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SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT MODELS FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE COMPLEXITY AND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

Project funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (PRIN 2003 funds)
Project started on the November 2003
Duration: 24 months

Project leader: Orazio Ciancio, University of Florence (Italy)

Keywords
FOREST MANAGEMENT; SILVICULTURE; BIODIVERSITY; STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY; VEGETATION DIVERSITY; GENETIC DIVERSITY; RENATURALIZATION; CRITICAL FACTORS; FOREST MONITORING

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Target and tasks of the project
The correct implementation of the concept of sustainable management of natural resources primarily requires to outline methodologies, criteria and indicators to be extended as technical tools for the operators. Complexity and biodiversity are currently associated to the concept of sustainable management. 
The forest ecosystems are key-elements towards the biodiversity conservation at global level. Two different and contrasting phenomena influence critically the conservation of the biological diversity of the forest ecosystems in Italy: the increasing economic marginalization, though facilitating secondary succession processes, and the simplification of the silvicultural techniques, promoting the concentration of wood harvesting, particularly by coppicing, in woodlands easy to access and/or under favourable conditions of seller’s market. 

The present research aims to highlight the main relationships between biodiversity and forest management in Italy by sub-dividing the analysis according to three driving questions:
1. Which are the evolutive self-organizing processes within forest stands unmanaged for since long time?
2. Which is the impact of forest management on the biodiversity of forest systems heavily simplified or liable by man-induced disturbances. Which management approach can favour a more complex structure of the forest stands?
3. Which are the effects of silvicultural treatments on the space-time distribution of genetic variability of trees?

In relation to the previous questions, the research program is organized in three modules, strictly interrelated and referred to specific case-studies: 
· Workpackage 1: evaluation of the effects due to the silvicultural systems on space-time distribution of the genetic variability of tree populations and evaluation of the level of fragmentation influencing the genetic diversity;
· Workpackage 2: analysis of the dynamics of forests abandoned, particularly focussing on the ecological succession patterns and the structural self-reorganization processes as key-elements for the implementation of silviculture treatments on ecological bases; 
· Workpackage 3: evaluation of the impact of forest management on biodiversity by analysing forest systems at different levels of simplification by vegetation structure (high stands, coppice woodlands, reforestation stands, intensive tree crops) or due to man-induced disturbances (e.g., forest fires) in order to outline management approaches tending to favour the structure diversity consistent with their use.
Distinctively, the methodological framework, joining all the the above mentioned workpackages, consists on the analysis and the evaluation of changes as determined by different models of forest management at level of spatial structure of the tree canopy and vegetation diversity (within and between plant species), i.e. parameters well-known as related to the functional processes of forest ecosystems and to their overall biodiversity.
Key-output of the project will be a Compendium of Specific Guidelines towards the sustainable management of the main forest types, founded on the principles of conservation and enhancement of biodiversity. It will outline, on the one hand, the critical management factors at the different examined scales, and, on the other hand, the interactions emphasized by the implementation of the proposed models of silvicultural management (Workpackage 4).

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Research units

1) Università di FIRENZE, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali Forestali
Responsible: Orazio CIANCIO ciancio@unifi.it

2) Università della BASILICATA (Potenza), Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale
Responsible: Antonio SARACINO saracino@unibas.it

3) Università di PARMA, Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali
Responsible: Paolo MENOZZI paolo.menozzi@unipr.it

4) Università della TUSCIA (Viterbo), Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente Forestale e delle sue Risorse
Responsible: Piermaria CORONA piermaria.corona@unitus.it

5) Università di PADOVA, Dipartimento Territorio e Sistemi Agroforestali
Responsible: Franco VIOLA franco.viola@unipd.it

6) Università di TORINO, Dipartimento Agronomia, Selvicoltura e Gestione del Territorio
Responsible: Giovanni BOVIO giovanni.bovio@unito.it

7) Università della CALABRIA (Cosenza), Dipartimento di Difesa del Suolo
Responsible: Francesco IOVINO iovino@dds.unical.it

8) Università "La Sapienza" (Roma), Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale
Responsible: Carlo BLASI carlo.blasi@uniroma1.it

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