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Abstract
In recent decades, many mountain areas of the Mediterranean countries show spontaneous reforestation or densification due to depopulation and the consequent abandonment of traditional agricultural and pastoral activities, leading to the loss of open habitats. In this paper, dynamics of natural and semi-natural areas in the summit areas of the Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise National Park are investigated, highlighting changes that occurred from 1954 to present days. Historic Land cover maps have been produced by photo interpretation. A quantitative description of changes and habitats loss in relation to the socio-economic changes is provided. As expected, a forest surface expansion and an open areas decrease are observed similarly to many marginal mountains, where land abandonment and general forest/shrub recovery are the inevitable tendencies. An intense debate is still ongoing regarding the opportunity of rewilding, allowing the natural reforestation processes, versus the management of some areas, in order to preserve habitats and cultural traditional landscapes. For the EU biodiversity conservation policy to be effective, proper planning and management of interventions as well as public support and funding, become crucial when traditional activities are no longer profitable and viable for local inhabitants.
Highlights
IntroductionThe landscape is a complex system which has to be considered as holistic (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts), relativistic and dynamic: changing an element always means, in some way, changing the whole
High is the variation of the class “Structured deciduous forests” which increases from 2% up to 11% of the total area
The aim of this study is to describe the landscape changes which occurred in an area situated above 1300 m asl of PNALM (Central Apennines, Italy), between 1954 and 2016 by using past and recent aerial photos
Summary
The landscape is a complex system which has to be considered as holistic (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts), relativistic and dynamic: changing an element always means, in some way, changing the whole. This is the reason why some complex systems have been found to reorganize themselves so drastically that they really become something new [2]. Anthropogenic activities are responsible for many changes in the heterogeneous scale and patterns of landscape [3] and a modification is expected when the anthropogenic pressure decreases [4]. A pan-European scale study over the last 25 years revealed that the most important landscape transitions are urbanization and natural afforestation processes [5]
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