Abstract
The ties between human beings and forests in temperate mountain areas have weakened over time. The relative importance of forest functions has changed: forestry timber generates very low returns, whereas recreational, environmental and other non-market values of forests have assumed substantial significance. In terms of economic and social sustainability, this causes problems: finding forms of forest utilization that guarantee economic sustainability and the direct involvement of the population seem to be absolutely necessary. With this as an aim, participation and partnership become key concepts.
From analysing the situation in the Trentino, a mountainous province on the Italian side of the Alps, traditional and innovative forms of partnership emerge. For centuries collective property has guaranteed participatory forest management, but nowadays new forms of integrated and bottom-up approaches to local development (Leader initiative) are producing good results, notwithstanding the fact that they are typically aimed at productive objectives. The territorial pacts - a more recent instrument of negotiated planning - seem to have notable potential in the forest sector too. However, it appears that broadening the participation to include all the interested stakeholders in the management of sustainable forests is necessary. This wider partnership might guarantee economic sustainability by means of forms of forest associations able to manage the forest more efficiently, and through locally recovering part of the benefits and externalities produced by the forest that are perceived by non-local actors. A broader partnership would also be fundamental for the circulation of information, for the creation of consensus around multifunctional forest management objectives and so, in the final analysis, to rescue those ties between human beings and forests that would otherwise be confined to the already small number of woodsmen who work in the Alps.
1. Introduction
Notwithstanding the fact that the actual situation in Alpine forests may have improved compared to the situation which existed some decades ago, a subtle and growing apprehension affects some of those who have the destiny of the temperate region forests at heart. Above all, there is an increasing awareness today that the symbiosis between the rural population and the forest is diminishing and, in some cases, it has already disappeared. With a decline in these ties, the participation of the local population - a fundamental element capable of guaranteeing sustainable forests management- will decrease.
Therefore, the first objective of this article is to reflect briefly on the three aspects of sustainability in Alpine forests with particular emphasis on participation as a criterion for social sustainability. In the past the involvement of the local population was guaranteed by numerous common property forests which still continue to survive in the Alps. Today, beside the traditional participative forms, there are also many innovative types, for instance, the Leader initiatives. A more recent instrument of participatory and integrated local development are the territorial pacts, whose potential for a multifunctional forest management is discussed.
Reasoning is carried out by referring to the experience of the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT), an Alpine province in the Dolomites of North East Italy where forest covers 54.4% of the surface area and plays an important economic role not only in the production of timber and non-timber products2 but also as a tourist attraction.
2. Background
2.1 Externalities and substitutability
There are a variety of causes which are weakening the ties between man and forest. Among the more important are at least three: changes in the socio-economic conditions of the rural community, evolution of the technology for forest utilisation, and change in the relative importance of forest functions. In effect the social system based on the integration of farming, pasture and cultivation of the forest has all but disappeared, greatly reducing the number of agro-forestry enterprises and changing the complex relationship between natural resources and local population. In addition to this, the development of new technologies which imposes increasing capital requirements and growing specialisation on forest enterprises along with the low value of industrial wood have resulted in the forest losing its role as fundamental resource for the mountain economy. On the other hand Alpine forests have increased their recreational/educational and hydrologic protection role, so that silvicultural techniques have been adjusted according to multifunctionality (Pollini and Tosi 2000).
This change in the relative importance of forest functions has resulted in more than one consequence. First of all the activities connected with the recreational functions do not have the ability to create positive externalities which influence the maintenance and protection of the forest. Rather, it is more probable that these activities bring negative externalities not only on the environment (traffic pollution, drawing water for artificial snow, damage to the ecosystem, etc.) but also on the local social organisations, especially if traditional models of tourism are followed instead of sustainable ones. Moreover, the substitutability among different forest sites from the tourist point of view is certainly higher3 compared to that which might be found in a silvicultural - pastoral economy. In this latter case each site is unique and cannot be substituted and so a long-term perspective - which can be defined as sustainable ante litteram - is applied in the forest management.