Mountain Forests: multifunctionality of Alpine forests and tourism

Francesco Tagliaferro

Fabio Giannetti, Marta Scotta

Istituto per le Piante da Legno e l’Ambiente (IPLA)

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The Forests in the Alps

Ha 7.500.000 in the Alps (45%)

6,2 millions exploitable

Ha 3.700.000 in the Italian Alpine Regions (37%)

Ha 900.000 in the Piedmont (36%)

Protection/production 46%

Production 16%

Protection 15%

Naturalistic (SIC, Protected areas) 15 %

Free evolution 7%

Recreational 1%

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The main functions of the forests

The traditional: Production

Wood Firewood Leaves Mushrooms Fruits (chestnuts, acorns, pine nuts, berries)

Protection Floods Avalanches Landslips Climate regulation Carbon sinks

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The main functions of the forests The more recent:

Recreational Pleasant resort for escursionism Berries, escargots and mushrooms harvesting Fishing, hunting

Cultural The Forests influenced heavily the human society along the centuries Residences, furnitures, handcrafts

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The tourism and its sustainability

Skiing

traditional, for the Alpine sky there are impact on water availability and on landscape, high inversion is needed

Trekking (including survival)

nature friendly, limited inversion and easy to be involved in parallel activities (cultural, recreational)

Mushrooms (and berries) harvesting very traditional in almost all the Alps, doesn’t need direct investments except if you want to improve the

resource availability, strong link with the territory and the gastronomy; possible impact with the residents if not organised.

Hunting and fishing related to the forests for their influence on the water cycle and on the life of many animals (food, protection)

Rafting and similar

like the previous one, the influence of the forests is not direct

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The tourism and its sustainability

Two traditional and low impact touristic activities are excursions and mushrooms harvesting

some common aspect: you have to walk, alone or with friends; the sustainability is very high

some distinction:

excursionists mainly follow dedicated tracks mushrooms hunting is a “free walker”, often looking for hidden areas, difficult to reach you may enjoy excursions without keeping away anything from the forest, but the mushrooms you find

(at least which you are looking for), you harvest Mushrooms hunter is usually very dedicated to his goal, some times it is interested by the other touristic

offer, but difficultly at the same time

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A touristic trekking pilot study in Piedmont

Interreg Alcotra 2006 – 2013 Italy - Switzerland

www.progettovetta.eu

Touristic fruition in high quality forestry

Pilot experience developed by the VETTA Project (Interreg Alcotra Italy-Svitzerland) whose aim is: To estimate and increase the touristic offer for transboundary excursion itineraries To measure the touristic flow along these tracks To link the territory management with the qualitative and quantitative increase of the touristic offer along these mountain tracks

www.progettovetta.eu

San Bernardo in Bognanco Valley (1630 m).

Picnic area with facilities (Alpine dew, parking, etc.) sited in a Larch forest with high aesthetic and landscape value.

International trekking itineraries cross this area, among them the “Blue Alpine Track” (blue in the map) and the Monscera track (violet in the map).

Touristic fruition in high quality forestry

San Bernardo in Bognanco Valley (1630 m).

Forest map with the main excursion itineraries.

In 2012 a counter was positioned on the main track leading to the mountain dew Gattasacosa and to the Monscera Pass toward the Switzerland, to know the number of the persons passing (IPLA05)

Touristic fruition in high quality forestry

Synthesis of the 2012 field campaign results (June - Sptember).

Touristic fruition in high quality forestry

Counter Passes number

More frequented day

Less frequented day

More frequented day of the week

Hourly average

Daily average.

