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In some geographical areas of North America and Southeast Asia cities are frequently hit by heavy windstorms capable of knocking down hundreds of urban trees and large branches in a few minutes. Falling trees generate a broad array of disservices that vary over time and space. In Europe and worldwide the frequency of these extreme weather events has increased in recent decades and climate change could intensify these windstorms while the effects of urban land expansion could increase the extent of damage. However, Europe’s urban populations are unprepared for extreme weather events and are unable to limit the effects that the widespread loss of trees over limited space and time can have on people, buildings and city road networks. Preparing for rare, extreme future events that could strongly affect urban green infrastructures is a demanding challenge for city dwellers and for those who should ensure the continuity of the ecosystem services provided by urban trees. In fact, the damage caused by fallen trees is combined with the loss of the benefits provided by the trees themselves. Therefore the aim of this paper is to: (a) investigate the disruptions that a windstorm can cause in an urban area full of trees using a conceptual model; (b) conduct a literature review to determine how high the risk of these disservices occurring in Europe really is, which is definitely more likely than commonly perceived and could increase as a result of climate change and; (c) indicate what kind of measures can be taken in European cities to prevent or at least reduce the risks from falling urban trees during a strong windstorm, starting from the experience gained in the geographical areas most frequently and intensely affected by this type of weather event.

Mediterranean stone pine reforestations are common characteristics of the Italian Tyrrhenian coast, which mostly maintain uniform and monolayered stand structures. However, improving structural diversity is an effective climate change adaptation strategy in forest management. The aim of this study was to implement a methodology which allows distinct reforested areas such as a single green infrastructure to be managed according to the surrounding land use and the characteristics of the forest stands. 240 hectares of Mediterranean stone pine forests located along a 16 km strip of the Lazio coast (Central Italy) were mapped. Twelve attributes describing the pine stands and showing possible constraints for future management decisions were associated to each forest patch. A hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to group the pinewood patches according to their similarity level and five different groups were identified. For each group, different silvicultural methods were proposed to guide the compositional and structural evolution of the stands, in order to make them suitable for providing services required locally and increasing overall diversity at landscape scale. The results of the study highlight how coastal land uses can offer effective inputs to differentiate the management of forest systems and therefore achieve greater variety and resilience in the landscape over time. This approach is particularly useful in the case of very homogeneous stands such as the stone pine reforestations under study.

Urban forests can provide essential environmental and social functions if properly planned and managed. Tree inventories and measurements are a critical part of assessing and monitoring the size, growth, and health condition of urban trees. In this context, the parameters usually collected are diameter at breast height (DBH) and total height, but additional data about crown dimensions (width, length, and crown projection) are required for a comprehensive tree assessment. These data are generally collected by urban foresters through field surveys using tree calipers or diameter tape for DBH and the electronic ipsometer/clinometer to measure tree height and crown size. Greater detail could be achieved using a digital instrument such as Field-Map, a portable computer station, to quickly realize dimensional and topographic surveys of trees and forest stands. Additionally, the incorporation of a LIDAR scanner into a smartphone such as the iPhone 12 Pro has made this device able to measure tree attributes as well as additional spatial data in the field. In this study, we tested these 3 different measurement systems in a field sampling of an urban forest and compared them in terms of measurable parameters, accuracy, cost, and time efficiency. Furthermore, we discussed the pros and cons of each measurement approach and how the resulted data can be used to evaluate ecosystem services of trees and provide guidance on tree management in order to reduce potential risks or disservices.

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.

The Italian forest area has been increasing for several decades, but it is largely under conditions of abandonment due to the suspension of any form of active management. The article highlighted the positive aspects and the critical issues inherent in this situation. On a landscape scale, abandonment is seen as a positive factor that can determine the improvement of biodiversity over time but, since it mainly affects the forests of mountain areas, there is a real risk of compromising important protective functions that contribute to guaranteeing the quality of life of local communities, especially in the face of climate change. Logging operations always have a significant impact on stands but only through silviculture, if implemented with a systemic approach, it is possible to give the forest structure and composition that make it adequate to carry out protective functions. Forestry must therefore be relaunched as a tool to guarantee biological functionality, perpetuity and the use of the forest, increasing resistance, resilience and adaptability of the ecosystems in the face of global change

