Forest operation engineering and management for sustainable use of mountain forests

Forests cover a signifi cant proportion of mountain regions around the world, except those that are particularly dry or cold yearround. In Europe, for instance, forests cover 41% of the total mountain area and are the prevalent land cover except in the mountains that extend into the Arctic regions. Mountains are fragile and often remote regions, whose human communities are often vulnerable to environmental, economic, and social changes both locally and globally. In recent decades, there have been two distinct trends in the area covered by mountain forests: 1) gradual rarefaction of rural activities, including sometimes forest exploitation, in industrialized countries, and 2) maintenance of high dependency of communities on their forests in developing countries. Faced with these contrasting trends, forest operation engineering and management (FOEM) can play an important role developing solutions that are fi t to the specifi c mountain forest situation. Two different situations are considered in order to evaluate the potential of FOEM in offering approaches to sustainably manage and use mountain forests: Italian northeastern Alps (Italy) and Sagarmatha area (Nepal). Technical proposals are mainly targeted to the economic and socio-cultural aspects connected to the management and use of forest resources.