The Directorate of the National Research Council’s Institute for Terrestrial Ecosystems Research (CNR-IRET) has once again been entrusted to Carlo Calfapietra, who has served first as Acting Director and then as Director of the Institute since 2018.
A native of Viterbo and a graduate of the University of Tuscia in Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Calfapietra worked as a Marie Curie Researcher in the United States, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, before returning to Italy to the CNR. His topics of interest are wide and varied, ranging from ecophysiology in relation to environmental stresses to adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change to carbon fluxes, forest plantations and forest fires.
Calfapietra has been involved in research on green infrastructure, urban forests, sustainability and urban resilience for years, coordinating numerous national and international projects. Appearing in the media on numerous occasions, the IRET director has been a spokesman for the need to invest in Nature-based projects, promoting a green and sustainability-conscious image of the institute and the projects it coordinates. In fact, Calfapietra is the Italian Focal Point of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) infrastructure, an expert for the European Commission on issues related to urban green spaces and the ecosystem services they provide, and is CNR manager of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), the largest project ever funded in Italy on biodiversity. “I am honored by this appointment and by the reappointment of the directorate,” Calfapietra says, ”in recent years we have achieved many goals, but now it is important to continue to look to the future.
“The Institute is a leader in many PNRR activities,” he comments, ”and contributes to institutional and scientific activities on environmental sustainability issues. We have been able to attract absolutely excellent young people from abroad and from other Italian institutions. Many of our young people will certainly be involved in initiatives related to Nature Restoration Law and the issue of Climate Neutrality and will be able to make a contribution at the local, national and international levels.”
Carlo Calfapietra, 51, is the author of more than 200 publications and has spoken as keynote or invited speaker at many national and international conferences, seminars and webinars. IRET, which has a staff of about 250, is CNR’s leading institute on issues related to biodiversity and environmental sustainability with headquarters in Porano, in the historic Villa Paolina, and branches in Monterorondo, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Sassari and Lecce. The researchers, fellows, doctoral students, associates and scientists affiliated with the Institute are concerned with studying, protecting and enhancing the natural resources and biodiversity of the territory, with a view to their sustainable use also in relation to the bioeconomy and a circular economy perspective.