© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionForest cover in the Alps in the past centuries was shaped by human activities: agriculture and timber harvesting affected the lower and intermediate elevations while farming the higher (MacDonald et al. 2000). In fact, the traditional form of farming in the Alps involved moving livestock (mainly cows and sheep) from the valleys to the higher pastures according to the season. In winter the animals were sheltered in the valleys while during the summer they were carried to higher pastures where they could exploit the seasonal abundance of food. The herdsman used to stay in the typical mountain dairy called "Malga" surrounded by natural pastures or grassland derived from forest clearance (Piussi 2000). Farming in these areas was traditionally extensive and carried out by means of local and frugal breeds.During World War I the forests of the eastern Italian Alps were extensively exploited by the soldiers because the fighting took place on the national border which ran along the tops of the mountains in the area being investigated. Since the end of World War II land use in mountain areas has changed dramatically: as many people moved to the cities, the traditional activities were almost abandoned, and consequently the pressure that shaped the vegetation for centuries was no longer there (De Natale et al. 2005, Sitzia et al. 2007, Sitzia 2009). While these social issues affect the Alps as well as in the study area, their impact on vegetation distribution and composition are harder to estimate (Swetnam et al. 1999, Scarascia-Mugnozza et al. 2000, Ciolli et al. 2002, Dullinger et al. 2003, Garbarino et al. 2009).There are interesting studies showing that agriculture related biodiversity is highly threatened both through abandonment and intensification but, unfortunately, much of the available data concerns arable and lowland farmland, although there is a lack of knowledge in mountain areas (Marriott et al. 2004).The The problem has been fully recognised also at EU level: a recent EEA report (European Environment Agency 2004) stresses the fact that the prevalence of high nature value farmland is in less productive areas, such as those located in southern Europe and in mountainous regions. Many relevant conservation efforts have been undertaken at a European level, such as the Pan-European biological and landscape diversity strategy, the Bern Convention, the European Landscape Convention, the Birds and Habitats Directives.In order to understand the ecological dynamics in the Alps under changing social and climatic conditions, it is crucial to develop a knowledge of what the forest landscape was like in the past and to get a precise idea of the rapidity of the natural succession set up in the open semi-natural grassland habitats.Multi-temporal analysis of historical maps, aerial photographs and satellite images with the aid of GIS is the best tools to reconstruct the past distribution of forest cover. The recent availability of aerial and satellite imagery and of the instru...

Today public participation is considered to be an important element of forest planning. This paper illustrates a methodological proposal for integrating public participation in forest planning at a landscape scale. In order to present the conceptual context in which the proposal was elaborated and to make clear the reasons behind the current move towards public participation, I make an analysis of the significance, role and characteristics of participation in the management of natural resources based on experiences of the last decades as documented in international literature.

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In the early 1990s, public involvement in forest planning was recognized and implemented both at a political and technical level in Europe, whereas in Italy, the participatory approach in forest planning, particularly at landscape level, has become widespread over the last decade. Several actors have been involved and the need to consider the objectives and targets expressed by different stakeholders has progressively increased. More consideration has been given to the outcomes of this involvement for the decisionmaking process. In the first part of the article, the forest-planning framework in the Italian context is presented, illustrating the role of the different levels of planning: the National Forest Programme (NFP), the Forest Landscape Management Plan (FLMP), and the Forest Unit Management Plan (FUMP). In the second part, the public participation process model, developed by the authors in Italy for the landscape scale, is analyzed by underlining four key attributes: procedure, moment of participation, learning interaction, and delegation of power. Regarding procedure, the five stages of participation adopted-communication and information, stakeholder analysis, first consultation stage, synthesis and preparation of the scenarios, and second consultation stage-are presented in order 465 Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 23:37 02 October 2015 466 A. Paletto et al. to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the methodological approach.