Situated similarly to Greece as regards accessibility and climate, and
similarly torn by wars and political strife, and in unstable conditions
for centuries, Italy has in proportion to population, if not to area,
reduced her forest resources even more than Greece; less than one-third
of an acre per capita remains, with a total of somewhat over twelve
million acres, or about 17 per cent. of the land area, and this includes
much useless brushland, over 2 million acres. Apparently, if the
uncertain statistics may be relied upon, a reduction of several million
acres has taken place even since 1870. Some 15 million acres of waste
land and swamps offer ample opportunity for increasing this forest area
without infringing on the 42 million acres of usefully employed
agricultural soil.
Of the forest area, 25 per cent. is to be found in the Alps, about 50
per cent. on the Apennines, the one mountain range which forms the
backbone of Italy; less than one-quarter is distributed over the plains,
and the small balance is found on the islands, especially Sicily, which
is a hill and mountain country, once magnificently wooded, now largely
denuded (4 per cent. wooded), and on Sardinia, which, with nearly 45 per
cent. under forest, is the best wooded part of Italy, although the
condition of the forest is here no better than elsewhere.
With the exception of the slopes of the Alps (2.5 million acres of
spruce, fir, beech, larch), and the tops of the Apennines and remote
plateaus (4.5 million acres), and of a few special places on which now
and then even magnificent remnants of virgin forest may be found--lack
of transportation having preserved them--most of the area is occupied by
miserable brush forest, coppice or else open forest with scattered trees
among a shrub undergrowth of thorns, hazel and chestnut (called macchia,
i.e., chaparral), so that most Italians have never seen a real forest.
Nevertheless, Italy is by no means as treeless as this condition of
forest would imply, for trees (poplar, ash, elm) are dotting the plains
and slopes, planted for vine supports and boundaries, unshapely through
pollarding and lopping the branches for firewood. Olive and chestnut
groves on the hills (of the former 2 million acres, of the latter over
400,000 acres planted for the fruit), and 8.5 million acres in vineyards
add to the wooded appearance of the country and to the wood supply. The
annual product of firewood from these planted trees is estimated at 6
million cords.
On the sand dunes and near the seashore, especially in the marshes, the
Maritime, the Aleppo Pine, and the umbrella-shaped _Pinus pinea_, and
picturesque Cypresses are sometimes found in small groves, while the
calcareous hills in this region up to 1200 feet are studded with olives,
cork and evergreen oak. Osier growing is here also quite extensively
practiced. In the mountains, above the 2700 foot level, conifer forest,
composed of _Pinus silvestris_ and _laricio_, and _Abies pectinata_, has
been reduced to less than 7 per cent. of the whole, mixed conifer and
deciduous forest represents 4 per cent., the bulk being deciduous forest
of oak (several species) and beech, with chestnut. Forty-eight per cent.
of the forest area is in coppice (_ceduo_), and of the 52 per cent. of
high forest, the bulk is managed under selection system (_a scelta_), a
small part under clearing system (_ad alto fusto_), although management
can hardly be said to exist except in small groves.
That supply of workwood is insufficient for the needs of the population,
and is decreasing, is attested by the fact that the importations more
than doubled in the decade from 1892 to 1903 to near 14 million dollars,
80 per cent. of which was saw material, in addition to 2 million dollars
of wood manufactures, while nearly 5 million dollars’ worth was exported
in the last named year, mostly cork, casks, thin box-boards, olive wood
manufactures, and charcoal. No better picture of the forest conditions
can be had than by a statement of the home production, which, in 1886,
(last official data) was placed at 48 million cubic feet of workwood,
valued at 3.4 million dollars, 223 million cubic feet firewood, valued
at 4.1 million, 106 million cubic feet charcoal, worth 3.6 million, and
by-products to the large amount of 6.4 million dollars, altogether a
little less than 17.6 million dollars. Firewood and charcoal, which
represent over 80 per cent. of the product, are, of course, furnished by
coppice, and in addition by the pollarded material, almost the only fuel
to be had.
The ownership of the forest area is for the greater part private (53 per
cent.) and communal (over 43 per cent.), the State owning a little over
400,000 acres, less than 4 per cent. The State property being so small,
supervision of communal and private forest has become the policy.
The State forest is of two classes, the alienable, under the Department
of Finance, the larger part, about 375,000 acres, and the inalienable,
so declared by law of 1871, which was then about 115,000 acres, and was
placed under a forest administration in the Department of Agriculture;
but of this about 20 per cent. is not forest, and even in 1896, some of
this small area was sold so that now only 40,000 acres remain. This area
is to serve for demonstration of model management, and to supply
government needs. Beech and oak with fir, pine and larch, mostly in
timber forest, characterize this property, which is managed mostly in
selection system. Curiously enough, in 1888, the difficulty of disposing
advantageously of the old timber is complained of, due to lack of means
of transportation. The personnel of the administration consists of a
central bureau with one Inspector General, three Inspectors, and a
Council. For each province, and in some cases for two or more provinces
together, an Inspector with several Sub-inspectors and a number of
guards or _brigadieri_ are charged with the management of the State
property and the enforcement of the forest laws.