Presentation

The Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali (Italian Academy of Forest Sciences) was founded on the 21st June 1951. It is the only academy in Italy with the exclusive institutional role of giving impetus and vitality to the progress of forest sciences and their application to sylviculture and related problems of environmental protection. It is a non-profit institution.

Namely, the Accademia:

• promotes studies, research and experiments on technical, economic and legal issues related to sylviculture and environmental protection;
• organises conferences and meetings to discuss those issues;
• organises courses and lectures by scholars and other experts;
• publishes academic proceedings, technical and scientific studies, surveys, monographs, collections of essays and journals;
• maintains links with similar national and foreign institutions as it carries out its duties;
• administers grants and funds for research or for implementing specific studies.

Through its association with IUFRO (International Union of Forestry Research Organisations) the Accademia is linked to all forestry research institutes abroad; it is also home to the Unione Italiana degli Istituti di ricerca forestali [Italian Union of forestry research Institutes] (UNIF) and co-ordinates its activities.
The Academy can count on its own staff and resources but also on the structures of the DISTAF (Department of Environmental and Forestry Sciences and Technologies) at the University of Florence with special regard on the new Laboratory of Geomatics (GeoLab). This modern structure is an autonomous GIS and RS lab based on Visual WorkStation Sylicon Graphics equipped with some of the most powerful GIS and RS tools.


Members:  currently, there are 188 Italian members (10 honorary, 72 ordinary and 106 associates) and 43 foreign members (7 honorary and 36 associates). The Accademia's members include some of the most authoritative Italian and foreign figures in the field of forest science.


Library and journals:  the Accademia publishes two periodicals: Annali, that contains the proceedings of lectures and the most significant scientific studies presented or discussed at the academy, and the bi-monthly journal L'Italia forestale e montana, with articles on environmental and forestry policy, techniques and economics.
In addition, the Accademia is a significant documentation centre: its library contains 5,500 items and 500 collections of periodicals, more than half of which are published abroad. The Accademia also maintains bibliographic exchange programs with the main forestry research institutes in Italy and around the world.


Activity:  see projects' page