Riccardo Scalera is a naturalist with nearly 30 years of professional experience in the field of conservation biology, wildlife management and vertebrate ecology, associated with a good expertise on European environmental policy and legislation, particularly in the field of nature protection and biodiversity conservation (e.g. EU Regulation on Invasive Alien Species, Habitats and Birds directives), sustainable exploitation of natural resources (e.g. in relation to the CITES and related EU Wildlife Trade regulations) and some relevant financial programmes (LIFE, Horizon Europe). Riccardo has been working for several institutions and organisations based in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK and New Zealand, including the European Commission, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and other EU agencies (CINEA, EASME, REA, EEA), the Council of Europe, IUCN International, WWF-European Policy Programme.
At the national level has been working with the Ministry of the Environment in both Italy and Denmark. In Italy, other clients include the Institute for Environmental Research and Protection (ISPRA), the Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Rome and the Rome zoo (Bioparco). Riccardo has published several papers focusing on biological invasions and other biodiversity conservation issues (a list of selected publications is available here), plus monographs and reports, and about 100 articles on popular magazines.
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| A walk in the Majella mountains, Italy. Photo © Riccardo Scalera |
The work carried out at science/policy interface in relation to key drivers of biodiversity loss, and specifically on biological invasions, represents one of the main field of expertise of Riccardo, who has been providing technical and scientific advice on this matter for over 25 years to major institutions including the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the CBD. More recently Riccardo also started to investigate the nexus between biological invasions and the One Health.
Moreover, Riccardo has over 20 years of experience in monitoring and selecting projects funded by the European Commission—particularly through the LIFE Programme, though not exclusively—through his work as a senior expert with various companies and agencies in Italy and Belgium.
Environmental communication is another core expertise of Riccardo, who has a long journalistic experience and carried out a number of communication activities (e.g. information campaigns for the Rome zoo). From 2007 until 2014 has coordinated an international team of experts to support the selection of LIFE+ Information and Communication projects on behalf of the EC - DG ENV.
For further information please contact Riccardo at Scalera.Riccardo(at)gmail.com
For further information please contact Riccardo at Scalera.Riccardo(at)gmail.com
