• Energy Research

Short rotation forest (SRF) plantations of hybrid poplar clones are currently attractive for Italian farmers due to the availability of public grants and the potential for producing wood chips for energy production. Growth and dendromass yield of new clones of hybrid poplars (specific to SRF plantations) were evaluated after two biannual rotations across northern Italy within a network of experimental fields established in spring 2003 on three sites of low (Bigarello), medium (Vinovo) and high fertility (Mira). Soil preparation, planting density (5900 trees ha-1), weed control, tree water status, and biannual mechanical harvesting were homogeneous across the sites. Nitrogen fertilization was applied only in Mira (300 Kg N ha-1). In all sites, survival was high for almost all clones, and stem density increased dramatically, with a parallel decrease of stem dimensions, after the first coppicing. In Bigarello, with limiting soil conditions, there was not significant difference among clone biannual yields, which varied from 10.3 (first rotation) to 14.2 (second rotation) Mg ha-1 in dry matter (dm). In the medium and high fertility sites of Vinovo and Mira, there was significant difference in clone yields, with the new clones performing better than control clones (I-214 and Lux). In Mira, mean biannual yield increased from 30.2 to 40.3 Mg dm ha-1 from the first to second biennial rotation cycle. The network of experimental plantations showed a yield variability in relation to soil fertility, with a range of new clones of hybrid poplar performing better than traditional ones in medium and high site conditions.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential environmental life-cycle impacts of olives produced in three management systems of olive tree integrated with natural grassland. In Italy, olive cultivation is one of the key crops. In fact, in terms of cultivation area, olives are in the second place, behind the wheat cultivation. In terms of production, olive trees take 6th place, just behind grapes, wheat, maize, tomatoes and apples. In terms of production, Italy is in the third place in the world, behind Spain and Greece. Their share in global production in 2016 amounted to 10.9% (2092175 tonnes). Olive's trees occupy an area of 1165562 ha (FAOSTAT 2016). Olive trees can be cultivated in different farm systems: organic, traditional, silvopastoral and intensive. These systems differ in terms of both the costs incurred and the impact on the environment. Olive orchards integrated with cereals is the earliest agroforestry system in the Mediterranean area and characterize plantation crop and multipurpose tree systems, that improve nutrient cycling and erosion control (Ramachandran Nair, 1993). Currently, organic farming is becoming more popular in agriculture. For instance, in Italy, more olive trees are grown in organic farming, a system spread in the recent years (Melelli and Fatichenti, 2010). Organic system is supposed to have better performance in reducing environmental influence in environmental burdens than conventional because of lower environmental impacts on resources depletion, highlighting higher efficiency in reducing fossil fuel consumption. However it is not at all times shown in the literature (Mohamend et al., 2014; Salomone and Ioppolo, 2012). This system uses less chemicals for plant protection and mineral fertilizers but productivity is typically lower. The results of most Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies show that mineral fertilization is the process contributing most to the environmental impacts (Mohamend et al., 2014; Romero-Gamez et all., 2017), but irrigation also contributes significantly to impacts (Notarnicola et all., 2015) in the production of olive oil. The Mediterranean basin is the largest area characterized by olive cultivation, where irrigation is necessary and widespread. Metzidakis et al., 2008 has shown that intensive cultivation results with higher yields but also higher labour cost and generate much more waste because of higher use of chemicals. LCA is used to quantify different environmental impacts of the entire production system of the olive oil sector and also this method can specify the environmental hotspots in a production system (Avraamides and Fatta, 2008; Hanandeh and Gharaibeh, 2016; Notarnicola et al., 2015).

The paper is aimed to present an overview of forest resources, considering the actual extent, at the European and global scale, of forest characteristics (forest area, growing stock, biomass and carbon store) and functions (productive and socio-economic) as well as the perspectives of long-term trends for supply and demand of forest products. The analysis is carried out on the basis of existing studies and statistics such as the Forests Resources Assessment (FAO, 2005), the European Forest Sector Outlook Study (UNECE, 2005) and the Workshop "National Wood Resource Balances" (2008). At European level the role of energy policies on forest sector (EU targets to produce 12% and 20% of energy from Renewable Energy Sources in 2010 and 2020, respectively) is also analysed in term of the impact on future wood supply and demand. According to the data actually available the EU future scenario highlights a deficit of wood supply in comparison with wood demand (rising from 46 Mm3 in 2005 to 134 Mm3 and 436 Mm3 in 2010 and 2020 respectively), thus suggesting the need to promote strategies able to mobilize additional forest resources in respect of sustainable management practices. However, the need to conduct detailed and realistic studies at national level in order to assess the potential wood supply considering different sources (like woody biomass from outside forest and post-consumer recovered wood) and the goal of developing a comprehensive research approach to cope with the deficit of wood supply, are stressed.

The work provides a process description for the separation and exploitation of a high value by-product from the extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) mill waste. In particular, the olive pomace is a by-product that can potentially improve the EVOO value chain by providing a genuine primary matter for the agrofood industry. Furthermore, such an exploitation of pomace would reduce the environmental and economic problems related to the mill wastes management and disposal. The modern two-phase milling technique largely reduces the wastewater but produces a relevant quantity of wet pomace. Two-phase mills in Italy account for about 11% of the total, thus producing a relevant amount of wet olive cakes. In Colli Orvietani area, the residual olive cake most often retains very high nutritional properties, owing to the persistence of an effective management of the olive orchards within the frame of a traditional small farming system. The reduction of mill wastewater and the exploitation of the wet olive cake for innovative and high added value agrofood products seem effective strategies to endorse the local processes of sustainable development.

