Role of the Public and Private Sectors in Restoring Forest Landscapes Italian Experiences

Expert Workshop on Forest Landscape Restoration in the Mediterranean Region Role of the public and private sectors in restoring forest landscapes Italian experiences Background Paper By Pietro Piussi* and Paola Mairota** * Department of Forest Science and Technology University of Florence, Italy **Phd Candidate in Forest Ecology Department of Forest Environment and Resources University of Tuscia, Italy May 9, 2003 1 Introduction Both the private and public sectors have historically played a crucial role in shaping Mediterranean landscapes. Despite the special situation of each country in terms of forest land tenure, there are many common characteristics across the region in the use and management of forests. The situation in Italy represents these common characteristics well. Mediterranean vegetation in Italy has a long history of exploitation, which has rarely been rational (Thirgood 1981). Italian forest ecosystems are frequently degraded: they show reduced density and biomass, scarcity or absence of tree species, poor control of soil erosion and water budget. This is the consequence of centuries of traditional “multiple use”: collection of wood, fodder, seed and fruits, heavy grazing by domestic animals, occasional agricultural exploitation and frequent fires (Scarascia-Mugnozza et al., 2000). Nevertheless, some forest stands are still characterised by sufficient density and good structure even though they have been exploited for a long time. The most common examples include several oak coppice forests on the Tuscan hills, regularly exploited without interruption at least since the XVI century (Piussi, 1979), and some stone pine woods growing along the coast of Tuscany and Lazio, which were exploited during an even longer period. As far as coppice forests are concerned, the sylvicultural criteria applied until the 1950’s (season for cutting, rotation length, standards conservation, grazing control) were the same or only slightly different from those adopted some 600 years ago by the Tuscan Municipalities for their woodlands (Piussi and Redon, 2001). Also chestnut groves have a long history of cultivation. Thorough research based on historical information (i.e. in archives) could provide additional information for other coppice forests. The existence of dense woods formed by the same dominant species as in the past, even if with a reduced biodiversity and on impoverished sites, contradicts the widespread opinion (cliché) that woods in the Mediterranean area could survive only far from the coast, cities or rivers – in other words beyond human influence. Efficiently managed forest stands are, as a matter of fact, located near urban centres (and markets). They were managed with care since the fuel wood that they provided had strategic value both at village and state level. Sound sylvicultural practices were applied and protection from grazing was implemented. The situation that characterizes the coastal stone pine woods is quite similar, as documented norms were issued to protect the cone production since the beginning of the XV century. The traditional management techniques have been maintained and the pine cultivation has spread to new areas reclaimed from swamps. The most interesting pinewoods of Tuscany were established during the XVIII and the XIX century (Gabbrielli, 1993). Thus, human activities cannot, in principle, be seen as “negative” for the maintenance of forest cover. On the contrary, societal demand, driven by specific economic needs, has led to the development of techniques for utilising, planting, grafting and integrating wood production with other kinds of forest land use. At the same time regulations have been issued to limit, or reduce, illegal activities and disturbances, which reduce the benefits derived from the woods and hinder their sustainable production. This picture cannot be generalised since, especially in some parts of Southern Italy, human pressure on forest resources, combined with severe climatic conditions, has contributed to the degradation of both vegetation and soil thus initiating an irreversible desertification process (Thornes, 1998). Until the middle of the last century, pressure on the forest resources was caused by high population density and an economy totally bound to agriculture, pastoralism and forestry, but in recent years degradation has been caused mainly by irrational forms of land use (Grove and Rackham, 1998). Desertification, widespread in North African countries, can also be observed in Greece and Spain. All mountainous areas, also in the Apennines and on Mediterranean major islands, show a depopulation trend; meanwhile, the process of land abandonment is more pronounced in the central and northern part of the mountain chain. Besides, the mountain economy does not depend exclusively on rural production but more and more from industrial activities, tourism and services. The migration phenomena started at the end of the XIX century but the dimension of the process increased dramatically since the 1950’s. To hinder the migration, public authorities developed a forest policy aimed at creating job opportunities: new forests were planted, mostly in the South, not only to reduce unemployment but also to satisfy the demand for timber, to reduce soil erosion and to ameliorate the water regime in torrents and rivers. The reduction, or abandonment, of unsustainable land use practices paved the way for spontaneous reforestation through a secondary succession (Piussi, 2000). Fields and pastures have been invaded, more or less rapidly, by shrub or tree species. This process, which takes place all over the Italian mountain territory and also in many other European countries can be observed at all altitudes: holm oak, deciduous oaks, various pines, beech and the exotic black locust have invaded abandoned farmland, both tilled and grazed land. Frequently the invasion is initiated by shrub species, which after some years are followed by tree species. Trees species invasion also takes place in some sparse woody formations, more similar to orchards than to woods, such as chestnut groves, cork oak stands, stone pine stands and some relic tree meadows interspersed with pubescent oak (Magini and Piussi, 1966). Although the consequences are not detectable in the short term, changes, and perhaps reduction, in biodiversity occur. There is an impact on the water cycle and soil erosion, changes, or even loss, of the habitat favourable to some animal species, increase in plant biomass and necromass. Therefore, the reforestation processes can have a far-reaching impact: improved control of soil erosion causes a reduced input of solid materials brought by rivers along the coast leading to a retreat of the shoreline (Innocenti and Pranzini, 1993). Increases in biomass and necromass influence humification processes and carbon accumulation in the soil; at the same time the danger of wildfires increases. The consequences of this “social fallow” on hilly and mountainous terrain are even more complex, particularly where land had been modified, or even built up, by building terraces, which created flat land, comparatively deep and uniform soil, good drainage and provided appropriate condition to grow crops. The degradation of these terraces, that is the collapse of the terrace walls and the resulting flow of soil and stones, which were accumulated behind, is caused by water movements, weathering and decay of stones used to build the terraces, animals activities, and growth of roots. The consequences of this process, which takes place at the same time as the vegetation succession and the invasion by woody species cannot be estimated. Changes in forest cover – larger forest area, higher density, higher biomass – testify for a reduced interest in agricultural production but they do not correspond with lack of interest for rural areas from society. Expressions of interest by the urban society are emerging and they derive from new kinds of individual and collective needs. Woods are appreciated as part of the visual landscape, as shown by the widespread use of this theme in various kinds of advertising (even if the message which is transferred is not necessarily coherent with the true nature of the forest, its origin and the relation which links it to society), as space for spending leisure time, as areas devoted to preserve nature, and finally, for those who are aware of problems rising from global warming, as sinks for carbon sequestration. The complex and contradictory dynamics of vegetation, as they have been described – spontaneous afforestation of fields and pastures, improvement of vegetative conditions in coppice forests, increased occurrence of wild fires, unsustainable grazing – cannot be easily controlled (Piussi and Farrell, 2000). A major obstacle is presented by the current type of ownership, which is dominated by small private forests frequently fragmented in scattered lots, where owners are not interested in investments because of limited size, reduced productivity of agriculture and forestry, lack of infrastructures, as well as limited availability of manpower. Within this environmental and social framework, it is difficult to establish far reaching programmes for nature conservation. It is therefore interesting to examine those examples of land management, which try to combine traditional land use systems with those deriving from new societal needs. The concept of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), defined by the World Bank, DFID, DGIS, WWF and IUCN in Segovia, 2000, as “a planned process

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