Interventions in favour of the development of the structural complexity of forest stands

LIFE11 ENV/IT/000215

Thinning and tree forestry interventions to favour the structural complexity of forest stands characterised by high structural and compositional simplification.

PROJECT REFERENT
Sferlazza Sebastiano

WEBSITE

To favour a gradual increase in structural maturity and compositional diversity, evolution of successional dynamics and the degree of naturalness of forest stands such as coppices aged over the cut period and transient stands of holm oak, turkey oak and beech, and the pine forests of maritime pine at the stage of thicket and young high forest (monoplane) and compositional (monospecific).

The GP provides for the implementation of three types of intervention:

• Tree forestry interventions: this is a selective thinning at low intensity, localised around target plants, aimed at removing the competition of the foliage of neighbouring plants within a radius of 10-15 m;
• Mixed selective thinning of turkey oak in correspondence with the nuclei of sporadic species and the best individuals of turkey oak;
• Thinning from below of maritime pine.

The good practice has been applied in Sicily to aged coppices and transitory stands of holm oak, turkey oak and beech, and to young pine forests of maritime pine. Conservative management and very often the lack of management in recent decades, combined with the pressure from anthropogenic activities (grazing), fires and increasingly frequent parasitic attacks, have determined the strong deterioration of the ecosystem stability and resilience of these stands.

Silvicultural approach that can be replicated everywhere, with these objectives and methods, in Mediterranean woods with a simplified structure both in the specific composition and in the structure.

From the LIFE GoProFor database, in the final part of the sheet, it is possible to download some material relating to the project, including the Layman's report and the final technical report of the project and the "Guidelines for assessing the resilience of Mediterranean forests to climate change".