Forests are widely recognized as important landscape elements which contribute to human health and well-being. They provide benefits derived from direct and indirect experiences of contact with nature by reducing psychological and physical stress, thus creating positive feelings and facilitating the recovery of psychological resources. In order to establish or manage forests for recreational purposes, it is essential to know which forest stand structure features and indicators are linked to actual or perceived psychological restoration. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between individual factors, perceived restorativeness, stand structure attributes and self-reported physical-psychological benefits obtained when visiting woodlands in urban or peri-urban areas especially coastal Italian stone pine forests using a quantile regression approach. Perceived restorativeness components such as ‘being-away’, ‘fascination’ and ‘compatibility’ emerged as significant predictors of visitors’ perceived psychological benefits, showing a positive and significant association in all of the quantiles under study. Stand density, measured by basal area per hectare of understory trees and shrubs negatively influences the perception of the benefits obtained, holding constant the other covariates.

Site conditions and forest management affect dendrometric parameters of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) coppices, but there is modest knowledge on the effect of stand dendrometric characters on physical and mechanical wood characteristics. The aim of this study was to verify these relationships in chestnut coppices that were 12–14 years old. Wood density, compression and bending strength, shrinkages were measured on shoots of five different stand in a vulcanic site in Monte Amiata (Central – Italy). Investigated stands differ in number of stools/ha and dominant height, diameter/basal area of the shoots. The main difference in the physical characters among the stands is density. The initial results of the study showed that physical, mechanical wood characters are more dependent by the shoot than by the site. There is a positive relationships between the number of stools/ha and density and a negative one among shoot dominant height and basal area with wood density. Spectroscopic profile by FTIR has not showed relevant differences among the stands. Wood anatomy has showed the breakpoint at cellular level.

International audience; Context: European Union policies for sustainable development converge towards the enhancement of forest resources. Hypothesis: enlargement of the range of wood products and increase in timber products usage can only be achieved if these products are more competitive than conventional.Aims: With respect to conifer timber, chestnut timber has competitive characteristics. However, chestnut timber has had very few opportunities for market development in the last decades. As result of its competitiveness margins, the laminated chestnut beams process has recently developed.For this product, a conventional market or competitiveness space has been established as well as its extension in relation to non-market characteristics.Methods: Market space has been defined by determining - the producer’s reserve price limits, using the cost approach criteria; - the consumer’s upper limit, using the market comparison approach; - the expansion of the upper limit for the non-market characteristics, the environmentally friendly consumer price, determined through interviews with a sample of responsible consumers.RResults Limits are: - the producer’s reserve price is 752.68 €/m3 - the consumer’s reserve price is 918.77 €/m3 - in the main regional market (Rome district), the environmentally friendly consumer’s price is 1164.08 €/m3.Conclusion: Knowledge of the various market limits of chestnut timber allows producers to assess its competitive margins. Conservation over time of these margins, however, requires dedicated governance, as well as the adoption of a forest strategy aimed at promoting the timber production quality and a marketing plan to promote the knowledge of the characteristics of chestnut wood (market and non-market characteristics) and increase the number of responsible consumers.

The ecological and economic relevance of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) has long been related to its widespread geographical distribution and multipurpose product potential. In Central Italy, chestnut management represents a paradigmatic example of the potential conflict between landowner targets and biodiversity conservation: options for preserving stand-scale biodiversity are not fully considered as current management is based on monospecific, even-aged coppice stands and clearcutting on wide areas. Relationships between silvicultural treatment and floristic diversity of chestnut coppices are here investigated focusing the attention on rotation length and on the role of thinning. Seven coppice stands were selected in such a way to be of similar size (about 10 ha) and to cover a wide range of ages and a different number of thinnings. Plot sampling was performed across the stands and their floristic diversity was compared and analyzed by means of indicators in order to assess statistical relations...

This paper reviews the literature relating to the relationship between light availability in the understory and the main qualitative and quantitative attributes of stand overstory usually considered in forest management and planning (species composition, density, tree sizes, etc.) as well as their changes as consequences of harvesting. The paper is divided in two sections: the first one reviews studies which investigated the influence of species composition on understory light conditions; the second part examines research on the relationships among stand parameters determined from dendrometric field data and the radiation on understory layer. The objective was to highlight which are the most significant stand traits and management features to build more practical models for predicting light regimes in any forest stand and, in more general terms, to support forest managers in planning and designing silvicultural treatments that retain structure in different way in order to meet different objectives.

