Forests Now Cover Over a Third of Italy, Overtaking Farmland for the First Time Since the Middle Ages

Italy is now, in effect, a forest nation. Wooded areas have surpassed 100,000 square kilometers in extent and cover more than a third of the national territory. This marks a significant shift: since 2020, forest area has exceeded utilized agricultural land, a situation not seen since the Middle Ages. This transformation is captured in the report “Foreste in Comune” (Forests in Municipalities), the first socioeconomic survey of the forest assets of Italian municipalities promoted by PEFC Italy (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification). The analysis shows that forests have become a central component of the Italian landscape, bringing a range of benefits tied to the growing presence of forest ecosystems. However, behind this expansion lie complex dynamics that cannot be interpreted solely as an environmental success.

In any case, the growth of forests undoubtedly represents an opportunity. Forests play a fundamental role in absorbing CO₂, protecting water resources, preventing hydrogeological instability, and conserving biodiversity. In many mountain areas, they also provide an economic resource through sustainable forest management, timber production, nature-based tourism, and the provision of other ecosystem services that benefit local communities first and the nation as a whole. A striking example is Marcetelli, in the province of Rieti, where 98.4% of the territory is covered by forest, making it the most forested municipality in Italy. Here, forest assets generate environmental benefits estimated at nearly €8 million (about $8.6 million) per year through air purification, water regulation, soil protection, and carbon storage. The report highlights that 75.7% of the entire national forest area is concentrated in Italy’s 3,596 mountain municipalities, territories that cover almost half of the country’s surface but host just 13.5% of the population. Even more significant is the situation of the 495 “hyper-forested” municipalities, where forests cover more than 80% of the land. These municipalities are home to just 1% of the Italian population but contain 13.94% of the national forest area—more than the entire half of the country where forests are nearly absent. Looking at forest coverage by municipality, Bormida (Savona) ranks next with 97.07% forest cover, followed by Percile (Rome) with 96.99%, then Drenchia (Udine) with 96.79% and Grimacco (Udine) with 96.59%. In terms of absolute size, Gubbio (Perugia) has the largest forest area with 26,804 hectares, followed by San Giovanni in Fiore (Cosenza) with 21,938 hectares and Città di Castello (Perugia) with 21,838 hectares.

Forests are therefore not evenly distributed across the country, as national forest assets are heavily concentrated in mountainous areas. In about half of Italy’s nearly 7,900 municipalities, forest presence is marginal or almost absent: the forest cover index is below 20%, and these territories—home to more than two-thirds of the population—contain less than 10% of the country’s forests. The increase in forest areas is largely driven by spontaneous renaturalization, mainly linked to the abandonment of agricultural land and marginal pastures, particularly in mountainous and upland hilly areas. Over the past twenty years, 75% of farms that ceased operations—around 1.3 million businesses—were located precisely in these areas, leading to the loss of about 850,000 hectares of cultivated land. Forest expansion, therefore, cannot be viewed as an exclusively positive process. The disappearance of traditional extensive agriculture also entails a loss of biodiversity. Many semi-natural European habitats, now considered of high ecological value, are the result of centuries of interaction between human activity and the environment. Permanent meadows, pastures, terracing, mixed cropping systems, and agroforestry landscapes host plant and animal species that tend to decline when land is abandoned and reclaimed by forest. At the same time, while mountain areas are becoming wilder, intensive and industrial agriculture continues to consolidate in the plains. The concentration of production in flat areas, which are easier to mechanize, favors monocultures, reduces landscape diversity, and contributes to the loss of natural and semi-natural habitats—and thus biodiversity. This creates a dual dynamic: on one hand, the abandonment of mountain farming; on the other, the intensification of production in the most fertile and workable areas.

The causes of this process are primarily demographic and economic. Farms in inland areas, where there is widespread outmigration of younger populations, often operate on difficult terrain, with steep slopes, fragmented plots, and higher production costs compared to plains. Moreover, the agri-food market and large-scale retail favor standardized production and large volumes, penalizing many local varieties and traditional crops that characterize mountainous and hilly areas. Despite this, the PEFC analysis also highlights signs of change that offer some hope. In several highly forested areas, new demographic attractiveness is emerging. Between 2021 and 2025, 932 Italian municipalities recorded a positive migration balance exceeding 10 per thousand, with a significant share of these municipalities located in heavily forested areas. The challenge for the coming years will therefore be to find a balance that mitigates this dualism between agricultural abandonment/renaturalization and agricultural intensification/ecological degradation. Italy’s forests represent an extraordinary ecological and economic resource, but it is necessary to examine the social, economic, and cultural transformations reshaping the national landscape. The future of inland areas will depend on the ability to integrate sustainable forest management, high-quality agriculture, and the enhancement of local specificities, ensuring that the return of forests does not coincide with the disappearance of the communities that have shaped these territories for centuries and created a unique biodiversity.

This trend has broader global relevance, as it reflects challenges faced across many developed countries balancing rewilding, rural depopulation, and industrial agriculture.

[L’Indipendente, June 9, 2026, Simone Valeri]