Search results for " forest management"

Making smart use of woody alien plants

It is unquestionable that some alien woody plant species are a major issue for biodiversity conservation. However, being alien species generally adapted to warmer conditions than autochthonous/local ones, they could be particularly suited to cope with the new environmental and climatic conditions that are also forecasted in the coming decades in Sicily. This poses an issue that is not easy to deal with, whether trying to use these species for the advantages they could bring, for instance in the new reforestation activities, while avoiding them becoming a serious problem for biodiversity conservation in natural and seminatural areas. Here, we present three study cases of non-native tree spec…

Assessment of workflow feature selection on forest LAI prediction with sentinel-2A MSI, landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI

2020

The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Sentinel-2A (S2A) mission is providing time series that allow the characterisation of dynamic vegetation, especially when combined with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/United States Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat 7 (L7) and Landsat 8 (L8) missions. Hybrid retrieval workflows combining non-parametric Machine Learning Regression Algorithms (MLRAs) and vegetation Radiative Transfer Models (RTMs) were proposed as fast and accurate methods to infer biophysical parameters such as Leaf Area Index (LAI) from these data streams. However, the exact design of optimal retrieval workflows is rarely discussed. In this study, the impact of…

The role of forest fire severity on vegetation recovery after 18 years. Implications for forest management of Quercus suber L. in Iberian Peninsula

2016

Wildfires are a widespread phenomenon in Mediterranean environments. Wildfires result in different fire severities, and then in contrasting plant cover and floristic composition. This paper analyses the recovery of the vegetation eighteen years after a wildfire in Catalonia. The Pinus pinaster ssp. forest was affected by three different severities in July 1994, and studied the spring of 1995 and again in 2008. After eighteen years (2012), our research found that burnt sites constitute a dense forest with a broad variety of species, including many young pines, shrubs and herbaceous plants, but that the risk of fire remains very high, due to the large quantity of fuel and the flammability of …

ForBioEnergy - Forest Bioenergy in the Protected Mediterranean Areas

2019

The ForBioEnergy project, funded within the INTERREG MED Programme 2014-2020, involved a Lead Partner (Regional Department for the Rural and Territorial Development, Sicily Region), 8 project partners from 4 Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Croatia) and 4 Associate Partners from Italy (Ente Parco delle Madonie, AIEL, Enviland, Petralia Sottana) and Croatia. It is an innovative project which bets on the chance to favor the sustainable development of the rural areas through the exploitation of the forest biomass for the production of bioenergy. However, most of the Mediterranean forests are within protected areas, where the current regulatory restrictions and the lack of ma…

Environmental Planning Inputs by the Forest Sector: The Scale Factor, the Connection Planning-Management and the Relations with other Planning Sector…

2011

In the twentieth-century Italy, as many other densely populated European countries, has been characterized by a progressive reduction of the forest cover, specially in the southern Mediterranean regions. Generally, the mountain areas developed a forest based economy, especially in north east Alps and in the Mediterranean Apennine inner mountains. Several distinctions must be taken into account, for example with regard to ownership of the woods. On the Alps, generally the forest are municipal, community or private properties. In the Mediterranean Apennines inner areas there are many wide state owned forest, followed by municipal properties, while the private property is, on average, less dif…

Project LIFE11 ENV/IT/0002215 ResilForMed - Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to Climate Change

2017

Forest and pre-forest ecosystems of Sicily are characterized by a high structural simplification and fragility, reduced species diversity, high density, pest and diseases that are expected to worsen according to the ongoing anthropogenic climate change. In this work we present the achievements of the project LIFE ResilForMed (Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to climate change), as Sicilian response on adaptation and mitigation to climate change. ResilForMed project is co-funded by the LIFE Initiative (2007-2014) and started June 1st 2012 with an expected conclusion on June 30th 2017. The project consortium involves: (i) the Department of Rural and Land Development of the Sicilian Region,…

Environmental and Forest Planning in Italy: Conflicts and Opportunities

2016

Abstract The necessity of a more sustainable use of lands and environmental resources in general, throughout specific programming and management tools at different scale levels is nowadays widely shared. Forests and woodlands are a key asset of the environment and the traditional and current landscapes. With regards to the state of art of forest planning and management tools in Italy, in this short paper, after a synthetic analysis of the tools currently adopted at different levels, some critical aspects of the relationships of forest planning instruments with other planning tools involved in environmental management (landscape plan, energy plans, basin plans) are investigated, enlightening…

Editorial: Non-native tree species: Impacts and management

2023

Non-native tree species are an important component of many forests around the world. These species were introduced for various reasons: the provision of wood and non-timber forest products, soil protection or rehabilitation, ornamental purposes, etc. In fact, they are important for sectoral economies, especially locally and in rural landscapes. However, there are multiple contexts in which some of these trees may have undesired negative effects, such as declines of biodiversity, increases of disturbance frequency, or disruptions of ecological balance of the native forests, greatly affecting the provision of ecosystem services. This Research Topic includes articles focusing on different aspe…

Rimboschimenti e uso energetico della biomassa forestale nei Monti Sicani (Sicilia occidentale)

2014

Nell’ottica di un utilizzo energetico sostenibile delle biomasse provenienti dalle utilizzazioni forestali è di fondamentale importanza conoscere la consistenza e le esigenze ecologiche delle formazioni forestali che caratterizzano il territorio regionale. In questo lavoro è illustrato uno studio sulla consistenza e sulle caratteristiche ecologiche e strutturali dei rimboschimenti presenti nel territorio dei Monti Sicani. L’analisi è finalizzata a quantificare la disponibilità di biomassa forestale residuale ottenibile dalla gestione sostenibile di tali popolamenti e valutare il possibile uso energetico. L’analisi è stata condotta sulla base dei dati disponibili per l’area di studio presso …

Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation gender analysis of REDD+ and its potential impact on community resources system : case of…

2013

Climate change is the greatest development challenge of the generation. The anthropogenic origins of the phenomenon are mainly in industrialized countries, while people living in poverty in developing countries are the most affected by the negative impacts and have the least capacity to adapt to the changing conditions. The majority of these people are women. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus (REDD+) is a climate change policy that enables forest communities in developing countries to be compensated for the carbon that is sequestrated in their forest. REDD+ has been considered to have a high potential to enhance forest biodiversity as well as to bring positive…