Italian stone pine is a landmark of Mediterranean coastal areas. Today, pinewoods represent environmental amenity areas at risk, being under siege from intensive urbanisation. We present an emblematic case study in Rome’s coastal strip where urban encroachment around pinewoods is somewhat overlooked by urban planning, which may be threatening for their conservation. We studied: (i) changes in land use intensification in the pinewoods’ surroundings over the past 60 years (1949–2008), by means of a synthetic index of landscape conservation (ILC) ranging from 0 (maximum level of anthropogenic landscape alteration) to 1 (maximum level of landscape naturalness); (ii) influence of different landscape protection level on land use intensification. Findings show that in areas with low levels of landscape protection, the ILC had been decreasing in the first 100-m surrounding pinewoods, and within the 1-km buffer. The ILC had been rather stable within areas with high levels of landscape protection. Lessons learnt have implications for spatial development strategies to protect coastal pinewoods from external pressures due to future (planned) urban densification in their surroundings.

A number of international agreements and commitments emphasize the importance of appropriate monitoring protocols and assessments as prerequisites for sound conservation and management of the world’s forest ecosystems. Mandated periodic surveys, like forest inventories, provide a unique opportunity to identify and properly satisfy natural resource management information needs. Distinctively, there is an increasing need for detecting diversity by means of unambiguous diversity measures. Because all diversity measures are functions of tree species abundances, estimation of tree diversity indices and profiles is inevitably performed by estimating tree species abundances and then estimating indices and profiles as functions of the abundance estimates. This strategy can be readily implemented in the framework of current forest inventory approaches, where tree species abundances are routinely estimated by means of plots placed onto the surveyed area in accordance with probabilistic schemes. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of this strategy by reviewing theoretical results from published case studies. Under uniform random sampling (URS), that is when plots are uniformly and independently located on the study region, consistency and asymptotic normality of diversity index estimators follow from standard limit theorems as the sampling effort increases. In addition, variance estimation and bias reduction are achieved using the jackknife method. Despite its theoretical simplicity, URS may lead to uneven coverage of the study region. In order to avoid unbalanced sampling, the use of tessellation stratified sampling (TSS) is suggested. TSS involves covering the study region by a polygonal grid and randomly selecting a plot in each polygon. Under TSS, the diversity index estimators are consistent, asymptotically normal and more precise than those achieved using URS. Variance estimation is possible and there is no need to reduce bias.

Management of recreational forests requires focused actions that give priority to the enjoyment of the users subordinating wood production to that goal. Even silvicultural treatments should be drawn with the main aim of increasing recreational value of forest. This papercritically examines the effects of a thinning performed on a periurban 50 years old calabrian pine stand (Pinus laricio Poiret), that has long been used as green area within the city of Viterbo. Thinning intensity, stem selection,damages caused to the released trees, the resulting effect on stand structure and on vegetation dynamics were assessed using as reference the attributes considered optimal for a recreational forest.

