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Wildfires represent a critical environmental and social challenge, with longterm implications for human health, ecosystems, and infrastructure. This complex issue is exacerbated by various factors, including socioeconomic changes, unsustainable practices in agro-forestry land management, and the intensification of extreme weather events. The complexity of fire management in Italy necessitates effective governance mechanisms and planning tools at both regional and national levels. This study looks at successful prevention strategies, such as prescribed burning and proactive land management, while also addressing existing governance challenges, such as coordination among relevant institutions and the need for stronger regulatory frameworks. In addition to providing insights into the current state of fire governance and proposing practical solutions, we suggest that more resilient and sustainable fire management practices, already successfully implemented in some regions, should be adopted nationwide in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of non‐native trees (NNTs) have been introduced globally and widely planted, contributing significantly to the world's economy. Although some of these species present a limited risk of spreading beyond their planting sites, a growing number of NNTs are spreading and becoming invasive leading to diverse negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functions and human well‐being. To help minimize the negative impacts and maximize the economic benefits of NNTs, Brundu et al. developed eight guidelines for the sustainable use of NNTs globally—the Global Guidelines for the Use of NNTs (GG‐NNTs).Here, we used an online survey to assess perceptions of key stakeholders towards NNTs, and explore their knowledge of and compliance with the GG‐NNTs.Our results show that stakeholders are generally aware that NNTs can provide benefits and cause negative impacts, often simultaneously and they consider that their organization complies with existing regulations and voluntary agreements concerning NNTs. However, they are not aware of or do not apply most of the eight recommendations included in the GG‐NNTs.We conclude that effectively managing invasions linked to NNTs requires both more communication efforts using an array of channels for improving stakeholder awareness and implementation of simple measures to reduce NNT impacts (e.g. via GG‐NNTs), and a deeper understanding of the barriers and reluctance of stakeholders to manage NNT invasions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green practices of companies related to Green supply chain management should also demonstrate their positive impact on companies' performance. This paper's goal is to investigate the impact of greening the supply chain on the competitiveness and economic performance of companies in the context of forest-based industry. The study empirically examines the relations between the greening of the phases of the supply chain, related environmental performance and companies' competitiveness and economic performance. A questionnaire-based survey was performed and data collected among the 333 companies engaged in the forest-based sector in Slovakia to apply a structural equation model. The findings show that companies' greening supply chain activities, emphasized by requirements for the environmental properties of purchased products and services, contribute to the improvement in environmental performance, which ultimately leads to improving their competitiveness and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires represent a critical environmental and social challenge, with long-term implications for human health, ecosystems, and infrastructure. This complex issue is exacerbated by various factors, including socioeconomic changes, unsustainable practices in agro-forestry land management, and the intensification of extreme weather events. The complexity of fire management in Italy necessitates effective governance mechanisms and planning tools at both regional and national levels. This study looks at successful prevention strategies, such as prescribed burning and proactive land management, while also addressing existing governance challenges, such as coordination among relevant institutions and the need for stronger regulatory frameworks. In addition to providing insights into the current state of fire governance and proposing practical solutions, we suggest that more resilient and sustainable fire management practices, already successfully implemented in some regions, should be adopted nationwide in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is the first importer of wood-energy biomass worldwide, with tons of timber illegally imported every year and significant negative socio-economic and environmental consequences. A Living Lab was established involving 25 among stakeholders and key informants of the wood-energy supply chain in order to foster a participatory and open assessment of the impact of digital technology on traceability. A Socio-Cyber-Physical System (SCPS) approach was adopted to map entities, activities and relationships at stake in the wood-energy sector, aimed to analyse impacts of the introduction of digital technologies. Participatory activities allowed to identify both positive and negative impacts of the digitalisation process in the wood-energy sector. What emerged from the analysis is that, to orient digitalisation towards a real path to sustainability in the Italian wood-energy sector, a holistic approach taking into account all the social, geographical and environmental elements at stake is strongly needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life Cycle Assessment (the systematic analysis of the environmental impact of products during their entire life cycle), Carbon Footprint and Water Footprint assessments play an important role in decision-making processes. These assessments can help guide land management decisions and will likely play a larger role in the future, especially in natural areas with high biodiversity. Agriculture is a substantial consumer of fresh water, so it is important to identify causes and possible solutions to optimize agricultural water use. Water footprint assessments consider water consumption from several points of view and aid in reaching Sustainable Development Goals. Olive trees are a widespread agricultural crop growing in the Mediterranean Basin and are particularly important in the Umbria region in Italy. This paper estimates the water footprint impact related to the production of 1 kg of olives in a rainfed olive orchard managed using low environmental impact techniques. Eleven years of data collection (meteorological data, olives yield data, processes data) are analyzed for typical rural conditions. The results show that local management techniques have lower water requirements than standard international usages. These results can be used to improve and to further explore agricultural water use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]