Forest Protection Unifies, Silviculture Divides: A Sociological Analysis of Local Stakeholders’ Voices after Coppicing in the Marganai Forest (Sardinia, Italy)
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Context: Study Area and Forest Management from the 1850s to the Present
1.1.1. The 19th and 20th Centuries
1.1.2. The 21st Century
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Methodological Approach
2.2. Research Sample
2.3. Interview’s Analysis
3. Results and Discussion
- Historical and identity function of the forest.
- Intergenerational cultural erosion.
- Socio-economic dimension of forestry.
- Perception of silvicultural activities.
3.1. Historical and Identity Function of the Forest
3.2. Intergenerational Cultural Erosion
3.3. Socio-Economic Dimension of Forestry
3.4. Perception of Silvicultural Activities
4. Conclusions and Final Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Macro Dimension of the Interview | Main Tracks |
---|---|
History and traditional uses | What does the forest of Marganai mean in your life and in that of your community? |
How has the way of living the Marganai Forest changed in the local community? | |
What is the territory that Marganai Forest refers to? (please sketch on the “silent map” that is on the table, your memory of the boundaries of the forest) | |
How has the way of living the Marganai forest changed from a political/administrative point of view? (administrators only) | |
Perception of resources | How does the forest relate to the economic, political and social dynamics of the territory? |
In your opinion, what are the needs of the territory of reference? | |
Are the material resources of the Marganai Forest an economic and work source for its territory? | |
How can the Marganai Forest be valued from an economic point of view? | |
What is your knowledge and opinion about the production and consumption of firewood in the territory? | |
Knowledge of coppice management | What information do you have about what happened as a result of the use of the Marganai’s forest resources? |
What were your sources of information on this matter? | |
What is your opinion about the use of the Marganai’s forest resources? | |
In your opinion, what is the relationship between the depopulation process and the possible dynamics of economic development? | |
What relations do you have with the companies that have operated within the Marganai forest? | |
Future | How do you see the Marganai Forest in 10 years? |
Do you think you can do forestry in Sardinia? (administrators only) | |
What business prospects do you see in the near future? | |
Would you like to add something we haven’t asked you? |
Witnesses | n |
---|---|
Public administration at different levels and organization | 7 |
Companies in agroforestry, firewood, and timber sales | 8 |
Naturalistic associations, hiking associations, museums, others social and cultural actors, and journalists | 8 |
Total number of interviews | 23 |
H.I. | I.C. | Witness’s Statement |
---|---|---|
Collective identity | W-03 | “It is an identity factor. Identity […] concerns the sense of recognition of places, that is, the recognition of home, and the sense of landscape, both physical and human.” |
W-13 | “The Marganai is part of my personal history. As a child, I used the Marganai forest. […] Marganai forest plays an educational role for us.” | |
W-14 | “We felt the Marganai as something that belonged to the community.” | |
W-17 | “The presence, even visual, of a massif of this type [Marganai’s mountains] has influenced the modus vivendi of all the inhabitants of the territory.” | |
Forest as a social actor | W-02 | “From an historical-cultural point of view, it is an area that represents a point of recognition of the identity of the territory: local people have a point of reference to read their own story because the Marganai has always linked the relationships between local populations and the resources it has offered.” |
W-11 | “What does it represent for the inhabitants of Iglesias? Surely a green lung used over the years to make trips, to go hiking and to disconnect from the urban context.” | |
W-13 | “I think every inhabitant of Iglesias has a piece of his history linked to the Marganai forest.” | |
Resources of the forest system | W-09 | “Long ago, people did not create too much trouble with their use of wood. Maybe they did so with intelligence because these are forests that have endured over the centuries. Evidently, there was a certain ability to work the forest, especially compared to today. […] Perhaps the old men were ahead of many young people.” |
W-14 | “The territory lived in symbiosis with the needs of the urban world.” | |
W-19 | “The woods are anthropized places that live in a symbiotic way with the man who exploits them and that makes them grow in a decent way and does not destroy them.” |
H.I. | I.C. | Witness’s Statement |
---|---|---|
Abandoned rural areas | W-01 | “People are no longer used to non-urban outdoor life. Everyone goes to the sea but the Marganai forest is little known.” |
