Law Decree n. 42/2004 and the on Forests and Forest production chains: a common pathway towards sustainable forest management

Abstract

Italian forests express polyfunctionality and, according to influential opinions, it is necessary to explore new juridical forms in the perspective of common good. The national Law on forests and forest supply chains and its numerous implementation decrees, along with the path of intense collaborations that led to their approval, are a step in the innovative attempt to overcome skills fragmentation and visions discrepancies. The National Forest Strategy is widely recognized as the most successful example. The provisions for landscape preservation listed in the legislative decree n. 42/2004 found first in the definitions of the legislative decree 227 of 2001 and then in those contained in the legislative decree 34/2018 the technical-legal fulfilment that was missing. The regulatory constraints ex Art 136 of legislative decree 42/04 on landscape heritage, on the other hand, are still difficult to understand for professionals in the sector, as they are not proportional to the actual protection requirements, given that the same procedures and the same documents must be presented both in the case of mere forest management activity, in line with Regional provisions, and in case of activities for the permanent transformation of the forests into another intended use. An opportunity to discuss simplifications in the forest field, without the detriment of natural capital and the landscape, is available thanks to the proxies received from the Government in August 2022 with the proposal to expand the cases for the authorization procedures contained in DPR 31 of 2017, which was elaborated at a time when the TUFF process had not yet started.