2011: International Year of Forests

The role of the National Park, whose forests cover 72% of the land area

UN declared 2011 as "The International Year of Forests" in order to "raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation, and sustainable development of all types of forests".

The forests are integral part of the global sustainable development: the economic activities linked to the forests affect the living conditions of 1 billion and 600 million people all over the world. They also offer social and cultural benefits and represent a source of knowledge for the local communities; moreover, as ecosystems, forests play an essential role since they protect biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change, purify and regulate the water resources, send out oxygen and absorb CO2, and limit the soil erosion and desertification processes.

The International Year of Forests thus aims at raising the awareness and promoting global actions for the management, the conservation, and the sustainable development of all types of forests, including of course also the arboreal species situated outside forests. It is an invitation for the whole International Community to come together and work with the Governments, the international organizations, and the major groups so that our forests can be managed in a sustainable manner for the present and the future generations.

Every day, about 350 square kilometers of forests are destroyed all over the world. The main causes for this loss are their transformation into farmlands, the indiscriminate deforestation, the wrong land management, and the creation of human settlements.

In Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park, these phenomena are out of question. Here we protect 18,500 ha of forests (72% of the whole Park land area). A considerable heritage that continues to give all its gifts - fruits, wood, shade, mushrooms - and that, above all, absorbs a quantity of CO2 of approximately 65,000 tons every year. Among the other things, the Park aims at recovering the fruit chestnut groves - above all for landscape and tourist purposes, - safeguarding the forest landscape, contributing to a better management of the state-owned forests, helping private owners to wisely manage the forest heritage.