Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Forest Management: the Role of Traditional Knowledge , Florence 8-11 June 2006

The conference “Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Forest Management: the Role of Traditional Knowledge” held in Florence (Italy) from June 8^th-11^th 2006  was organized by the IUFRO[1]  Task Force on Traditional Forest Knowledge and the IUFRO Research Group on “Forest and Woodland History”, in cooperation with the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forest Policies. The opening ceremony was hosted in Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall, thanks to the support offered by the City of Florence, while the technical sessions were held at the Italian Academy of Forestry Science. The organization was also supported by the Italian Forest State Corps, as well as by the Mountain Community of Mugello Valley, which hosted the field trip.

Institutional involvement

The conference represented a further step in the implementation of the Vienna Resolution 3 of the MCPFE concerning “Preserving and enhancing the cultural dimension of sustainable forest management in Europe”. It was attended by over 120 participants from 24 countries, and the opening ceremony by almost 250 people. The institutions represented included representatives of the United Nations Forum on Forests, FAO, UNESCO, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Environmental History Society, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forest Policies, the Italian Ministry of Environment, as well as the chairs of the Departments of Agriculture and Environmental Policies of the Regional Government of Tuscany. The opening ceremony was jointly organized with the Traditional Knowledge World Bank[2] an organization particularly interested in the conservation of traditional knowledge at world level.

The meeting was also the first regional meeting organized by the IUFRO Task Force on Traditional Forest Knowledge, established during the 22^nd IUFRO World Congress in Brisbane, Australia in August 2005.  The Task Force is comprised of a core group of members that provide a balanced representation of forest scientists, holders/users of traditional forest knowledge, and other experts from different regions of the world. The establishment of this Task Force was the product of IUFRO’s increasing involvement in international forest-related processes and conventions, particularly the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The collaboration established among the Research Group on Forest History, the Task Force on TFK and the MCPFE is a very important achievement in view of future developments.

Culture in sustainable forest management: a growing issue

The unexpectedly high number of papers submitted for the conference, along with the diversity of institutions represented, underlines  how rapidly attention to the issue of cultural heritage in forestry has grown since the first meeting held only one year ago in Sunne (MCPFE Seminar on Forest and our Cultural Heritage, Sunne, Sweden). This growing interest is due to several reasons related to the historical development of forestry.

As recently recognized by the UNFF, the forestry world is finally recognizing the importance of traditional forest-related knowledge, and is developing a process that should hopefully be reflected in the enhancement of the criteria for sustainable forest management, and creating very flexible but comprehensive tools that can be applied across the full range of values represented by the forest and woodland areas in the world. There are important reasons why culture is becoming a major issue, particularly for Europe. European forests have been shaped by millennia of human that have affected all their features, and they represent a fundamental part of the cultural heritage of the continent. Their origins and present features cannot be fully understood without an historical perspective. Socioeconomic development, the abandonment of marginal lands, renaturalization, and inappropriate policies are rapidly erasing cultural values and contributing to the globalization of landscape, often simplified into areas either managed for commercial exploitation or areas left to natural evolution. Although, timber production is regulated and  the ecological functions and natural values protected by a number of EU directives, cultural values are not preserved by specific European initiatives at  management  level nor included  in certification standards.

Addressing the need to incorporate cultural and historical factors in sustainable forest management strategies will also integrate forestry with the goals of the European Landscape Convention, signed or ratified by at least 33 countries, which requires signatory states to undertake specific actions at political and planning levels that also affect forest territories. Therefore, it would be wise for the forest sector to include these issues in sustainable forest management strategies; otherwise forestry will remain isolated in political decision-making and development of strategies that will nonetheless affect the sector in the near future. This problem could probably have been given greater emphasis by the recent EU Forest Action Plan, not proposing any action concerning cultural values,   and the four axes of the Common Agricultural Policies 2007-2013, where cultural values are playing a small role. It should also be promoted in the next European Framework Research Program, as the previous one paid little attention to these matters.  

Conference outputs

Based on the discussion session on the enhancement of criteria and indicators for SFM held at the end of the conference, it is evident that the challenges related to the issue of cultural factors are significant. In the view of many experts participating in this discussion, they also are important enough to merit further consideration as to the adequacy of existing criteria and indicators to address these concerns. However, it is also apparent that the conservation of cultural and historical values cannot be restricted to the conservation of selected sites of historical importance, as also noted by the MCPFE.  In some countries this would mean preserving almost all the entire  forest territory. A further challenge is the need to foster a different attitude among many foresters whose educational backgrounds have been oriented almost exclusively towards production or ecological issues.  

