An Overview of forest cover and management in Italy

Abstract

Over the centuries, alongside multiple changes in socio-economical conditions, needs and technical possibilities, Italian forest and forest management have gone through a dynamic and complex evolution process. In the last decade, forest lands in Italy have been constantly growing and nowadays cover almost 11 million hectars, accounting for 36.4% of the total National territory. Several quantitative and qualitative aspects of forest resources, regarding species composition, actual and available stock, ownership, volume of utilization, accessibility, terrain features and others, have been described through the analysis of the National Forest Inventory (INFC2005). The most represented forest typology is »coppice with standards«, while many forests are in a mature stage, waiting for conversion to transitional stands. Concerning forest logging, full length harvesting and winching-skidding extraction are the most widespread systems, but in many areas the low-openness conditions represent a limiting factor for logging distances, expecially in high slope classes, where sustainable and cost-effective operations are primary. The modern solutions allowed by technological progress, in addition to the growing environmental awareness and need of a sustainable management at multiple level require an efficient forest communications management and professional formation of operators, in a challenging scenario that Italy is called to approach.

Analysis of Chainsaw Emissions during Chestnut Wood Operations and Their Health Implications

“…Moreover, Italian silviculture is primarily geared towards the production of low-value timber or, in some cases, biomass for energy purposes [4]. Consequently, the yield that can be extracted from the majority of Italian forests is not particularly lucrative, rendering it incompatible with management models predicated on advanced mechanization [5].…”

Depth-to-Water Maps to Identify Soil Areas That Are Potentially Sensitive to Logging Disturbance: Initial Evaluations in the Mediterranean Forest Context

“…Instead, these instruments could be particularly useful in this zone. Coppicing interventions, which are one of the most common forest management in Italy [31,32], are carried out during the winter when soil moisture is higher. These have a subsequent lower bearing capacity, considering that soils are generally not frozen during the winter months.…”

Planning of forest traffic infrastructure

“…У Србији просјечна густина шумских путева износи 10,5 м ха -1(Kadović et al 2008). Просјечна отвореност шума у Аустрији износи и 45 м ха -1(Ghaffarian et al 2009;Ghaffarian et al 2010;Findeis 2016). Према томе, отвореност државних шума у Републици Српској је и до 5 пута мања него у појединим земљама окружења на које се наше шумарство традиционално наслања.…”