The conifer reforestations established during the last century in many mountainous areas of Central and Southern Italy allowed the restoration of thousands of hectares of degraded bare lands. During the last sixty years many social and environmental functions were added to such forests and now they require a multifunctional management approach. A 100-years old reforestation with black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) located in a mountain tourist area and within a Natura 2000 site in Central Italy was taken into consideration as a case study. The stands, although even-aged and dense, have a diversified structure as a consequence of localized wind throws and the growth of an underlayer of hardwoods. The traditional, timber production-oriented management based on strip clear cutting has shown to be inapplicable in such a context. Systemic silviculture grasps this challenge as it assumes as fundamental management goal the search for the functional efficiency of the forest ecosystem. In such a perspective silvicultural practices are guided by an adaptive approach, based on trial and error, rather than on so-called normalisation schemes. Starting from the concept that forest is a complex, self-regulating, dynamically changing system,a management trajectory is proposed to foster the gradual succession of the pine stands towards different types of pure and mixed hardwood forest according to site conditions. The basic silvicultural criterion is to reduce gradually the pine cover by thinning and opening of small gaps in order to increase tree age and size diversity. The public incentives necessary to implement this sort of management are justified by the goal of increasing the functionality and resilience of the forest system: both elements can reduce the risk of damages for the forests. This paper aims to provide general considerations on such issues in the form of a commentary discussion with reference to the considered case study. I rimboschimenti di conifere realizzati durante il secolo scorso in molte aree montuose del Centro e Sud Italia hanno permesso il recupero di migliaia di ettari di terreni nudi soggetti a erosione. Negli ultimi 60 anni, in aggiunta a quella protettiva, altre funzioni sociali e ambientali sono state attribuite a tali popolamenti per la cui gestione è ora richiesto un approccio multifunzionale. Come caso di studio è stato preso in considerazione un rimboschimento di 100 anni di pino nero (Pinus nigra Arnold ) situato in una zona turistica in Abruzzo, all’interno di un sito Natura 2000. I popolamenti, sebbene nel complesso puri e omogenei, presentano a tratti struttura diversificata a causa di schianti da vento localizzati e il conseguente sviluppo di uno strato inferiore di latifoglie autoctone in corrispondenza delle aperture della copertura. I tradizionali metodi di pianificazione forestale, orientati alla produzione legnosa e basati sul taglio raso a strisce per favorire la rinnovazione del pino, sono risultati inapplicabili in un tale contesto a causa della scarsa redditività della coltivazione. Viene qui proposto un diverso approccio alla gestione dei rimboschimenti, basato sull’adozione della selvicoltura sistemica, ponendo come obiettivo fondamentale la ricerca dell’efficienza funzionale dell’ecosistema forestale. In questa prospettiva le pratiche selvicolturali sono guidate da un approccio adattativo, basato sul metodo per tentativi ed eliminazione degli errori, piuttosto che sui cosiddetti sistemi di normalizzazione. Partendo dal concetto che il bosco è un sistema complesso, capace di auto-regolazione e in continuo cambiamento, l’articolo propone una traiettoria di gestione in grado di favorire la graduale successione della pineta verso diversi tipi forestali in base alle condizioni micro-stazionali presenti nell’area rimboschita. Il criterio colturale è di ridurre gradualmente la copertura del pino mediante diradamenti e l’apertura di piccole buche per aumentare nel tempo la diversità di specie, età e dimensione degli alberi senza bruschi mutamenti del paesaggio. Gli incentivi pubblici necessari per attuare questo tipo di interventi sono giustificati dall’obiettivo di aumentare la funzionalità e la resilienza del sistema forestale: entrambi gli elementi possono ridurre il rischio di danni per le foreste. Questo lavoro si propone di fornire considerazioni generali su tali questioni nella forma di una discussione con riferimento al caso di studio analizzato.

Due to a long-standing history of human impact, it is rare to find in Europe old-growth stands associated to primary forests; the term “old-growthness” is more appropriate to assess old-growth forests in European countries: i.e. the degree to which forest stands, which may or may not have been impacted by humans, express the structural variability commonly found in old-growth forests. The paper focuses on operational methods to assess and promote old-growthness in countries, like Italy, where old-growthness detection is a difficult task because of the scarcity of “relatively old” forest stands. Lessons learnt from research experiences carried out in Italy are reviewed; research findings mostly come from unmanaged tracts of previously managed forest stands that have reached structural and compositional traits typical of the mature stage of forest dynamics. A commentary discussion is provided on the following topics: (i) how to operationally assess old-growthness of forest stands, by coupling remot...

Estimation and mapping of forest attributes are a fundamental support for forest management planning. This study describes a practical experimentation concerning the use of design-based k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) approach to estimate and map selected attributes in the framework of inventories at forest management level. The study area was the Chiarino forest within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park (central Italy). Aboveground biomass and current annual increment of tree volume were selected as the attributes of interest for the test. Field data were acquired within 28 sample plots selected by stratified random sampling. Satellite data were acquired by a Landsat 5 TM multispectral image. Attributes from field surveys and Landsat image processing were coupled by k-NN to predict the attributes of interest for each pixel of the Landsat image. Achieved results demonstrate the effectiveness of the k-NN approach for statistical estimation, that is compatible with the produced forest attribute raster maps and also proves to be characterized, in the considered study case, by a precision double than that obtained by conventional inventory based on field sample plots only. L'articolo è disponibile sul sito dell'editore www.sisef.it

La gestione della complessita dei sistemi forestali e un compito che richiede strumenti di vario tipo ma centrale rimane il ruolo della pianificazione, specie quella a scala aziendale. Il pianificatore forestale si trova oggi ad agire nella zona di interfaccia tra due sistemi complessi in stretta relazione tra loro: bosco e societa. Quest’ultima e molto piu articolata che in passato e richiede alla foresta molteplici funzioni anche in conflitto tra loro. Le scelte assestamentali basate sulla selvicoltura sistemica devono favorire l’ordine naturale del bosco, incerto e imprevedibile, valutando la capacita della foresta di offrire le funzioni richieste. Favorire la partecipazione dei portatori d’interesse, applicare sistematicamente il controllo degli effetti delle decisioni prese,, adottare strumenti di supporto alle decisioni piu adatti di quelli classici ad affrontare problemi poco strutturati e gestire con efficacia la molteplicita di informazioni oggi disponibili sul bosco vengono proposte come idee guida per affrontare l’impegnativo compito affidato alla pianificazione forestale.

