Susanna Nocentini

Per valorizzare il patrimonio ambientale, storico e culturale della foresta di Vallombrosa e promuovere un turismo sostenibile insieme all’educazione storico-ambientale, sono stati recentemente inaugurati tre percorsi ad anello che offrono a visitatori di tutte le età un’esperienza immersiva tra le maestose abetine storiche della Foresta.

In the last years there has been a growing attention towards the need for a more “natural” approach in forest management. The call for a close to nature forest management is certainly not new. The aim of this review is to analyze how the concept of “nature” has evolved in forest management and discuss if “naturalness” is still a viable reference for managing forests ecosystems considering the multiple values which are today attributed to forests. Over a century ago foresters turned to “virgin forests” as inspiration for modeling silviculture. This approach refers to the classic paradigm in ecology, which for a long time was the “balance of nature paradigm”. More recently “disturbance ecology” has recognized the role of natural disturbances in determining the structure, biodiversity and functioning of forest ecosystems, and has inspired forest management approaches based on the natural disturbance regime. The search for a “natural” reference model underlies the belief that through management it is possible to forecast with sufficient accuracy the reaction of the ecosystem and thus bring it to a composition, structure and functioning considered more natural. Both these approaches are based on a deterministic and anthropocentric view of nature, which today is by many considered unable to capture the complexity and unpredictability of forest ecosystems in a changing world. A truly “close to nature” management should instead consider human action as part of the system, recognizing the needs of society, but without forcing the forest in a predefined model, considered more “natural” and aimed at providing specific products or “services”. In this sense a systemic, adaptive management approach, coherent with a forest ethic, is needed.

The quantification of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) and multi-taxon biodiversity is pivotal to the implementation of forest conservation policies, which are crucial under the current climate change scenarios. We assessed the capacity of Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data to quantify biodiversity indices related to both forest beetle and bird communities and TreMs, calculating the species richness and types of saproxylic and epixylic TreMs using the Shannon index. As biodiversity predictors, 240 ALS-derived metrics were calculated: 214 were point-cloud based, 14 were pixel-level from the canopy height model, and 12 were RGB spectral statistics. We used the random forests algorithm to predict species richness and the Shannon diversity index, using the field plot measures as dependent variables and the ALS-derived metrics as predictors for each taxon and TreMs type. The final models were used to produce wall-to-wall maps of biodiversity indices. The Shannon index produced the best performance for each group considered, with a mean difference of −6.7%. Likewise, the highest R² was for the Shannon index (0.17, against 0.14 for richness). Our results confirm the importance of ALS data in assessing forest biodiversity indicators that are relevant for monitoring forest habitats. The proposed method supports the quantification and monitoring of the measures needed to implement better forest stands and multi-taxon biodiversity conservation.

La Legge n. 3267 del 1923, Legge Serpieri, sancì in Italia la necessità di una gestione forestale regolamentata dallo Stato sulla base delle funzioni del bosco da salvaguardare per l’interesse pubblico: in primo luogo la protezione idrogeologica e in secondo luogo la produzione. Per i boschi di proprietà privata, la legge sottoponeva le utilizzazioni forestali al rispetto di prescrizioni emanate a livello provinciale (Prescrizioni di Massima e di Polizia Forestale, PMPF) e per i boschi di proprietà pubblica, alla redazione di un piano di assestamento o piano economico approvato dall’autorità competente. Con questo contributo, utilizzando il metodo narrativo, si esaminano alcuni esempi di PMPF, rappresentative di diversi contesti ambientali e socio-economici italiani, per verificare se e come le prescrizioni in esse contenute siano state recepite nelle leggi e nei regolamenti forestali regionali.Si conclude che la legge Serpieri ha determinato la messa a punto di un efficiente schema autorizzativo e di gestione forestale, con indicazioni tecniche che si ritrovano quasi inalterate nei provvedimenti normativi regionali degli ultimi decenni. E questo nonostante il bosco abbia assunto nuove dimensioni, che si riflettono in una gestione che deve tener conto non solo del valore strumentale degli ecosistemi forestali ma anche del loro valore intrinseco. Risulta altresì evidente che i problemi del 1923 sono ancora attuali e la necessità di conservare il bosco per la sua insostituibile funzione protettiva è sempre più urgente per il crescente impatto dei cambiamenti climatici.

Il lavoro analizza il percorso sperimentale ideato e realizzato da Pavari per lintroduzione e la coltivazione delle specie forestali esotiche in Italia. In particolare lAutore, sullabase dellesperienza personale condotta in anni di studi sulle parcelle sperimentali realizzate da Pavari a partire dagli anni 20, analizza i risultati della sperimentazione e proponeuna loro interpretazione alla luce della situazione attuale e delle prospettive future.

Purpose of Review: Forests provide multiple ecosystem services (ES) to society, and the demand for ES is growing at the global level. However, how to manage forests for the provision of multiple and sometimes conflicting services is a complex and still unresolved issue. In this study, we reviewed the scientific literature for the period 2010–2020 dealing with forest management and multiple ES in Mediterranean forests, with the aim of (1) outlining the progress in research, (2) identifying knowledge gaps and research needs, and (3) discussing management approaches considering multiple ES. The selected literature was analyzed considering different aspects of multiple ES (e.g., drivers of changes, modeling approaches, trade-offs, and synergies). Recent Findings: Our results show that wood production is still one of the main management objectives, with an increasing attention toward non wood forest products. Carbon sequestration and biodiversity were the most investigated regulating functions, but also specific aspects are gaining attention (e.g., lichens for microclimate regulation). Changes in stand structure and density, the impact of coppice vs. high forest, and the effect of management practices vs. abandonment were considered as drivers of change at the stand/management unit scale, while the impact of climate changes and disturbances were considered at the landscape/regional scale using modeling. Summary: Despite the progress made in the last decade, our review highlights that further research is needed to fill the gaps in the scientific literature regarding how forest management influences the provision of multiple ES in the Mediterranean region. From a conceptual point of view, there is the need for a shift to a new paradigm based on an adaptable, flexible management, and planning approach to sustain self-organization, adaptive capacity, and overall resilience of Mediterranean forests, overcoming the ecosystem “service” approach; operatively, research should move toward a transdisciplinary approach, which considers problems from a diversity of points of view and involves extended peer communities not only in the dissemination of research results, but also in the research process itself.

In recent history, both a growing awareness of how scientific and societal uncertainty impacts management decisions and of the intrinsic value of nature have suggested new approaches to forest management, with a growing debate in forest science over the need for a paradigmatic shift from the classic conventional world view, based on determinism, predictability, and output-oriented management, towards a world view that has roots in complex adaptive systems theory and is consistent with a nature-based ethic. A conceptual framework under this context is provided by systemic silviculture. In this discussion, we analyze how this approach can be linked to three fundamental moments of the history of forestry and forest science: the Dauerwald theory, Gurnaud’s control method, and the origins of environmental ethics. Relationships with the recent history of forest management science and current research perspectives are also highlighted.