Monthly average

IPLA 5 TOT 12875 Sun 17 Giu 2012 (593)

Tue 25 Set 2012 (6)

Sunday 5 123 3219

Ascent 6034 Sun 17 Giu 2012 (285)

Tue 26 Giu 2012 (4)

Sunday 2 57 1509

Descent 6841 Sun 26 Ago 2012 (351)

Wed19 Set 2012 (1)

Sunday 3 65 1710

Persons ascending and to the pass and descending in the same day is the more common option. The 65% of the ascent passes are performed between 9 and11 p.m., with the peak (28%) at 10. Between 3 and 5 p.m. the greater part of the persons descend (48%, peak hour at 16). Movement due to itinerary tracks (excursionists that didn’t come back from the same way) interests more or less 700 persons a day. Sunday passes are the more frequent, with a peak between 7 and 23 of Agust.

Performed analysis may give some suggestions about: How to direction possible inversions to increase the fruition or how to better distribute its frequency along the year Establish rules for access and parking of the cars and motorcycles Safeguard and improvement of the mountain forest stands New facilities offer and increase of the activities availability in the area

Touristic fruition in high quality forestry

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Mushrooms harvesting and it’s local impact

In the last years several projects were implemented in the frame of the CE Programs. Two of them, from the last ones, are: MYCOSILVA + - Edible Mushrooms as Sustainable forest management strategy to achieve rural

development

just ended, is one of the many projects implemented in Spain in the last 15 years, aiming at truffles and mushrooms economy promotion

AMYCOFOREST – Development of a forest management favourable to mushrooms production

running on, it will end in November 2013

Interreg Alcotra Italy – France 2006-2013

Interreg IV B SUDOE 2006-2013

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Why mushrooms could be very interesting for the tourism?

France 1974: 1 mc wood = 1 working day/forestry engineer

France today: 1 mc wood = 1 working hour/forestry technician

Recent survey in some restaurant in Savoie (F): 320 Kg/y of mushrooms are served, but the data are considered heavily underestimated; the same consideration arises for Piedmont data

What is the real value of the resource?

very difficult to know, but some estimation suggest, for the production only:

Castilla y Leon (SP) € 65.000.000/Y for truffle and mushrooms, with strong fluctuations (J.Rondet)

Abruzzo (I) € 25.000.000/Y only for truffles

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The “Comunalie Parmensi” Consortium: a good practice (data from a presentation by A. Morrali, Bologna, 2012)

The Consortium born in 1957 from the initiative of two Comunalie

Afterward almost all the other Comunalie of Parma Province joined the Consortium

Actually the Consortium is working over a surface of more than13.000 ha, 8.500 of

them subject to common use: one of the common use is the “fungatico” right (the

member of a Comunalia can freely harvest the mushrooms in all the territory)

The aim is the technical management and the increase of the properties value, but in a

frame of sustainability

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Mushrooms in Italy are not belonging to the property

The Comunalie Parmensi Consortium in 1964 established the first “reserve” in the Comunalia of Boschetto. The aim was to re-establish the equilibrium between hunters and mushrooms production, and also to safeguard an important economic resource

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The IGP denomination

The Fungo Val di Taro is the only Italian

fungus granted by such a

denomination, meaning “protected

geographic al indicaton”, awarded for

Its historical heritance and its flavour

superior qualities

Qual è l’area IGP?

Numero presenze

Every year some of 60.000 daily permissions are sold for the entire district, and visits are more than 100.000

In the Borgotaro reserve, (ha 860 and wood annual production estimated in € 44.800) every year 15-20.000 tickets are sold, with an income of € 300-400.000 €

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Borgo Val di Taro Reserve Forestry surface , mainly beech and chestnut

coppices ha 860

Annual income from wood € 44.800 €/y 52

Annual income from mushrooms harvesting (tickets sold) € 3-400.000 €/y 349-465

Annual production for all the district managed, of course very fluctuant, in the 2011 it was estimated in at least 3 kg/person/day, with 150.000 daily visits (payants, no payants), for an harvest of almost 500 tons and a value of 5 millions of euros

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Product promotion

Happy ticket Degustation Visits accompanied by a Guide

Media information Website updated Events organization and participation

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Many thanks for your attention