Florence, 1 October 2025; Vallombrosa, 2 and 3 October 2025
Florence – Palazzo Vecchio, Salone dei 500 / Vallombrosa (Reggello - FI) - Salone del Capitolo, Abbey of San
Giovanni Gualberto
It is not so much for its beauty that the forest claims men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; We borrow it from our children. Trees are the pillars of the world; when the last trees are cut, the sky will fall"
(Sioux proverb)
Keywords
Old-growth forests, ancient trees, biodiversity, nature conservation, longevity of trees, threatened species, sustainability, sacred forests, spirituality of old-growth forests, humans and forest, the forest in art and music, old-growth forests and well-being, One Health.
Value and meanings of old-growth forests
Old-growth forests are unique ecosystems, characterised by a high structural and functional heterogeneity, with characteristics that develop over decades and centuries.
Forests are, therefore, of exceptional and irreplaceable importance. Where anthropogenic disturbance is absent or negligible, they give home to a unique characteristic flora and fauna. They also represent valuable carbon stores and are essential for studying the impacts of climate change in areas where the influence of human activities is negligible.
Since the 1980s, Italy's cultural and scientific attention to these formations has progressively increased. An initial census carried out within the National Parks revealed that about 70 forests emerged with characteristics of antiquity. Also, in many areas outside the protected areas, strips of forests are no longer used or specifically not used to preserve their natural evolution.
In recent years, thanks to the European and National Forest Strategy and the Consolidated Law on Forests, the 'National Network of Old-Growth Forests' was established in April 2023, with the direct contribution of the Italian Regions. All this is also because Italy is currently one of the countries that, at the European level, has included in the continental network of old-growth forests many examples of forests linked to the complex wealth of tree species, including endemic ones, that characterise the Mediterranean biochora.
The protection of biodiversity promoted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Nature Restoration Plan promoted by the European Regulation, and the implementation of the national network of old-growth forests will further increase old-growth forests worldwide.
Of great importance is also the attention that UNESCO has paid to these extraordinary ecosystems, including the transnational site of the "Ancient Primordial Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe" in the World Heritage Site. This site spans 18 European countries, with 13 sites in Italy, most of which are located within Nature Reserves or State-owned Areas managed by the Carabinieri Biodiversity Group.
Old-growth forests also have significant cultural value because they reconnect us with primordial forests and a thousand-year history of human coexistence. They also represent profoundly spiritual places where the grandeur of unspoiled nature leads human beings to reflect on their being and their relationship with creation.
They represent, therefore, the open book in which to read about the intimate essence of ecosystems, and the alternating and complex relationship between natural evolution and anthropogenic impact. Their history has its roots in that of the countries that host them, often accompanying their growth.
So, they deserve a systemic, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach that provides tools to reach people's hearts and minds as a lever of awareness and responsibility, through different perspectives that lead us towards a better understanding of these extraordinary ecosystems through different interpretative keys:
1. Naturalistic, because they are home to a characteristic flora and fauna linked to the strict lack of anthropogenic disturbance.
2. Ecological and climatic, because they are precious carbon deposits, and are fundamental for studying the impacts of climate change in contexts with prevalent natural dynamism in areas free from human activities.
3. Silviculture, because the absence of direct anthropogenic influence allows the study of natural dynamics and offers valid elements for developing naturalistic forestry and sustainable management of forest resources.
4. Cultural and spiritual: Old-growth forests have significant cultural value, reconnecting us with a multi-millennial human history of coexistence.
Finally, the tenth anniversary of the most important encyclical dedicated by the Catholic Church to the protection of creation, "Laudato Si," together with the start of the celebrations for the eight hundredth anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi's death and the eight hundredth anniversary of the writing of his Canticle of the Creatures, can represent further food for thought of great value.
The International Conference
The International Conference "Old-Growth Forests and Ancient Trees: A Treasure of Nature, Life and Culture" aims to respond to the above solicitations, thanks to experts in nature, forestry, human and social sciences, as well as representatives of different religious faiths, artists and writers, convened from all over the world. The aim is to create a dialogue and a synthesis of approaches and languages around the universal value of old-growth forests, without neglecting the aspect of dissemination with a high emotional and communicative impact.
The dates.
The International Conference will be held from 1 to 3 October 2025. The dates coincide with the conclusion of the Season of Creation, a month dedicated to action for the "common home" that opens with a World Day, September 1, and ends with the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
The places.
The conference will be "itinerant". The opening of the Works, the introductory and the first sessions will be held in Florence, home of the first Italian Faculty of Forestry Sciences and the Academy of the same name.
The conference will continue, the following day, in Vallombrosa (Reggello – FI) which, due to the presence of the millenary forest, cared for over a century by the Carabinieri Forestali, of the most imposing and ancient Italian experimental arboretums and of the majestic Benedictine Abbey, represents the ideal junction point between all the topics covered in the Conference.
In particular, the Forest and the extraordinary Abbey result from the wisdom of the Vallombrosa monks, descendants of San Giovanni Gualberto, who have made Vallombrosa their spiritual home for a thousand years. Subsequently, with the presence of the first national forestry institutions, already at the time of Florence as the capital of Italy, this extraordinary location, with its wonderful forest, has become the historical, cultural and spiritual reference of all the foresters of Italy, loved and cited by Italian and foreign poets and writers such as George Perkins Marsh, founder of scientific ecology and the first ambassador of the United States to Italy, who died in Vallombrosa in 1882.