Agroforestry Systems in Italy: Traditions Towards Modern Management

Abstract

The long history of civilization and the passage of several different cultures have produced slow changes in the Italian landscape. Changes in land use have created a large number of agroforestry systems, comprising natural or planted tree stands and shrub species with different densities in which botanical composition, productivity and management are much diversified. The traditional integration of pasture and woody plants has been disrupted by modern agriculture. However, this disruption did not spread in marginal areas and has never resulted in complete separation of the different resources. The result has been complex systems which are difficult, expensive to manage and non-competitive, although they are more resilient to environmental changes than specialized ones. The current concerns of people about their quality of life (including food quality and nature conservation) and the development of new economic sectors related to recreational activities (including farm tourism, game hunting, educational services and valorisation of local genetic resources) have opened up new opportunities for the integration of rural economies into the wider regional economy. Modern techniques for integrated, modern management of pasture, forest and cropped areas can be further integrated to increase multiple uses of the territory and integrated economic development. In Italy, landscape diversity can nowadays be valued more highly than in areas with specialized land uses. Some examples of agroforestry systems from mountains and plains are given and some opportunities for their integration in the developing economy are discussed.