AGENZIA FORESTALE REGIONALE PER LOSVILUPPO DEL TERRITORIO E DELL AMBIENTE DELLA SARDEGNA

Their core work

FORESTAS is the regional forestry operations agency of Sardinia, responsible for managing the island's forests, coordinating wildfire prevention and response, and stewarding natural landscapes across one of the Mediterranean's most ecologically significant territories. Unlike research institutes, they are a practitioner body — they operate on the ground, managing real forest assets, deploying crews, and maintaining the infrastructure that keeps Sardinian forests functional. In H2020, they contributed this operational field knowledge: first to INCREdible, helping map the economic potential of Mediterranean cork, resins and wild edibles, and then to FIRE-RES, where they bring direct wildfire management experience to a pan-European effort to build fire-resilient territories. Their value to any consortium is ground-truth access — real landscapes, real fire history, and institutional authority over a region that faces recurring wildfire crises.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their H2020 participation opened with INCREdible (2017-2021), which was firmly rooted in the productive side of Mediterranean forests — cork, resins, and wild edibles as economic assets within a bioeconomy model. The shift to FIRE-RES (2021-2025) marks a clear pivot: the focus moves from what forests produce to how forests survive, placing fire resilience, landscape design, and proactive governance at the centre. This is not a radical departure — cork oak conservation and fire prevention are deeply intertwined in Sardinia — but it does reflect a sharpened response to climate-driven wildfire escalation across Southern Europe.

FORESTAS is moving toward becoming a specialist field partner for fire resilience and climate adaptation projects, particularly those needing operational Mediterranean territory expertise and real-world implementation reach in Southern Italy.

How they like to work

FORESTAS has never led an H2020 project — both participations are as partner, which is consistent with a public operational agency that brings implementation capacity rather than research leadership. Despite only two projects, they have connected with 44 unique partners across 14 countries, meaning they were placed in large, broad consortia where their regional practitioner role was specifically needed. They are not a repeat-partner hub; each project drew a fresh network, suggesting they are recruited for what they can do on the ground in Sardinia rather than for pre-existing research relationships.

Across two projects, FORESTAS has worked with 44 unique consortium partners spanning 14 countries — an unusually wide network for an organisation with such a small project portfolio. This reflects their inclusion in large, multi-actor consortia where Southern European operational capacity was a deliberate requirement.

What sets them apart

FORESTAS offers something no university or consultancy in the Mediterranean forestry space can replicate: direct operational authority over a major island forest system with a documented wildfire crisis history. For projects that need real terrain, real fire data, real restoration sites, or institutional access to a Southern Italian regional government, they are the entry point. They also bring the credibility of a public body — important when projects must demonstrate societal uptake and policy relevance to evaluators.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FIRE-RES
  Their largest and most technically rich project (€146,375, 2021-2025), addressing fire-resilient territories through a combination of real-time simulation, landscape design, and socio-ecological governance — placing FORESTAS at the intersection of technology and field operations.
• INCREdible
  Positioned FORESTAS within the Mediterranean bioeconomy network by connecting Sardinia's cork oak and resin landscapes to an EU-wide innovation effort around non-timber forest product value chains.