Communication activities about alpine marmot reintroduction in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park project [Activités de communication sur la marmotte alpine dans le cadre du projet de réintroduction dans le Parc National Dolomiti Bellunesi].

Résumé

The project of alpine marmot reintroduction in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park started in 2006. With the reintroduction project, a communication campaign was carried out, to spread the results and create a personal and “affective” bond between residents, tourists (especially younger people) and the marmots. The marmot was used as an instrument for spreading an environmental awareness. Besides the traditional press bulletins on the local and national media, a “referendum” (by radio programme “Il ruggito del coniglio” by RAI Radio 2) was carried out to give a name to the released animals and to the newly born. With the local TV Telebelluno, a special report was made, illustrating the steps of capturing and releasing the animals, and which was successfully broadcasted and replicated. The RAI2 national television news dedicated a report to the project. A full page of the Park’s bulletin “Tracce” (56,000 copies) was dedicated to the reintroduction of the marmot. The project was also inserted in the environmental education programmes “At school in the Park”, with the laboratory “I, too am a marmot” dedicated to the children. >The didactic activity envisages having children experiencing the typical day of a marmot, coping with the problem of finding food, recognizing the sentinels’ alarm calls, escaping in the burrow, and correctly preparing for the winter hibernation. In the Park’s web site a section dedicated to the project has been created. A technical report and the popular text “marmots at arms”, illustrating the reintroduction project to very young people, has been published.