The results of the nineteen sessions in which papers were presented offer a set of possible qualitative indicators that could be taken into account for future developments:

·        Conservation of landscape patterns. This indicator already exists in Criterion 4, although linked to biodiversity, although it has not been implemented. Every European country has its own historical landscapes where forests play their role, and this suggests a need to look at the entire territory in order to assess the functions of forest patches. While some cultural landscapes are characterized  by large forest areas, dense and homogeneous forest covers are not always favorable to the conservation of complex fragmented landscape mosaic, especially where agriculture and grazing have important roles. Therefore, a different consideration of biodiversity is needed, understanding that fragmentation is often a value rather than a danger.

·        Conservation of historical land uses. Historical landscape patterns are created and maintained by land uses often characterized by their long historical presence. They are usually deeply rooted in local culture but are often threatened by changes y change affecting the rural territory.  Historical landscapes existing in the European continent can include 1 or 2 forested land use types or as many as 35 in an area of 1000 ha, and are associated with a consequent complexity of management.

·        Conservation of the extension of historical landscapes. Cultural landscape, as well as sites having historical importance related to surrounding forests, cannot maintain their role and functionality without also preserving a sufficient extension of territory.

·        Conservation of aesthetic values. The combination of economic, social and environmental factors through time and space has produced landscapes of extraordinary beauty.  Afforestation with conifers and tree plantations in agricultural areas are examples of activities that can degrade aesthetic values of cultural landscapes.

·        Conservation of traditional techniques and practices.  These are the basis for effective conservation of cultural landscapes. It is a very broad issue that was addressed by many papers during the conference. Traditional use of trees and other forest plants, forest utilization practices, hunting techniques, various traditional management practices such as the use of fire, are an invaluable heritage  that needs to be understood and preserved. Many of these traditional techniques and practices have been neglected, or rejected as degrading to forest resources, by the forestry profession and others concerned with forest resource management and conservation.

·        Conservation of material elements (buildings, structures, tools, etc.). Europe’s forests still present evidence of past human activities and culture. Conservation can be undertaken “on site”, as with the conservation of structures for timber transportation or water sawmills existing on the Alps, or in museums.

·        Conservation of cultural trees. Cultural trees, not only centuries-old veteran trees, but also culturally modified trees for the production of fodder, as well as hedges, tree rows etc.,  should be preserved.

·        Conservation of cultural traditions. This refers to immaterial factors, such as traditions linked to ethnic groups or local communities, like those who once managing the Alpine areas, or the Saami culture in northern Sweden. But these could also include public ceremonies, place names, religious ceremonies, etc.  

Political initiatives and future strategies at EU level

As a first sign of the will to develop effective strategies  IUFRO and MCPFE have agreed on  establishing an expert group to produce guidelines for the implementation of  the Vienna Resolution 3 that may include the proposal of new indicators to add to the existing ones. This proposal was presented to the MCPFE Expert Level Meeting held in Warsaw on October 9,  2006 and unanimously accepted by all the 40 member states, including FAO, UNFF and WWF. The guidelines will be discussed  at the next Expert Level Meeting to be held in Warsaw on June 2007 and presented for the approval by EU ministers during  the Ministerial Conference occurring on November 2007.  

Despite this initiative , a reflection on the limitations and opportunities offered by the existing approaches to conservation of cultural values seems necessary, as discussed by several panelists during the plenary session of the Conference. The present recognition of the importance of cultural heritage for economic development, environmental quality and quality of life in rural areas offers new possibilities for active conservation through the European Landscape Convention and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), by incorporating cultural heritage into a new model of development.

With the Landscape Convention, the member states have declared that they are “concerned to achieve sustainable development based on a balanced and harmonious relationship between social needs, economic activity and the environment”. The Convention is the first international treaty dedicated to sustainable development that includes cultural dimension. The aims of the Convention are to promote European landscape protection, management and planning, and to organise European cooperation on landscape issues.  This means ensuring that due consideration is given to European landscapes through the adoption of national measures and the establishment of European cooperation among the Parties, introducing protection, management and planning rules for all landscapes based on a set of principles. 

These strategies could be much more effective if they were integrated with rural development, according to the EU new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2007-2013, and the management of protected areas. Although the introduction of the new rules allowing subsidies to farmers independent of production will probably further favor abandonment of traditional landscapes, the new CAP offers some opportunities through the National Rural Development Plans. A parallel strategy to preserve and develop cultural values may be achieved through the management plans of protected areas.  Although established with the aim of protecting “natural habitats”, many areas of NATURA 2000 and the national networks of protected areas have been placed on cultural landscapes. Besides the apparent contradictions in this situation, it is evident that the protected areas have both the responsibility and the power to preserve all biodiversity, including that created and maintained by man. This problem has prompted the Regional Government of Tuscany to prepare “Guidelines for the conservation, management and development of landscape resources in the protected areas”.  A similar approach could be considered at the European level as a means of giving farmers and foresters a role in preserving cultural heritage for future generations, offering economic opportunities for rural communities, and serving the interest of society.