Forestry programmes and the contribution of the forestry research community to the Italy experience

Forestry programming is a fundamental tool in achieving sustainable forest management. Italy's first involvement in this process goes back to the 1980's. The second plan it has been adopted at the end of 2008. During this long period, there have been a number of important changes in the forestry arena, in particular about the social, environmental, economic roles of forest, while forest policy has became more international.At the international level, it was not until the early 1990's that the first forestry programmes began to emerge. This in turn has set in motion an interesting debate, producing a range of scientific contributions and technical documents on the part of the international organisations involved.The authors of this contribution will first focus on the nature and content of this international literature, as well as the criteria surrounding its publication and its relevance to forestry programming. We will then move on to an analysis of the Italian experience, characterised by the coexistence of a national programme with various regional plans, and a consideration of the role of forestry research and possible ways to improve the synergy between research and the administration of forests.