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The motivations for the National Research Project on the Short Wood Supply Chain stem from the recognition of the great importance of the wood-based bio-economy for the future carbon-free society. In addition to the essential ecological benefits provided by forests, natural wood resources are expected to play a significant role due to the increasing wood demand for structural and non-structural uses. However, in Italy most industrial wood products are made from imported timber, which results in poor attention to local forestry, loss of traditional silvicultural know-how and reduced forest employment in most mountain areas. The project specifically aims: (i) to assess the feasability and sustainability of wood short supply chains; (ii) to promote new models of environmental certification and energy efficiency analysis; (iii) to create innovative products for bio-building (CrossLam, laminated timber, wood panels) using wood assortments from sustainable forest management in Italy; (iv) to characterise the functionality of wood products (with attention paid to architectural issues), predict wood degradation rate and assess conservation methods. Attention is specifically devoted to most common forest species in Italy, such as beech, pines, chestnut, deciduous oaks and poplar and to test thermal and surface treatments with natural substances and nano-materials.

The biomass of understory vegetation has an important role in several forest ecosystem processes, though it is not frequently included in forest inventory programs, which are commonly focused on the tree component. The objective of the study is to test a fast procedure for obtaining an accurate estimation of three components of the aboveground understory vegetation: herbaceous, bush, regeneration. For such a purpose a Volume Index has been calculated on the basis of the product between the percent coverage of vegetation and the average height of the three different components of understory vegetation. The index has been quantified in twenty clusters of four squared plots 1 m2 wide; clusters were located in two study areas in the northern part of Molise Region (southeastern Italy). For each plot, the dry biomass has been collected and weighted, and then transformed in carbon stock. This study presents the field protocol and the achieved results in terms of measured aboveground understorey carbon stock in six different forest and pre-forest types (the average carbon stock was 1.19 t C ha-1) and correlation between Volume Index and carbon stock (the Pearson’s correlation index was 0.8 on 309 field observations).

Signatory countries of Kyoto Protocol are engaged in carrying out national inventories to quantify greenhouse gas emission and potentiality of C sinks. Forests represent the terrestrial ecosystem with the highest C sequestration capacity taking up CO2 from the atmosphere and fixing it in vegetal biomass through photosynthesis process; C stocks can be divided in aboveground and belowground ones. In inventorial processes, root biomass is empirically extrapolated from aboveground biomass using a 0.2 factor, which underestimate the real value. Some authors suggest that total underground C allocation can be assessed from the difference between annual respiration rate and litter fall. Belowground biomass can be divided in permanent biomass (structural roots) and temporary one (fine roots). Models allow a valuation of structural roots biomass from stand dendrometrical characteristics. Literature reveals that underground biomass, as fine roots than structural ones, highly varies with local conditions. The development of models that take into account these station parameters and therefore able to reproduce this variability seems to be obligatory to deal with inventory processes with an acceptable precision.

The dynamics of the silver fir represent an important topic for researchers across Europe. Following its decline, which occurred in Europe after the last glaciation, the remaining relict areas became a very important laboratory for studying its conservation. The Central Apennine chain, particularly in Molise, represents one unique case where silver fir, Turkey oak and beech can be found within the same forest. This study focused on the forest structure of the Bosco Monteluponi where the closeness with Collemeluccio Man and Biosphere reserve has affected the diffusion of conifer within the forest. Consequently, the forest structure has shifted from even aged to uneven aged. The resulting complex forest structure offers new challenges for forest practitioners in the identification of silvicultural treatments, which identify and maintain the balance among the three species within the same forest. Particular importance was given to the silver fir natural regeneration in order to assess the forest suitability for conifer expansion. Results demonstrated that Monteluponi is strongly suitable for thein situconservation of silver fir and offers a great opportunity for its diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest certification is one of the many tools that have been developed to achieve sustainable forest management. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was the first organization to develop an independent forest certification scheme in early 1990s. FSC standards introduced the concept of high conservation value forests (HCVFs) that identifies forest areas with high conservation values (HCVs) according to six different categories including environmental services, social and cultural values, rare, threatened or endangered species, and ecosystems and habitats. HCVFs are becoming more relevant even beyond forest certification purposes, and the concept is increasingly being adopted and used as a tool for improving forest management operations. This paper represents a preliminary study for the identification and mapping of the main HCVFs in Italy. It is based on existing information and available datasets and identifies some out of six existing HCVs categories. The extent of forest areas identified as HCVFs in Italy varies according to the HCV category taken into consideration. Altogether, the HCVs investigated correspond to about 66% of the Italian forest. This preliminary study on HCVFs in Italy and GIS tools had proved to be a useful support for the identification and analysis of investigated areas for the purposes of both facilitating certification processes and improved management of national forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]