PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In Italy, 31.5% of the land is covered by forests but only 15% of these have a Management Plan in place. This is mainly due to the high land fragmentation of public and private properties, low economic returns from forest activities and the difficulty in putting on the market ecosystem products and services (i.e. carbon credits and other benefits). Moreover, the lack of Management Plans, together with climate change effects, lead to a generally increased intensity and frequency of extreme events, such as forest fires, landslides, floods and pest outbreaks, which cause carbon stock decreasing and compromise the resilience of forests.
OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the LIFE ClimatePositive project are to promote forest landowners associations, to overcome fragmentation of land property, and to support responsible management as well as carbon sequestration in Italian forests.
To this end, the project team will:
- Develop and launch a national carbon monitoring tool and registry to enable a reliable certification of ecosystem services provided by forests, and to support the related markets.
- Develop and launch three business models to remunerate landowners for the provision of carbon and biodiversity benefits through private markets and the new Italian CAP Strategic Plan.
RESULTS
Expected results:
- Test of innovative forest interventions in the territories of 5 forest associations to increase carbon sequestration and reduce the vulnerability of forests ecosystems.
- Replication of the forest interventions in the territories of 10 more forest associations.
- Involvement of 100 new members (landowners) in forest associations.
- Development of national protocols for the monitoring of greenhouse gases (GHGs) sequestration and quantification of carbon stocks in the forests.
- 21 new certifications of ecosystem services according to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.
- Preparation of 15 forest management plans covering an area of 16.5 km2 overall.
- Development of a toolkit for managing “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound” (SMART) associations.
- Elaboration of a "Forest Carbon Code" to serve as a guideline to regulate voluntary initiatives in the forest sector for the generation and sale of carbon credits.
