The project “Habitat improvements for wildlife”, sponsored by the Toscana Regional 
and the Pisa Provincial administrations and realized by Faunalia, is heavily geared 
towards geographical information. For every aspect of data management and analysis 
Faunalia is using exclusively free software:
data are stored in PostgreSQL/PostGIS
different database clients (geographic and alphanumerical) are used for 
administrations: psql, phpPgAdmin, PgAdminIII, OpenOffice, QGIS, UMN MapServer, 
p.mapper
analyses are run through PostGIS, GRASS and R
QGIS is also used for data visualization and checking, and printing for field 
surveys and dissemination of results
most data are available in real time for wider dissemination of results through a 
p.mapper web interface
Main analyses are:
home range size, overlap and localization of radio-tracked pheasants and other 
species
population density of pheasants, hares and passeriformes
habitat preferences for the same species
land use and landscape analysis
previsional models of habitat use
The use of a complete, powerful, well integrated suite of programs allowed us to 
create a multi-user (>12 professionals, students and volunteers, of very varied 
technical computer background and skills) environment, without data duplication. 
Thanks to interoperability, occasional functional limitations of single software 
packages are easily overcome by having several alternatives at hand.
It would have been infeasible to implement a similar infrastructure using 
proprietary software, because the budget of the project is of the same order of 
magnitude of the cost of licences needed.