ManFor C.BD a Life + Project on forest multi functionality

The purpose of forests is not only the production of timber: they play an important role in many important matters as climate regu-lation, and biodiversity conservation, providing also opportunities for recreation and study. Forest management practices are mostly focused on increasingefficiency of growing and harvesting trees to achieve economicgoals. However, preserving and enhancing biodiversity havebecome desirable forest management objectives in light of species preservation and mitigation of climate changes worldwide.Some 'new functions' of the forests, indeed, are becoming moreand more important than timber; sometimes even more important,also from the economic point of view. The project LIFE + ManForC.BD (Managing forests for multiple purposes: carbon, biodiver-sity and socio-economic wellbeing) was initiated to evaluatemulti-functionality of the forest and was co-funded by theEuropean Commission and coordinated by the National ResearchCouncil through the Institute of Agro environmental and ForestBiology (IBAF). The other Project partners are: the Council forAgricultural Research and Economics (CREA), the University ofMolise (UNIMOL), the Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI) and theregions of Veneto and Molise. Italian National Forest Service(CFS) collaborated through the National Center for BiodiversityForest of Verona for monitoring saproxylic arthropods andthrough the Regional Office to biodiversity of Castel di Sangro(AQ), for monitoring different vertebrate groups (Figure 1). Beside the Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI), also the SlovenianForest Service (SFS) was involved in the field and disseminationactivities; Biotechnical Faculty, Department for Forestry andRenewable Resources of Ljubljana took part in assessment ofselected invertebrate groups and some forest management aspects.