I boschi di acero trilobo sono una delle formazioni forestali piu singolari presenti nel variegato ambiente dei Monti della Tolfa, in provincia di Roma. La prevalenza di questa specie, xerofila e frugale, all’interno dei soprassuoli e senz’altro legata alle ripetute ceduazioni e al pascolo brado che hanno innescato intensi processi erosivi a carico del suolo, ma appare anche favorita dalle condizioni litologiche e pedologiche che caratterizzano il versante meridionale del comprensorio tolfetano; in particolare, dall’elevato contenuto di carbonato di calcio presente nel substrato litologico che si riverbera nei suoli e ne condiziona fortemente le proprieta fisiche e chimiche. Le analisi dendrometriche hanno evidenziato che l’acero trilobo puo raggiungere dimensioni superiori a quanto riportato in letteratura e del tutto simili a quelle delle specie quercine in queste stazioni con siccita estiva e di mediocre fertilita. Il suo ruolo come specie capace di ricostituire popolamenti degradati in ambiente arido va valorizzato anche alla luce degli attuali trend climatici.

This is the final paper of: Multifactor empirical mapping of the protective function of forests against landslide occurrence: statistical approaches and a case study- published iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry,Volume 9,Issue 3, Pages 383-393 (2016) doi:https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor1740-008Published: Jan 16, 2016 - Copyright © 2016 SISEF Abstract Forests are increasingly valued for services beyond timber and non-timber products including land protection with respect to events such as landslides, soil erosion, floods and avalanches. The most important properties of a protective forest are its ecological and mechanical stability. Planning and implementing multifunctional forest management in protective forests is challenging because of the trade-offs and synergies among the many functions of the forest. In this study, a multifactor empirical method is presented for assessing the protective role of forests on a stand scale with respect to landslide occurrence. Multifactor methodologies typically estimate landslide susceptibility exploiting the relationship between past landslide patterns and site characteristics. Two statistical approaches were here applied to assess the probability of landslide occurrence: the weight-of-evidence technique and the logistic regression technique. Statistical analysis was performed on the basis of landslide detachment zone only. The question of how to estimate protective forest function was answered through the comparison of models established with different sets of predicting factors. This study ultimately aims to provide a decision- support tool focused on mapping the potential role of forests in landslideprone areas. A case study from the Italian Alps was considered. The density of landslide detachment outside forest areas proves to be more than twice than that within forest areas.

The literature on human experience in green environments had widely showed the positive outcomes of getting in contact with nature. This study addresses the issue of whether urban residents’ evaluations of urban and peri-urban natural settings and the positive outcomes deriving from contact with such settings vary as a function of their biodiversity. A field study assessed benefits and subjective well-being reported by urban residents visiting four different typologies of green spaces, selected on the basis of urban forestry expert criteria according to a 2 × 2 factorial design. The biodiversity level (low vs. high) was crossed with the setting location (urban vs. peri-urban) as follows: urban squares with green elements, urban parks, pinewood forest plantations, and peri-urban natural protected areas. A questionnaire including measures of length and frequency of visits, perceived restorativeness, and self-reported benefits of the visit to the green spaces was administered in situ to 569 residents of four Italian medium-to-large size cities: Bari, Florence, Rome and Padua. Results showed the positive role of biodiversity upon perceived restorative properties and self-reported benefits for urban and peri-urban green spaces. Consistently with the hypotheses reported herein, a mediation role of perceived restorativeness in the relation between experience of natural settings (i.e. higher level of biodiversity) and self-reported benefits was found. The design and management implications of the findings are discussed.

