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, with almost 16,800 km of railway network, has given maximum priority to this aspect, paying particular attention on the design, construction and operation of the railway infrastructure.