CONCLUSIONS - PROPOSALS

Agroforestry landscapes are today part of the natural and cultural capital of our country, Europe and the Mediterranean region. They can support a small-scale rural economy, while supporting new values such as the maintenance of the cultural landscape and the conservation of biodiversity. However, their future is predicted to be rather uncertain as they have to contend, like most cultural landscapes, with two opposing forces; on the one hand, their intensification and conversion to industrial uses and infrastructure and, on the other, their abandonment. The abandonment of agricultural uses, both in mountainous and island marginal areas, turns them into forests or, better, into impenetrable flammable “jungles”, as those who know them well say, making them extremely vulnerable to forest fires. Recognizing their value and actively managing them is the only way to keep them alive, as part of our natural and cultural heritage.