Valorisation and correct management
The protection and safeguarding of forests in Italy had a decisive turning point over a century ago with the Serpieri Law 3267/1923, which regulated their management for the purpose of safeguarding public interest and in particular for the function of hydrogeological protection. From this basic regulation, continuous programming and regulatory updates have followed up to the present day in forestry matter, all aimed at further enhancing and correctly managing our forest heritage. The current result of all this can be defined as surprising, as the national forested area has almost doubled in less than a century, going from 6,1 million ha in 1936 to 11,9 million ha in 2017. Added to this is a high level of protection of national forests, with 31,8% of forest area included in various capacities within protected areas and well above the minimum levels required at European level by the Green Deal.
Extensive agricultural environments
From these simple data we can deduce a favorable condition of the Italian forests, as they have effectively reconquered spaces that were unthinkable until a few decades ago. It should be remembered, however, that this has often happened at the expense of the loss of other natural environments, which due to human abandonment have over time become forests. The most frequent cases are the extensive agricultural environments of many internal hill and mountain areas that have been increasingly regressing in extension for several decades now. In particular, meadows and pastures, although they have a high naturalistic and biodiversity value, have not had the same level of protection and safeguarding as forests in the past. Today, more than ever, a holistic vision of our heritage of natural environments, made up of forests, agriculture, open areas and wetlands is considered necessary and that all must be equally distributed, integrated with each other and enhanced.
Creating the necessary savings
All this does not mean to reduce interest in forests, which certainly remain a resource that requires constant attention and in particular its continuous active management that unfortunately is still lacking in large areas of our peninsula. Managing the forests in the internal areas of our country also means making the most internal communities live and therefore creating those economies necessary to avoid abandonment and therefore conserve open spaces. The increase in wooded areas (as also foreseen by the Nature Restoration Law) should instead be reserved for urban and peri-urban areas, for plain areas and for those few mountain and hill areas where there is actually still a low level of forestation (Office of Studies and Research Faunistic and Agro-Environmental Italian Hunting Federation).
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