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Traditional agroforestry systems have received increasing attention in recent decades for their multifunctional role and as a sustainable development model for rural areas. At the international level, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme in 2002 with the aim of identifying agricultural systems of global importance; preserving landscapes, agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge; applying the dynamic conservation principles while promoting sustainable development. The aim of the research is to carry out a review of the inscription dossiers of all the 59 sites already included in the GIAHS programme, in order to analyze the role of forests and agroforestry systems. Moreover, the main traditional management techniques have been identified and briefly described, as traditional forest-related knowledge is particularly important for sustainable forest management. Forests and agroforestry systems have been found to be important or crucial in about half of the sites. The main role assigned to forests and agroforestry systems in GIAHS proposals is related to the production of timber, fuelwood and by-products for the local communities according to sustainable and traditional management techniques. Among these, they also play important roles in hydrogeological protection, water regulation and biodiversity maintenance, representing examples both of human adaptation to different environments and of resilient systems that could help to face global challenges such as hydrogeological risk and climate change. The review of the GIAHS inscription dossiers also highlighted the lack of a uniform approach in dealing with forest issues, especially for what concern the description of management plans and the relation with protected areas or forest planning instruments.

© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionLand use inventories are sound measures to provide information on the area occupied by different land use or land cover types and their changes, although less widespread than traditional mapping. The use of formal statistical procedures allows land use inventory to straightforwardly provide area figures along with uncertainty estimates: this is an important advantage in comparison to other land-use area assessment methods, as the reliability of such figures can be quantitatively evaluated (Corona et al. 2007, Corona 2010.Distinctively, land use inventories are wellestablished tools for generating statistics on the state and the dynamics of land use in the European Union: for instance, the Program Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS, Decision N°1445/2000/EC of the European Parliament and the Council) provides harmonized data on land use/cover and their changes over time in the 27 EU countries based on direct observations gathered through ground survey in the framework of area-frame sampling scheme.Italy is one of the first European countries that have adopted statistical systems to monitor land use changes earlier than the proliferation of mapping initiatives, thanks to the AGRIT project (http://www.itacon.it). More recently, the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea has implemented the land use inventory (Inventario dell'Uso delle Terre -IUTI) as a key instrument of the National Registry for forest carbon sinks. The Registry is part of the national system for the Italian greenhouse gas inventory, which includes all institutional, legal and procedural arrangements for accounting anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases (GHG) under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol (ISPRA 2011). Italy has elected forest management (Article 3.4) as activities eligible for the first commitment period, thus assigning to forest sector a leading role in the fulfilment of the Italian target under the Kyoto Protocol. Accordingly, the latest Italian National Forest Inventory (NFI) has been conceived as main data source for accounting removals/emissions of GHG in forest land (see http:// www.infc.it), e.g., by adopting the FAO The National Registry for carbon sinks integrates the NFI sample set within a bundle of integrated tools aimed at estimating greenhouse gases removals/emissions associated to activities under articles 3.3 (afforestation, reforestation and deforestation) and ), due to forest land conversion mainly into artificial areas; (ii) consumption of arable land (-4.2% of the Italian territory) primarily due to land uptake by urban areas and to conversions to permanent crops (mainly orchards and vineyards); (iii) urban sprawl uptakes 1.6% of the Italian territory in this period, with a total coverage of settlements reaching 7.1% of total land surface in Italy in 2008. Overall, land use dynamic results in land uptake by forest land is of the same magnitude of land uptake by u...

National forest inventories represent a fundamental source of data and knowledge for forestry and environmental policy and allow for the production of national and regional level statistics on forests. The value of these statistics confirms the need for a sampling design that adequately delivers representation by reducing sampling error, but also for a data quality process that limits the non-sampling errors. The article summarizes the quality control procedures of the three sampling phases adopted in the Italian national forest inventory, carried out between 2003 and 2006. The development of an integrated system of actions and controls which are able to limit subjective interpretations, in order to guarantee harmonized information all over the country, was a considerable effort within the overall project. Critical points to be considered were the consistent number of measures and evaluations undertaken during the three inventory phases, the high variability of observed attributes, the consistent number of surveyors involved, and costs of quality control, especially those related to fieldwork. At the end, examples on the overall quality of the classification performed on land cover and vegetation are discussed, as well as the impact of classification errors on the total forest area estimates.

<p>The Mission of GMATICS is to offer systematic monitoring services based on Earth Observation data, Artificial Intelligence techniques and Open Data Cube architectures.</p><p>After the development of two initial services, GMATICS is now focusing on forest monitoring through the ESA funded project MAFIS-Multiple Actors Forest Information System.</p><p>What is MAFIS? MAFIS performs a systematic monitoring of forests in natural environments as well as of forests and green areas in urban environments.</p><p>What is MAFIS composed of? For the natural environment we use time-series of multi-mission satellite data (Multispectral, SAR, Hyperspectral, and VHR) and in-situ surveys while for forests and green areas in urban environments we also use other geo-spatial data from aerial orthophotos, LIDAR sensing, drone surveys and specialized in situ measurements. All kind of data are organized within an Open Data Cube architecture and are processed and integrated by using various AI techniques. We also use a forest growth model, exploiting extensive meteorological data, and we make MAFIS service accessible through a Web-GIS platform, enabling customer access from desk-top and mobile devices.</p><p>What are the MAFIS outputs? A set of information layers suitable for different potential users: main tree species classification, identification of forest clear-cuts and selective cuttings, detection of disturbances due to forest fires, diseases or windstorms, estimation of Above Ground Biomass (AGB) gain and losses, detailed urban and peri-urban green area assessment for planning purpose, estimation and spatial assessment of various ecosystems services (carbon sequestration, pollutant removal, thermal comfort, pollen risks, etc.), monitoring of tree status for maintenance actions identification and prioritization.</p><p>Who are MAFIS potential users? Ministries of agriculture and environment, Local Administrations, wood-chain industry, municipalities, architects and urban planners, tree care and nursery companies, multiutility companies, International Organizations, Universities and Research Centres (forests, ecology, architecture).</p>