Forests: a millenary heritage that guarantees us life

This Special Issue is a contribution to the invitation by the Director of the United Nations Forum on Forests in 2011 to ensure that “our forests are managed in a sustainable way for present and future generations”.

Since the 1992 Rio process, forests have been the core of a difficult international debate, linked to the need to counter, stop and reverse the processes of deforestation, as well as to define the criteria for their sustainable use, evaluate the external costs of human activities, match the conservation needs with production opportunities, particularly for developing countries.

On 20 December, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2011 as the "International Year of Forests", in an effort to raise awareness on management, conservation and sustainable development of forests worldwide. Various activities and events had been organized by international agencies, governments, regional and local organizations, as well as by civil society itself, to promote the exchange of knowledge on possible strategies to be adopted in the field.

This Special Issue fits in the framework described above and is articulated in two parts: the first one, more general, begins with an analysis of man-forest relationship throughout history, to then focus on the latest state of the art at the global, European and national levels. The second part, instead, outlines the initiatives and issues currently in place, related to forestry.

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