The development of transport infrastructures has a delicate role in biodiversity, in that it can cause loss of habitat, fragment ecosystems, increase mortality for some species and cause other negative impacts in terms of biological diversity. Making infrastructure development sustainable involves, among other things:
- prevention: avoiding the construction of unnecessary infrastructures and above all, avoiding protected areas;
- mitigation: using appropriate measures (underpasses, overpasses, fencing) to reduce impact to a minimum if it is impossible to prevent;
- compensation: restoring the overall biodiversity lost during the construction of the infrastructure, through ecosystem restoration, recreating alternative environments elsewhere.
The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane group is aware of the fragility of the ecosystems where it conducts its activities and, for this reason, has made safeguarding biodiversity a top priority.