Areas
The national forest area is 10,467,533 ha, and corresponds to 34.7% of the national area. Forest constitutes 83.7% of the total wooded area while other wooded land comprises 16.3%.
Conifers and broadleaves
Forests dominated by broadleaves constitute 68% of the forest area and are spread throughout the whole country, with the exception of three alpine districts (Valle d’Aosta, Trentino and Alto Adige)
Ownership
Private forests comprise 63.5% of the wooded area, whereas public administrations own 32.4%. About 4% of the area is not classified.
Planning
More than 86.6% of the total wooded area (forest and other wooded land) is regulated by at least one kind of planning tool. Planning affects 93% of the forest area. Operational planning concerns 15.7% of the forest area, with peaks in the northern regions (up to 94% in Alto Adige) and very low percentages in the southern area. Strategic/tactical planning is not very common and concerns only 2% of the Italian forests.
Restrictions
The hydrogeological restriction affects 87,1% of the Italian Forest area, with values above 95% in several northern and central districts (Trentino, Alto Adige, Veneto, Umbria, Toscana). This restriction is less spread among Other Wooded Land (49.2% of the area). The 27.5% of the Total Wooded Area is protected by nature conservation restrictions, with a larger incidence in central and southern regions. 7.6% of Forest area lays within a national parks while the 6.7% lays in regional parks. A minor Forest area (about 1%) is comprised in natural reserves or other protected areas. NATURA 2000 sites (CIS or SCZ) concern 22.2% of the Forest area.
Wood removal
81.3% of the national wooded area is available for wood removal. At the district level the percentage of wooded area potentially available for wood production and removal is consistently above 50%.
Accessibility
91.5% of the Italian Forest area is accessible. This value is much lower for the Other Wooded Land: only 66.9% is accessible. 77.4% of Forest area has either an ordinary or a forest road within 500 m. Meanwhile, for over 80% of Forest area the nearest road is within a range of +/-100 m of elevation difference.
Canopy cover
Generally, Italian Forests are dense or very dense; at the national level the canopy cover is above 80% in 67.5% of the Forest area, and above 50% in 88.1% of the Forest area.
Coppice management systems constitute 41.8% of the Natural and Semi-natural Forest category (3,663,143 ha), with a distinctive predominance of “coppice with standards,” which alone constitutes 28.0% of the area. High Forest occupies a total area of 3,157,965 ha, corresponding to 36.1% of the forest area. Even-aged high forests are slightly prevailing over uneven-aged ones. Adult and mature stages constitute 89.0% of the coppice area while mature and overmature high forest cover 35.1% of their (high forest) area. Within the category of vertical structure, 53.6% of the Natural and Semi-natural Forest presents a single layer structure, while 37.4% is two-layered or has an uneven-aged or irregular structure.
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