Forest Landscape Cultural Values: Restoration, Management and Protection

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2024) | Viewed by 1751

Special Issue Editor

*
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Guest Editor
Agricultural Heritage Landscapes, University of Florence, Via San Bonaventua 13, 50145 Firenze, Italy
Interests: historical values; cultural values; biocultural diversity
* UNESCO Chair
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the centuries, humankind have managed and utilized forests in different parts of the world, influencing the species composition, horizontal and vertical structures, as well as related ecosystem services. From an economic point of view, cultural forests have always provided multiple services and products to local communities, representing, at the same time, a crucial and effective space for the integration of biological and cultural diversity on a landscape scale. Traditional forest management can also contribute to the adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. For this reason, the term “cultural forests” has been recently introduced to represent forests in which historical relationships with human society have affected different characteristics. The characteristics of these forests are closely linked to the maintenance of silvicultural practices and to the active management of forest resources, rather than to the strict protection of natural values. Socio-cultural aspects have been recognized as crucial to sustainable forest management as per the document AGENDA 21, produced during the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, as well as the Vienna resolution of  the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe in 2003, now Forest Europe. Unfortunately, the intensification of forest utilization through mechanization and the abandonment of traditional forest management have degraded the cultural values of these forests, as little importance has been attributed to them.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect papers addressing the restoration, management, and protection of forest cultural values in different parts of the world, both from the theoretical and practical point of view, favoring a transdisciplinary approach to the conservation of cultural values in forest landscapes.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Cultural forests;
  • Forest history and historical ecology;
  • Planning and management of cultural forest heritage;
  • Restoration of cultural forests;
  • Social, cultural, and spiritual values;
  • Biocultural diversity.

Dr. Mauro Agnoletti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • forest landscape
  • cultural values
  • history
  • spiritual values
  • forest management

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 6127 KiB  
Article
Forest-Cover Changes in European Natura 2000 Sites in the Period 2012–2018
by Antonio Santoro, Francesco Piras, Beatrice Fiore, Alessandra Bazzurro and Mauro Agnoletti
Forests 2024, 15(2), 232; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020232 - 25 Jan 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1288
Abstract
Protected areas have a key role in preserving biodiversity at different scales, as well as in providing ecosystem services to rural communities. Natura 2000 is the primary conservation network at the EU level, with the aim of protecting the most valuable species and [...] Read more.
Protected areas have a key role in preserving biodiversity at different scales, as well as in providing ecosystem services to rural communities. Natura 2000 is the primary conservation network at the EU level, with the aim of protecting the most valuable species and habitats; it covers around 18.6% of the EU’s land area. The aim of this study is to assess the evolution of forest cover in EU Natura 2000 sites in the period 2012–2018 through GIS-based spatial analyses of the High-Resolution Layers produced in the framework of the Copernicus initiative. In 2018, fifteen EU countries had more than 50% of their surface covered by forests, with the top three countries being Slovenia (71.9%), the Czech Republic (70.5%), and Slovakia (69.3%). In 2012–2018, the net forest cover increase in EU Natura 2000 areas was equal to 105,750 ha/year (+1.7%). France, Bulgaria, and Germany recorded the greater net forest cover increase: 303,000 ha, 267,000 ha, and 150,000, respectively. France also recorded the highest yearly rate of forest gain (+51,491 ha/year). Most of the forest gain in EU Natura 2000 areas was found to be located between 0 and 200 m a.s.l. The study demonstrated that forest cover in EU Natura 2000 areas is increasing, with a consequent reduction of open spaces, homogenization of rural landscapes, and loss of landscape-scale biodiversity. The management and design of EU protected areas should consider the importance of preserving biodiversity-friendly land uses and practices, instead of promoting a diffuse “rewilding” with negative consequences for the landscape complexity and heterogeneity, as well as for biodiversity. Full article
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