Scienza e politica devono collaborare per affrontare l'impatto dell'ozono sulla vegetazione

Science and policy must cooperate to face ozone impact on vegetation. Ground-level ozone pollution is teadily increasing over the whole Europe and in particular in Italy. Ozone is well known for its negative impact on human health, ecosystems and cultural heritage. Scientists, policy-makers, environmental agencies, and local stakeholders should be called to a cooperative effort to improve environmental protection policies. Nevertheless, the European Commission has not funded any research project on ozone impact on plant ecosystems in the last five years, despite the standard set by the current regulation (Directive 2008/50/EC) is known to be inadequate to protect plants from ozone. The discrepancy between scientific results and policies for environmental research and protection was discussed at a round table organized by the project Interreg IIIB Vegetpollozone. The main weakness was found in a lack of proper communication between scientific and social actors. In order to cast a bridge between science and policy about ozone and vegetation, this document summarizes the main points of interest to environmental protection.