A methodology to integrate SFM standards on forest cultural heritage into meso-scale forest planning: preliminary results of the Ri.Selv.Italia 4.2 research project.

Nowadays, the role of traditional cultures and local knowledge for maintaining forest landscapes values is recognised by different sets of standards for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), such for example those developed at international level by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or those defined within the framework of the Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forest in Europe, which are now the basis for the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC). A national research project named Ri.Selv.Italia – task 4.2, launched in 2001 and with more than 30 among scientists, experts and public forest officials taking part in, is developing a methodology to integrate such SFM standards into meso-scale forest management planning. In addition, considering that public participation is a key-element to identify traditional knowledge, social values of local forest landscapes and ecosystems, and their most appropriate management systems, the project is dealing with participatory approaches too. The paper includes four parts. In the first one, some key concepts to understand the Italian forest planning context and examples of sets of SFM standards which include forest cultural heritage and related themes are reported. In the second part, the Ri.Selv.Italia 4.2 research project and the (draft) methodological approaches proposed by the research group are presented, focusing on forest cultural heritage and landscapes. Preliminary results and expected outputs are described into the third part of the paper. Final considerations and recommendations are included in the fourth and last part.