REFERENCE PERSONS:

Enrico Pompei, Lorenza Colletti, Franco Mason

WORKING TEAM:

Conecofor

Claudia Cindolo, Cristiana Cocciufa, Donato Fontana

University "La Sapienza"

Alessandro Campanaro, Paolo Colangelo

Corpo Forestale dello Stato (National Forest Service) is a technical police body depending from the Italian Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, involved in environmental issues and control, research and forest fire preventions. CONECOFOR Board is part of National Forest Service and is involved since 1985 in specific activities regarding monitoring of forest ecosystems. This commitment started under the umbrella of the United Nations/Economic Commission for Europe – Convention on Long Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (UNECE-CLRTAP), within the International Cooperative Programme on Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems (ICP-IM) and the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP-Forests).

Monitoring activities have been implemented on Level I and Level II forest monitoring Networks, respectively made up in Italy of 250 monitoring points and 31 permanent plots at national scale. From the very beginning, all activities were managed for the implementation of the EC Regulations of forest conditions. Since 2004, CONECOFOR has been involved widely in new international initiatives; in particular, CONECOFOR covered the Italian partnership within the Network of Excellence “ALTER-Net, A Long Term Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Awareness Research Network” (funded by the EC Sixth Framework Programme). The NoE ALTER-Net was a major driver for the development of the Italian Long Term Ecological Research Network, LTER Italy. In 2007, LTER Italy was officially approved for inclusion in the European Network (LTER Europe). At the moment, LTER-Italy consists of an integrated group of 22 sites in different environments. Five of those sites are in forest ecosystems and include 10 research plots belonging to the Level II ICP Forests (CONECOFOR) Network, directly managed by the AB (with the extensive cooperation of several excellence research institutes). Spruce, beech and oak stands from Alps, Apennines, lowland and mediterranean forests are represented and studied on a long term perspective and included in EnvEurope. National Forest Service – National Centre for the Study and Conservation of Forest Biodiversity “Bosco della Fontana” is actively cooperating in the project main tasks and deliverables, also managing a LTER Italy forest site (Lowland forest – Bosco della Fontana, Marmirolo – Mantova).

External assistance

• University of Rome “La Sapienza” - Department of Biology and Biotecnology “Charles Darwin” (Reference persons Alessandro Campanaro, Paolo Colangelo)

• Consorzio del Giardino della Flora Appenninica of Pesche-Isernia (Reference person Angela Stanisci)

• University of Roma Tre  - Department of Environmental Biology of Rome (Reference persons Alicia Acosta)

They are involved respectively in the management of  3 LTER sites included in EnvEurope project:

• Lowland Forests – “Bosco della Fontana” (managed by National Forest Service – National Centre for the Study and Conservation of Forest Biodiversity with the support of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
• High elevation Apennines (University of Molise - STAT Department is managing the site and actively participating in the Constortium Giardino della Flora Appenninica, together with local administrative authorities)
• Coastal dunes in central Italy (managed by University of Roma Tre  - Department of Environmental Biology)