On the International Forestry Day, 21st March 2019, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry Policies and Tourism (Mipaaft) presented the first National Report on the State of Forests and Forestry in Italy (RaF Italia).
The report involved 214 experts from national and regional bodies, institutions, administrations and associations, producing 105 news, 8 focuses, 109 indicators and 8 good practices. The aim of the RaF Italia is to gather in a single document the knowledge and information concerning the forests and their national supply chains, giving rise to a new updating process for statistical surveys on the subject, with specific attention to European and international information needs.
At the press conference, the Undersecretary of the Mipaaft, Hon. Franco Manzato declared: “The Mipaaft presents today the synthesis of an intense teamwork that has involved all the Italian administrations and the forestry associations. The framework we offer is the one of a sector that has well understood the necessity of a development in the sign of sustainability and the traceability of the numerous supply chains, dynamically balanced between conservation and valorisation, in the sign of the common good. Forests offer to the community ecosystem services of extraordinary value, which for the first time has been explicit. In the transformation chain, Italy is already a world leader, due to the quality of the products and the originality of the design. Other goals will come soon, and always at the highest levels in the world.”
“The Report fills a gap in the knowledge of the forest-wood system that can finally be analysed and disseminated. The project, a result of intense teamwork, photographs a lively and evolving sector towards modernity,” said the Director General of Forests, Dr. Alessandra Stefani.
Among the author of the RaF, Raoul Romano, researcher and responsible for the National Rural Network said: “Our forests have reached an extension of 11 million hectares, 36.4% of the national surface, the productive sector linked to them employs over 400 thousand people. The productive role of the forests is fundamental for our country and for the environmental, social and cultural services that only a proper management can provide. In terms of employment, it could develop over 300 thousand satellite activities, in particular for rural areas. A great deal can be done on the forest management, increasing in a sustainable way our wood harvest to reduce wood imports from abroad, without affecting our natural capital.”
