Silvicultural aspects of black pine plantations: analysis of Italian regional laws During the last century, afforestation programmes were planned in most of the Italian regions and black pine plantations have represented one of the main public policy effort in mountain areas. The afforestation tecniques has been generally similar throughout Italy, producing nowadays artificial back pine forests showing similar age and structures. Nevertheless, contrasting forestry legislations and decision making both theoretically and technically are adopted at regional scale specifically on black pine forest management. Because of these heterogeneity of laws and regulation, a reference knowledge base can standardise and harmonise the different terms and technical-management aspects often involved in the forestry sector. The aim of this work is to provide a legislative history concerning afforestation at the National level, with a synoptic framework of the current regional forest legislation on the treatment of black pine forests.

Urban and peri-urban forests play a relevant role for the urban population providing recreational and relaxing opportunities, improving air and water quality, and maintaining local biodiversity. In the last century, anthropic pressure and social requests on urban and peri-urban forests was drastically increased. In this context, surveys aimed to investigate the opinions and preferences of residents and visitors about urban and peri-urban forests are relevant in order to supply useful information to the local managers. The aim of the present study is to investigate social preferences for aesthetic and functional characteristics of the Monte Morello peri-urban forest in Tuscany after two different silvicultural treatments (traditional thinning and selective thinning). In order to collect the social preferences a semi-structured questionnaire was administered in spring-summer 2016 to 201 visitors of the Monte Morello peri-urban forest. The results of the survey show that the respondents prefer mixed forests with a horizontal and vertical differentiated stand structure. The respondents prefer three benefits (ecosystem services) provided by the Monte Morello forest: recreational opportunities, carbon dioxide sequestration and biodiversity conservation. In addition, the results show that respondents prefer from the aesthetic point of view the peri-urban forest of Monte Morello after the selective thinning. Conversely, the scenario status quo is the least appreciated due to the high amount of deadwood. The results of the present study provide quali-quantitative information useful for the decision makers (forest planners and managers) in order to define forest management strategies to enhance a peri-urban forest from the recreational point of view and to increase the site attractiveness.Keywords: Peri-urban Forests, Ecosystem Services, Tourism-recreation Function, Visitors, Questionnaire Survey, Tuscany Region IntroduzioneNell'ultimo secolo il ruolo delle foreste urbane e periurbane è profondamente cambiato a causa di una serie di fattori globali -quali l'urbanizzazione e l'industrializzazione -che hanno aumentato la pressione antropica sulle aree naturali prossime agli abitati e, al contempo, ne hanno accresciuto l'importanza sociale (Blazevska et al. 2012, Pastorella et al. 2017. Il rivitalizzato ruolo delle aree naturali con elementi arborei, interne alle città (foreste urbane) o localizzate nelle zone limitrofe ai centri urbani (foreste peri-urbane), è dovuto ad una crescente richiesta sociale di zone verdi dove svolgere attività sportive e ricreative -ad esempio corsa, passeggiate con i cani, bicicletta (Andrada & Deng 2010) -e in grado di migliorare la qualità della vita dei residenti (Tuffery 2014). In tal senso, le foreste urbane e peri-urbane sono un importante "polmone verde" per la popolazione urbana, in grado assorbire anidride carbonica (CO 2 ) atmosferica e sostanze inquinanti (Strohbach & Haase 2012, Nikodinoska et al. 2018. Tali foreste svolgono inoltre un rilevante ruolo estetico migliorando la vivibili...