Converting coppices into high forests with continuous cover has often been established during the last decades as a management goal in hilly and mountainous Mediterranean areas to attenuate the negative effects that frequent clearcutting may have on soil, landscape and biodiversity conservation. The silvicultural tool usually adopted for this purpose is the gradual thinning of sprouts during the long span of time required to complete the conversion, that also allows the owner to keep harvesting some wood. This research compared the effects of various thinning intensities (three treatments plus control) on the stand growth and structure of a beech coppice with standards. The optimal density after thinning was assessed by expressing mean tree spacing as a function of main stand attributes like stand height and stand dbh. This system was preferred to the empirical evaluation of the percentage of basal area to be removed in order to give forest managers general reference guidelines to adapt to the varying environments of the Mediterranean mountains. Results confirmed that the positive effects of thinning on mean stem volume is due more to the higher diameter increment than to different height growth. The acceleration of crown growth in the thinned plots allowed canopy closure to be achieved 13 years after thinning. This reduced the negative effects of the opening of the stand overlayer and the elimination of most suppressed trees on soil protection. Under the conditions examined, the best thinning intensity proved to be a stand density 20% lower than normal prescribed by the yield tables elaborated for beech high forests in Central and Southern Italy. #

Aim of study: The paper is a scientific commented discussion with the aim of defining a framework which allows both a comprehensive vision of forest dynamics, as well as an adaptive management approach and policy procedures more suited to a changing and inherently unpredictable world.Main results: We identify the main challenges facing forestry in relation to recent developments in forestry thinking, i.e. the paradox of aiming at sustainability in a changing environment, a shifting perception of the relationship between ecological and social systems, the recognition of forest ecosystems as complex adaptive systems, the need for integrating the social and ecological dimensions of forestry into a single framework, and the growing awareness of the importance of the ethical approach to the forest. We propose the concept of "systemic forestry" as a paradigm for better understanding forest dynamics and for guiding management and public actions at various levels. We compare the systemic approach with different silvicultural and forest management approaches which have been proposed in the last decades.Research highlights: Our analysis shows that a systemic approach to forestry has five main consequences: 1. forestry is viewed as a part of landscape dynamics through a multi-sectoral coordination, 2. the logic of action changes from norm to process, 3. conservation is a dynamic search for resilience, 4. multi-functionality is achieved through a multi-entries approach integrating ecological, social and economic components of sustainability, 5. forestry institutions are reframed to address the issue of changing interactions among actors, 6. a change in the ethical approach to the forest is needed.

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Classic silviculture and management, with the aim of predicting regeneration rate and producing a constant yield of merchantable wood, have simplified many forests, often transforming natural forests into plantations or coppices. To conserve forest complexity and biodiversity, silviculture and forest management should change the reference paradigm and consider forest ecosystems as complex biological systems characterized by the inherent unpredictability of their trajectories in a continuously changing environment. The new Management Plan for the Vallombrosa Forest (Florence, Italy), a State Nature Reserve and a Natura 2000 Site, is based on this approach. The aim is the gradual evolution of the pure silver fir stands toward mixed stands with a complex structure. Most of the species considered by Natura 2000 depend on an increase of structural diversity at different space and time scales. The management approach proposed by the new plan is coherent with this aim and thus biodiversity conservation is not in conflict with forest management but is, instead, a direct consequence of the systemic approach.