Filippo Brun

Multifunctionality of mountain forests and economic evaluation

Abstract Mountain forests provide many functions, producing useful services to the man—in order to make decisions concerning their management it is necessary to evaluate them properly, taking into account expectations from individuals and society. To this purpose, different methods can be used, some of which are based on economic–monetary evaluations; by contrast, others allow choices to be made according to a set of priorities, using suitable indicators. Decisions concerning the management of forests may imply trade-offs between their different functions. They can also make some individuals better off and some worse off. Therefore, methods and techniques taking into account these different aspects are needed. Evaluating multifunctionality therefore represents a challenge involving manifold aspects, economical, technical, social and efficient methods should be chosen, which may be easily used.

An integrated approach to assess carbon credit from improved forest management

ABSTRACT Fossil fuel consumption in recent decades has caused the rise of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, with negative consequences on the environment and human health. This study develops a methodological framework to quantify carbon credits from carbon-oriented forest management and evaluates the economic sustainability of their sale. Application of the framework to two forest compartments with long-lasting active management in the Western Italian Alps showed the feasibility of the methodology and provided insights on its replication in other contexts. Particularly, the Carbon-oriented scenario led to a reduction of both the extracted wood volume (10% and 6.5% CASE1 and CASE2, respectively) and Net Present Value (32% and 29%), leading to a carbon credit price of 19.6 € MgCO2eq−1 and 44.1 € MgCO2eq−1 to counteract these losses. This work allows us to highlight the factors needed to design and evaluate alternative forest management options while considering the consequences of climate change. Moreover, the hypothesized scenarios include an economic remuneration of the positive externalities provided by sustainable forest management. Finally, the proposed workflow entails undeniable environmental benefits while contrasting climate change but still looks undesirable with respect to the traditional timber-oriented management in compartments where high-quality wood products can be obtained.

The development of a Piedmont mountain area through the valorisation of black truffle

The paper describes a valorisation process in a marginal territory of Piedmont and analyses the recovery process of Black truffles production, focusing on the importance of the associative forms of management. The objective is to describe the study-case of Valle Grana producers, analysing the distinctive aspects and evaluating its reproducibility in similar conditions, which are typical of Italian marginal lands. The valorisation action has started building a new territorial strategy of local actors, setting up black truffle plantations and taking care, in the same time, of surrounding marginal lands. The success of truffles valorisation has represented the background for the creation of a voluntary “land owner association” which involves as many as 64 private owners and a public administration and more than 100 hectares of surface. These lands will be recovered from abandonment thanks to controlled ovine grazing, ensuring fertility improvement and stability of lands and reducing the shrub invasion.

A Survey of Innovative Training Preferences Among Italian Loggers

The aim of this study was to investigate the interest of forestry workers, who operate in the Western Italian Alps, in training courses on entrepreneurial issues. The proposed courses would address the “management skills” suggested in the FAO “Guide to good practice in contract labour in forestry”. These skills are essential in increasing the competitiveness of companies operating in the timber sector and especially for small forestry enterprises that are more susceptible to market fluctuations. The opinions of 367 forestry workers were collected via a survey. Their answers show a high level of interest in technical topics, such as workplace safety and work organization, but less interest in management topics, such as accounting or taxation. We also investigated their preferences concerning educational techniques, and the results show a strong preference for traditional methods, such as face-to-face classes, compared to e-learning. We attempted to identify the elements that influenced the respondents’ attitudes towards entrepreneurial training using an ordinal logistic regression. The results indicate that the most interested respondents are young forestry workers or entrepreneurs with previous experience in training courses. In short, the findings show that the introduction of management training courses could be attractive for a large number of forestry workers. These results have particular relevance in the Western Italian Alps where 40% of surface is covered by forests and 3000 loggers work in the area.