Recent trends in forest cover changes: only positive implications?

Abstract

During the last 50 years, the Italian landscape has been subjected by different land use and land cover changes (LULCC). The IUTI inventory (Inventario dell'Uso delle Terre d'Italia) is proved to be a cheaper, fast and statistically accurate method for LULCC monitoring. The aim of this study is to summarize the LULCC trends at national level, in Italy, focusing on natural reforestation processes at macro-regions level. Some of the LULCC effects on ecosystem services provisioning (carbon storage and sequestration, and biodiversity conservation) have been also analysed. Although on one side the forest re-growth represents a positive opportunity in terms of mitigation strategies due to the enhancement of potential carbon sinks, on the other side, the abandonment of agro-pastoral practices, has several potential negative impacts from, an environmental, economic and social perspective.