Stand structure of a Calabrian pine old-growth forest: indications for forest management and landscape conservation.

Calabrian pine forests are the peculiar feature of the landscape of many Italianmountain areas: Etna, Aspromonte and, especially, Sila. Sila landscape conservation isimportant not only for cultural and historical heritage value, but also for environmentaland socioeconomic aspects. This is particularly relevant as most Calabrian pine forests arenow included in the Sila National Park. The authors analyze the structure of an oldgrowth pine forest. The main structural characters are compared with those of smallgroup selection pine forests. Results show that small group selection felling, a tradidionalsilvicultural system peculiar to this area for Calabrian pine, is the best silviculturalapproach for the conservation of Calabrian pine forests.