Forest Management in Protected Areas in Italy

Abstract

In Italian protected areas, traditional silviculture has not always given the rightful priority to the objectives of conservation and natural improvement of the forest heritage. In addition, approaches to silvicultural management vary quite significantly. In some cases, for example in the Abruzzo National Park, most of the forests are left to free evolution or at least treated by natural criteria in cutting, thus obtaining significant improvements in population structure and biodiversity; in other cases, for example, the Monti Sibillini National Park, no particular conservation measures have been adopted, and thus currently there is no substantial difference between usage inside and outside the protected area. Of particular importance is the possibility of and need to create A Zones in the Parks (whole reserves) to maintain some significant sections of forest, excluding any anthropogenic intervention, in order to allow conservation of all extant forest associations and thus their species, phytosociological and genetic diversity. Hence, forest assessment projects in protected areas must take into account the economic exigencies of the resident population, but also be attentive to identifying areas of the forest where the complete biological cycle of the wood can happen, and the different associations can be maintained, promoting the adoption of strictly natural silvicultural criteria. In the current conditions in Italy, this is possible only if we enact a policy of renting or, preferably, public acquisition of wooded areas with the highest degree of natural conditions, as well as wooded areas that are degraded today, for which a recovery process is timely.