Converting beech coppices into high forest stands has been promoted in the last decades as a management goal to attenuate the negative effects that frequent clearcutting may have on soil, landscape, and biodiversity conservation. The silvicultural tool usually adopted is the gradual thinning of shoots during the long span of time required to complete the conversion, that also allows the owner to keep harvesting some wood. This research reports and discusses, in the light of the ecological intensification approach, the results achieved from an experimental test started more than 25 years ago in a 42-year-old beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) coppice with standards in central Italy. The effects of various thinning intensities (three treatments plus a control) on the stand growth and structure are assessed by successive forest inventories. Analyses are integrated by spatial indices to assess stem density and canopy cover. Converting beech coppices into high forest through gradual thinning of shoots proves to be an effective step down the road to silvicultural systems characterized by continuous forest cover, as a tool of ecological intensifi- cation suitable to guarantee both public and private interests. Thinning has led to stands with fewer but larger stems, thus accelerating the long conversion process while maintaining both wood harvesting capability and environmental services.

The ecological and economical relevance of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) has long been related to its widespread geographical distribution and multipurpose product potential. In Italy, chestnut management represents a paradigmatic example of the potential conflict between landowner targets and tree species diversity conservation. Distinctively, the relationships between silvicultural treatment and tree species diversity of chestnut coppices are here investigated by means of diversity profiles to assess tree diversity of six stands in Central Italy. The stands were purposively selected in such a way to be characterized by the same site conditions but with different silvicultural features (age, number of thinning). Plot sampling was performed across the stands and their tree diversity was compared and ordered by means of intrinsic diversity profiles estimated from the sample data. The achieved results suggest alternative suitable options for managing chestnut coppice stands in order to enhance tree biodiversity while maintaining timber production.

International audience; We combined stem volume increment analysis with dendroecological tools to address two unresolved issues concerning oak dieback in Mediterranean areas: early detection of changes in stand growth, and identification of mechanisms for observed growth declines.* We reconstructed productivity of a stored coppice formed by Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) to test if its growth decline was linked to climatic variability, while also accounting for age-related and sociological factors.* Drought in May-June and in prior-year late summer-autumn was negatively correlated with current growth during 1974-2006. Previous November water balance was the strongest signal. Moving Correlation Functions (11 y windows) indicated that the May-June signal remained dominant until 1996, thereafter falling to non-significant values in parallel with the May-June water balance drying trend; at the same time the previous autumn correlations reached significant values. Since 1994 there was a two-year lagged response to June water balance, suggesting that, when growth declined, loss of current-year climate signals was accompanied by the emergence of previous-year ones.* Growth and productivity of deciduous oaks in Mediterranean environments is linked to late spring-early summer hydrologic balance; at both annual and decadal timescales, oak growth decline was associated with a delayed response to climate.

During the last decades adapting silvicultural systems to a changed society, increasingly aware of the multifunctional role of forests, was a much debated issue in Italy. Stemming from this discussion is the systemic silviculture concept, an adaptive forest management tool aimed at cultivating the forest as a self-organizing system and focusing on sustaining its functional efficiency as the best way to enhance forest multi-functionality. This concept has much connection with the Ecosystem Approach defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. In the following a case study is presented where the principles of systemic silviculture are implemented in the management of private and common forest properties in the Serre mountains of the Calabria Region (Italy); relationships with the Ecosystem Approach principles are analyzed in order to evaluate to what extent systemic silviculture can be regarded as a means to bring the EA to the implementation level.

Converting coppices into high forests with continuous cover has often been established during the last decades as a management goal in hilly and mountainous Mediterranean areas to attenuate the negative effects that frequent clearcutting may have on soil, landscape and biodiversity conservation. The silvicultural tool usually adopted for this purpose is the gradual thinning of sprouts during the long span of time required to complete the conversion, that also allows the owner to keep harvesting some wood. This research compared the effects of various thinning intensities (three treatments plus control) on the stand growth and structure of a beech coppice with standards. The optimal density after thinning was assessed by expressing mean tree spacing as a function of main stand attributes like stand height and stand dbh. This system was preferred to the empirical evaluation of the percentage of basal area to be removed in order to give forest managers general reference guidelines to adapt to the varying environments of the Mediterranean mountains. Results confirmed that the positive effects of thinning on mean stem volume is due more to the higher diameter increment than to different height growth. The acceleration of crown growth in the thinned plots allowed canopy closure to be achieved 13 years after thinning. This reduced the negative effects of the opening of the stand overlayer and the elimination of most suppressed trees on soil protection. Under the conditions examined, the best thinning intensity proved to be a stand density 20% lower than normal prescribed by the yield tables elaborated for beech high forests in Central and Southern Italy.