(“Breve storia dei cambiamenti della foresta nelle montagne della Sila Greca”). Fa parte di: Forest History. International Studies on Socio-economic and Forest Ecosystem Change. Report No. 2 of the IUFRO Task Force on Environmental Change, a cura di Mauro Agnoletti, S. Anderson, pp. 289-305.

Chapter 23 (Page no: 289)

A brief history of forest changes in the Sila Greca mountains.

This chapter examines the relationship between social history and forest changes during the last two centuries in the Sila Greca mountains of Calabria (Italy). For many thousands of years human impact in this area has strongly influenced the landscape, and specifically soil use and forest cover. The administrative boundaries were reconstructed in order to interpret the demographic changes that have had an impact on the forest area. The periods that have most strongly characterized the area’s history are the following:

(i) the late 18th century (1741-1807);

(ii) the French occupation (1806-1814);

(iii) the Bourbon restoration (1815-1859);

(iv) the Kingdom of Italy (1861-1914);

(v) the First World War and the immediate postwar period (1915-1921);

(vi) from the Fascist era to the Second World War (1922-1945); and

(vii) the post-Second World War period (from 1946).

The historical sources used are reliable and consist of pertinent bibliographical references and vast archival documents: land registers, the French cadastre, the acts of the Feudal Commission and the correspondence of the Regional Commissary for Civic Rights. The documents that have been examined and their interpretation have led to the quantification of the effects of historical and political events on the forest cover of the Sila Greca area.