been done in the last two years of PonDerat:

- we started the eradication of Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus sp.) in Ventotene and Palmarola ;

- we carried out numerous field inspections to plan black rat eradication on Ventotene and Palmarola;

- we had several meetings with the students of the Ventotene and Ponza;

- we built the enclosure to remove goats from Palmarola;

- we organized several public meetings with the population of Ventotene and Ponza to "explain well" the project and its purposes;

- we created the website you are reading, opened a Facebook page and a Twitter account;

- we participated in several networking meetings with similar projects started or concluded in other islands. Furthermore, PonDerat is part of the Italian network of all the LIFE projects dealing with alien species.

The actions in progress or already completed are numerous, but 2018 will be a decisive year for some of the most crucial actions of the project: the eradication of rats on Ventotene and Palmarola, the implementation of bio-security measures, the removal of goats in Palmarola and the costruction of the fence in Zannone to protect the holm oak forest from mouflons.

In addiction, we will continue with many important supporting actions, such as education and communication activities to tell and "explain well" the project to all those who want to know it better and maybe help us in our objectives.