W-02 | “The voices being heard are the ones that are not from those places…it’s the public opinion of city-dwellers, people who live far away from those places. […] What emerges, however, is a public opinion disconnected from the specific context.” | |
W-05 | “[The local population] was split in two: those who know the territory, and saw similar works, were happy; others, who have never been in Marganai but who have seen it written on Facebook, have sided against it. The town was split in two.” | |
W-15 | “Unlike the inhabitants of Domusnovas and Fluminimaggiore, the inhabitants of Iglesias are more detached from the mountain. […] There are people who know other areas of Sardinia better, [areas that are] more publicized, but who do not know what we have near here.” | |
Environmentalist | W-02 | “What is happening is a lack of rural culture, and forestry in particular […] that made it possible to understand certain dynamics of the forest, agriculture, breeding… To understand these dynamics in depth and then to understand and support the balance between needs of local populations and system sustainability.” |
W-15 | “We are losing this culture, it is fading. We should combine it with the natural heritage.” | |
W-19 | “I fear that the municipal administrations are sons of this abandonment of the forest. It is a historical question: if I were the Mayor, and I knew nothing about the forest, I would not even know how to exploit it in a positive way.” | |
Urban-centric perspective | W-03 | “The rural areas are today seen as “a some-place” that is at the disposal of the city” |
W-13 | “I have an opinion that sometimes clashes with the opinion of “Taliban naturalists”. I live the forest, I agree not to rape it, but the forest must be usable for everyone. You must give everyone the opportunity to use it.” | |
W-19 | “Everything is the result of ignorance. To relate to the forest as a tropical forest where there are natives who have never seen a human being… This is the product of a very radical-chic attitude. The new generation of environmentalists knows nothing about the forest and approaches the forest of Marganai thinking that it is the Amazon.” | |
W-22 | “A certain type of environmentalism, which I call “environmental Talibanism”, has conditioned political choices.” | |
Loss of cultural capital | W-06 | “Because people are used to seeing deforestation in the Amazon forest. Because people now know everything about an African elephant or a Bengali tiger, but they do not know a partridge, they do not know what a hare is. This is the drama of Sardinians.” |
W-09 | “The environmental aspect... the fact that a forest is destroyed has been held up as a scandal. […] There was a contrast between foresters, the municipal administration of Domusnovas and environmentalists, who do not look favorably upon use of the forest.” | |
W-10 | “The environmentalist or the animalist is always listened to. I say to be cautious because they are not always right. But we must try to find common ground.” |
H.I. | I.C. | Witness’s Statement |
---|---|---|
Resilience of the forest | W-04 | “Before, the forest tended to be better than now. Now the cuts have been abandoned. One goes there and can almost not pass through. You only find holm oaks. […] The forest must not die but we must try to make it rejuvenate over time. It must always be alive.” |
W-05 | “Before, when the forest was inhabited, it created income. It was lived in and gave lots of wood to the population. This too was “inhabiting the territory”. Being present also means preserving.” | |
W-06 | “If you leave a forest alone, over the decades you will have nothing but a holm oak forest […] you will not find anything underneath, not even a blade of grass. If you periodically exploit the forest you have an economic yield from the wood that you collect, and, what’s more, you’re rejuvenating the forest.” | |
Attitudes for and against the cuts | W-14 | “Why does silviculture frighten us? It has always been there since the dawn of time, whereas before logs were used to roll the rocks to build the pyramids, today they are used to make firewood and for other uses. […] The moment we limit its use, we no longer have any connection with the habitat of human beings.” |
W-19 | “I have seen other woods in Italy […] that an ignorant person like me could judge as a primitive forest, but in reality, is the result of a “cultivation”. “Millennial cultivation” by the monks who transformed it into that wonder that is now. So, I’ve got a slightly different idea of what a forest must be like.” | |
W-11 | “My idea is that the forest is like the home garden and must be taken care of. We do not have to be radicals but if we want to use the forest, we have to make it usable. The holm oak forests must be pruned and put in condition to grow more and live well. It must be cleaned and the undergrowth must be made accessible. Otherwise, it starts to deteriorate.” |
H.I. | I.C. | Witness’s Statement |
---|---|---|
Violence against the forest | W-01 | “Even those who have studied silviculture for forty years tell us that the ‘problem of cutting trees’ in recent years is worsening because there is less and less historical memory of country life.” |
