MIPAAF

Organization (acronym): Ministry of agriculture forestry and food policies – MIPAAF (Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali)

Country: Italy

Role of the organization in FORESTERRA: Partner – WP5 task 5.2 leader

Webpage: www.politicheagricole.gov.it

Description:

The Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF) is the main national funding body for agricultural, agrifood and forestry issues. It is responsible for defining national research programmes in all agriculture and forestry areas.
During the period 2005-2010 the research office financed agricultural research programmes and projects with about 250 M€.

MIPAAF supports training and fellowships in agriculture and forestry research, including training carried out abroad. The most important recent initiative on forestry management research dealt with all aspects of Italian silviculture (RI.SELV.ITALIA - http://www.ricercaforestale.it/riselvitalia/).

In 2009 a national framework programme on the forestry sector came into force. It promotes the sustainable management of a multifunctional forestry ecosystem through coordinating all public administration initiatives and stakeholders’ participation. Promoting and coordinating forest research plays an important role in this ten-year program. MIPAAF through its research office (under General Direction of Rural Development) is member of SCAR (EU - DG for Research and Innovation), and works as partner in many coordinated actions under FP7 (ERANETs) and ERA (JPIs).

In particular it co-chairs the Steering Committee of JPI FACCE “Agriculture, food security and climate change” dealing with all aspects of agriculture production, including forestry, land use, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and their adaptation to climate changes. Furthermore, MIPAAF’s National Forest Service carries out monitoring (CONECOFOR), inventorying (National Forest Mapping), managing and control activities on forestry ecosystems.

Key personnel:

	Serenella Puliga - (Steering Committee) s.puliga@mpaaf.gov.it
	Elena Capolino - (Management Board)
	Annamaria Marzetti - (Management Board)
	Lucia Pinto – (for administrative issues)