Scientific museum activities

These too boast a long history that saw some of us make our first experiences at the CAI National Mountain Museum in Turin. Others still in Sicily or in the Marche. As life teaches, moments of meeting and acquaintances happen by chance, not by chance always dictated by passion and the desire to study and learn about subjects of common interest. It is precisely from these stimuli and from the growing number of members of the ARCA association that the Civic Museum of Natural History of Salento (LE) was born in 1982; followed in 1995 by the Civic Museum of Natural History of the Po Delta in Ostellato (FE); 1996 by the Civic Museum of Natural History of Calabria in Cittanova (RC); 2001 by the National Ecomuseum of CITES in Pacognano-Seiano di Vico Equense (NA) (photo 1); 2003 by the Civic Museum of Natural History in Jesolo (VE); 2009 the Museum of Ornithological Traditions of Bardolino-Cisano (VR). To this must be added numerous other civic and private museums whose collaboration has been requested to restart or revitalize them and over the years there have been many; in addition to the decisive contributions for the establishment of new environmental education centers or CRAS wildlife recovery centers. But ARCA has had a very important role that should not be underestimated, as also provided for by its statute, in the protection, study, enhancement of historical-taxidermic collections that in the past were the subject of studies and publications by those who we can define as the fathers of Italian ornithology. Over the years the association has been able to involve and hire highly qualified professionals in the field of restoration and ordinary and extraordinary maintenance of the collections. Among these we cannot fail to mention the museum curators: Accountant Raffaele Caggiano; Alfonso Cantarero; Maria Coluccia.

Not to be overlooked was also the work of establishing and enriching a thematic-multilingual library and newspaper library of absolute importance, composed of tens of thousands of volumes, abstracts, extracts and documents of absolute national and international importance. Always consulted by enthusiasts, but also by university students for in-depth use for their theses and research.

Over the years, ARCA has also been able to save and enrich an important photographic archive full of rare and historic images relating to scientific expeditions and the activities of the great Italian naturalists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

There have also been numerous scientific expeditions aimed at deepening the knowledge of different animal species and the biodiversity that linked them together. We try to indicate in chronological order the most important ones that have seen numerous ARCA members personally involved: 1982 and 1988 Cuba, 1983 Eastern Greece, from 1985 to 1990 Scotland, 1986 Lampedusa, 1992 Morocco, 1999 Southern Ireland.