Archivio centrale dello Stato

The archival research undertaken at the Archivio centrale dello Stato in Rome concerning historical and scientific events related to Lake Tovel has been carried out on all the archival heritage preserved in the institute considering a period of time between the 1920s and the year 2000.

The main Groups of documentation about Lake Tovel have been identified in the archive ‘Commissione di Studio per la Conservazione della Natura e delle sue risorse’, body of the National Research Council established on 19th January 1951.

The archive is the result of the work carried out by the Commission in the context of its actions to protect natural resources, especially in Italy.

The research has revealed documentation concerning the action of the Lake Tovel Study Group whose members were appointed by the president of the National Research Council (Giuseppe Montalenti) in December 1971. The ‘Commissione per la conservazione della natura’ commissioned the Lake Tovel Study Group to investigate the situation of Lake Tovel and the disappearance of the phenomenon of redness of its surface waters which did not occur for some years (1964).

In addition to the protection and preservation of Italian natural heritage, the Commission’s Task was to identify and catalogue natural areas, so called biotopes to be protected.

The Commission made reference to the main Italian naturalists, universities and, of course, the CNR (the Italian National Research Council) in order to realize such an enterprise. At the end of 1969, the data collected during the survey permitted the preparation of a provisional list of these areas with a map at a scale of 1/1,000,000. The presentation of this map together with the first list took place on the occasion of the opening of the European Year of Nature Conservation (February 1970) at CNR. Subsequently, following the involvement of the Ministry of Public Works, the Commission decided to publish these data and to prepare regional maps on the biotopes to be protected.

Lake Tovel is considered a “site of international importance” and listed at number 4 in the list of ‘Project acqua a source book of inland waters proposed for conservation’. Lake Tovel was recognized as a wetland of international value by the Ramsar Convention (Iran) on 2^nd February 1971 and ratified in Italy in 1976;

The ministerial decree (16^th July 1980), of the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Giovanni Marcora, was published in the Official Journal of 13^th September 1980 (G.U._13 Sept. 1980 see document ).

A list of the identified groups of documentation related to the Lake Tovel Study Group and the study of the Lake Tovel biotope is presented below.