W-02 | “There are difficulties in the management of the forest because people who work in it, and are therefore aware of that cultural heritage that allowed us to understand the balance between natural resources and local populations, are few and isolated. They are struggling and increasingly relegated [ignored] and do not have time to give strength to their voice in the matter” | |
W-14 | “[Before] the territory lived in symbiosis with the needs of the urban world. [Now] the metropolitan citizen, who has all his comforts, […] wants all forests to be virgin forests.” | |
Public opinion | W-01 | “Public opinion associates the cutting of the forest to the desert of Africa. So, cuts are equal to desertification and desert. […] The cutting of the forest is a cyclic phase; it is a cultivation cut that is used to rejuvenate a forest that is not a natural forest.” |
W-05 | “[Public opinion] was divided into two. Those who know the area and have seen similar jobs were more than happy. Others, who have never seen anything on the spot but who have seen it written on Facebook, have lined up against. The country split into two.” | |
W-15 | “What the public opinion knows is that this cutting has been done in an inconsiderate way… And surely it came out that they were destroying the forest.” | |
Communication flows | W-09 | “We read it especially on a site that launched this thing. […] In fact, I do not know how the situation is. However, there was a conflict between foresters and the municipal administration of Domusnovas, and environmentalists who, as said the commissioner, do not look favorably at the use of wood.” |
W-13 | “There was a debate on Facebook and in the newspapers. They said: “They cut half of the Marganai forest”. But it is only a part, it is certainly not half a forest. Unfortunately, with social media things are swollen to excess.” | |
W-14 | “Social networks have combined damage with news sharing. Many people who shared that news were people who do not know the forest. Maybe even locals who you see in the square 24 h on 24 but who have never set foot on the Marganai […]. But they were ready to sentence on the cuts.” | |
W-19 | “What I know is that I have read online newspapers. I informed myself and that made me lean towards this position: “There is someone who has economic interests to destroy the forest”. This is the image given by the newspapers.” | |
Reliability and scientific validity | W-13 | “Information is what is missing from the institutions. What’s on the internet is not information, it’s something else. The information is the official one of those who have decided these things: Mayor, Regional Administrator, and all the interested people. They should have said, “This is what is going to happen in Marganai”. And I think that people who have skills and who know the mountains could also have agreed with this information.” |
W-15 | “At times alarmism is caused by not knowing what is happening. Surely, there is a lack of information.” | |
W-16 | “The cuts have not been explained to the population. What has triggered the uprising is that this cut has not been explained. […] From my point of view, information has not passed on or, if it has been given, it has not been enough. […] I am convinced that if they had given more complete information, many would have been less opposed. If they gave guarantees there would be fewer problems.” | |
W-19 | “If the municipal administrations had thought of involving stakeholders, perhaps involving them in some collective assembly and explaining the development plans, maybe we would not have arrived at this point.” |
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Branca, G.; Piredda, I.; Scotti, R.; Chessa, L.; Murgia, I.; Ganga, A.; Campus, S.F.; Lovreglio, R.; Guastini, E.; Schwarz, M.; et al. Forest Protection Unifies, Silviculture Divides: A Sociological Analysis of Local Stakeholders’ Voices after Coppicing in the Marganai Forest (Sardinia, Italy). Forests 2020, 11, 708. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11060708
Branca G, Piredda I, Scotti R, Chessa L, Murgia I, Ganga A, Campus SF, Lovreglio R, Guastini E, Schwarz M, et al. Forest Protection Unifies, Silviculture Divides: A Sociological Analysis of Local Stakeholders’ Voices after Coppicing in the Marganai Forest (Sardinia, Italy). Forests. 2020; 11(6):708. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11060708
Chicago/Turabian StyleBranca, Giampiero, Irene Piredda, Roberto Scotti, Laura Chessa, Ilenia Murgia, Antonio Ganga, Sergio Francesco Campus, Raffaella Lovreglio, Enrico Guastini, Massimiliano Schwarz, and et al. 2020. "Forest Protection Unifies, Silviculture Divides: A Sociological Analysis of Local Stakeholders’ Voices after Coppicing in the Marganai Forest (Sardinia, Italy)" Forests 11, no. 6: 708. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11060708
APA StyleBranca, G., Piredda, I., Scotti, R., Chessa, L., Murgia, I., Ganga, A., Campus, S. F., Lovreglio, R., Guastini, E., Schwarz, M., & Giadrossich, F. (2020). Forest Protection Unifies, Silviculture Divides: A Sociological Analysis of Local Stakeholders’ Voices after Coppicing in the Marganai Forest (Sardinia, Italy). Forests, 11(6), 708. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11060708