Wildfires have always been an integral part of the ecology of many terrestrial ecosystems, but their frequency is increasing in many parts of the world. Wildfires were once a natural phenomenon, but after humans learned to control fire, it has been used as a management tool to increase soil fertility, to regenerate natural vegetation for grazing and to control competing vegetation. However, currently uncontrolled wildfires threaten not only natural vegetation, landscape biodiversity, communities and economies, but they also release large amounts of carbon dioxide, thus contributing to global temperature increase. Higher temperatures and drier summers have increased the risk of wildfires in biodiversity rich areas of European Mediterranean countries and have resulted in human casualties. The aim of this article is to investigate whether agroforestry, the practice of integrating woody vegetation and agricultural crops and/or livestock, could be a management tool to reduce wildfires in European Mediterranean countries. Fire events from 2008 to 2017 and data of land cover and land use were spatially correlated. Results indicated that agroforestry areas had fewer wildfire incidents than forests, shrublands or grasslands, providing evidence of the potential of agroforestry to reduce fire risk and protect ecosystems.

CONTEXT: Agroforestry is gaining interest in in Europe however the trade-offs associated with its uptake are still uncertain. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the sustainability trade-offs and synergies associated with a range of agroforestry systems in Europe and assess the underlying reasons for different performance regarding environmental, economic, social and governance domains. METHODS: Five case-studies of agroforestry from nothern, eastern and southern Europe were assessed using an established sustainability assessment tool, the Public Goods tool (PG tool). The case studies were selected to represent a range of innovative and traditional systems, encompassing arable and livestock, wood fuel and tree fruit crops. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: All five of the case studies were performing well across a diverse range of sustainability criteria, with average scores of three out of five or higher across the assessment categories. Social capital and animal health and welfare management scores were particularly high, due to high rates of on-farm employment of between 0.4 and 2.3 full-time labour units per hectare, and a high volume of local sales alongside effective health planning and husbandry through health planning and a lack of restrictions on natural behaviour. Land Equivalent Ratios were greater than 1 within each case and were particularly high for established silvopasture systems (over 1.5). Fossil fuel use was considerably lower than the industry average in most of the case studies (between 17 and 92% of the country-average per hectare for three of the cases). Economic performance was highly variable, with high labour costs contributing to negative margins. SIGNIFICANCE: The assessments show that agroforestry systems have considerable potential to contribute to multiple sustainability objectives, and that environmental and social sustainability objectives are particularly well addressed through increased efficiency of land-use, increased opportunities for on-farm employment and engagement with local communities. However considerable financial barriers still exist and may prevent its further uptake. Promoting the future uptake of agroforestry in Europe therefore requires the commitment of multiple actors in supply chains to plan policies, farm-practices and knowledge exchange that can support the delivery of sustainability benefits.

Italy is the second largest extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) producer within the European Union. Despite its importance in preserving rural landscape and in supporting household economy, the EVOO sector faces several constraints due to high management costs, small farm size, lack of cooperation and investment, production vulnerability, and farmers’ ageing. Such a number of weak points suggests the need to identify and adopt innovative approaches, at both the farm and oil mill levels. In order to address these priorities, a fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) survey was carried out in Umbria region, central Italy, involving key local stakeholders of the EVOO value chain in the Orvieto district. Based on stakeholders’ perception and knowledge, this paper aims to identify and evaluate the most relevant components of the local olive oil value chain, and predict scenarios responding to hypothetical changes of the same components. These stakeholders were firstly invited to each build an individual fuzzy cognitive map and then, grouped all together, build a joint fuzzy cognitive map. Finally, the maps represented both the individual and the grouped stakeholders’ perceptions. The maps were translated into adjacency matrices in order to create an FCM model by applying the software “Mental Modeler”. In total, 24 participants, including practitioners, multipliers, researchers, suppliers and members of local administration, participated in the survey. The component analysis and the scenario analysis highlighted several priority issues: to preserve the ecosystem functioning, to implement cooperation, innovation and education, to adapt and mitigate climate change. The main novelty of this study is that all stakeholders’ categories in the EVOO sector recognize several challenges to sustain the EVOO value chain, in particular, climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Given the environmental footprints of the conventional agriculture, it is imperative to test and validate alternative production systems, with lower environmental impacts to mitigate and adapt our production systems. In this study, we identified six production systems, four in Italy and two in Denmark, to assess the environmental footprint for comparison among the production systems and additionally with conventional production systems. SimaPro 8.4 software was used to carry out the life cycle impact assessment. Among other indicators, three significantly important indicators, namely global warming potential, acidification, and eutrophication, were used as the proxy for life cycle impact assessment. In Italy, the production systems compared were silvopastoral, organic, traditional, and conventional olive production systems, whereas in Denmark, combined food and energy production system was compared with the conventional wheat production system. Among the six production systems, conventional wheat production system in Denmark accounted for highest global warming potential, acidification, and eutrophication. In Italy, global warming potential was highest in traditional agroforestry and lowest in the silvopastoral system whereas acidification and eutrophication were lowest in the traditional production system with high acidification effects from the silvopastoral system. In Italy, machinery use contributed the highest greenhouse gas emissions in silvopastoral and organic production systems, while the large contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer was recorded in the traditional and conventional production systems. In Denmark, the combined food and energy system had lower environmental impacts compared to the conventional wheat production system according to the three indicators. For both systems in Denmark, the main contribution to greenhouse gas emission was due to fertilizer and manure application. The study showed that integrated food and non-food systems are more environmentally friendly and less polluting compared to the conventional wheat production system in Denmark with use of chemical fertilizers and irrigation. The study can contribute to informed decision making by the land managers and policy makers for promotion of environmentally friendly food and non-food production practices, to meet the European Union targets of providing biomass-based materials and energy to contribute to the bio-based economy in Europe and beyond.