Commons within areas designated for nature conservation: the map of commons of the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park

Commons are land use rights, such as collecting fallen wood for firewood, grazing livestock, picking mushrooms etc., belonging to local community’s members. The Italian framework law on areas designated to nature conservation (National Law 394/1991) preserves “commons of local communities” as important tools for managing landscape also within National Parks. However, under strictly protected areas (like those areas labeled as A and B zones) the commons could cause conflict of interests and social disagreement with the Park authority. This paper reports some suggestions for solving this problem with reference to the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park as a case study, where common lands cover over 50% of the A zone territory. The controlled grant of the commons or land use rights change are the main relevant options. Their implementation can be aided by the Map of Commons, an innovative tool to support forest planning, based on material relating to the history of common lands. The map can be combined, under a GIS environment, with available thematic layers in order to edit the Park masterplan but also to support the landscape management.