Title: Modelling strategies for the reduction of fat dormice in northern Italian hazel groves

Authors: Giovanni Scirè

Addresses: Department of Political Sciences and International Relations, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

Abstract: The production of hazelnuts represents an important resource for several Italian rural areas. Sicily and Piedmont, two of the most important producers of hazelnuts, are affected by the presence of the dormouse (Glis glis), that has considerably severely harmed the production of hazelnuts. This study aims to analyse the issue in the Province of Cuneo in Piedmont and to evaluate the sustainability of the policies implemented by using the system dynamics (SD) methodology. An SD predator-prey microworld was built to reproduce the main relevant cause and effect relationships between the development of the dormouse population and local hazelnut production. The results of the SD microworld simulation show the effects of reduction policies on hazelnut production over time. The findings and further research recommendations are briefly reported in the conclusion section.

Keywords: model forest; systems analysis; systems dynamics; fat dormouse; edible dormouse; hazelnuts; dynamic sustainability; agriculture; predator-prey microworld; dynamic model; stock and flow diagram; casual loop diagrams.

DOI: 10.1504/IJARGE.2018.098023

International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 2018 Vol.14 No.4, pp.352 - 367

Accepted: 18 Nov 2018
Published online: 26 Feb 2019 *

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