The proceedings of the international conferences “Nature in Mind” and “The Forest Factor” have been published. A significant scientific and cultural commitment by the Biodiversity Group of the Carabinieri Forests, established in 2022, which continued with other important international conferences. Forests are a key factor in defending biodiversity, combating climate change, and providing life for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. They also offer an opportunity to broaden our perspective, through environmental education, to the entire complexity of the natural world and the web of interconnections and interdependence with the human species.
They have ancient roots (the Royal Patents of King Charles Felix established the administration for the custody of forests in 1822), a past as the Forest Corps, and a present among the forest, environmental, and agri-food units of the Carabinieri (CUFAA): these are the Italian forest rangers, particularly their Biodiversity Group (rgpbio.it), which has been actively organizing a series of international conferences.
The first conference focused on environmental education and a productive collaboration with the WEEC Network (which continues, for example, in the Life “TraiN2K” project). Other conferences followed after “Nature in Mind” (2022), during which the organizers were received by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale and by Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Then came “The Forest Factor” in 2023, “The Forest City” in 2024, and in 2025 “Old-Growth Forests and Ancient Trees”. All these conferences, besides focusing on nature conservation, have always provided space for information, training, and education as agents of change and “transformative” learning.
The proceedings of the first two conferences (edited by Mario Salomone) were published by the Biodiversity Group, with editorial collaboration from the WEEC network.
