Corpo Forestale dello Stato

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Coat of arms of the CFS
CFS station Mongiana (Calabria)

The Corpo Forestale dello Stato (CFS; German "Staatliches Forstkorps" or "Staatliche Forstwache", "Forstpolizei") was an Italian police authority that was subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture in Rome .

The CFS was dissolved during 2016. The majority of the approximately 7,500 officers last joined the Carabinieri , while smaller parts went to the fire brigade , Polizia di Stato and Guardia di Finanza . With staff from the CFS and the Carabinieri of the special units for consumer and environmental protection, a new Carabinieri command for forest, environmental, agricultural and consumer protection was formed (Comando carabinieri per la tutela forestale, ambientale e agroalimentare) .

The forest police authorities of the autonomous regions and the two autonomous provinces of Bolzano - South Tyrol and Trent remained unaffected by this reorganization and continue unchanged (eg the. National Forest Service with State Forestry Corps in South Tyrol).

history

In the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont , a royal decree of October 15, 1822 established an organized state forest administration for the first time, which also had forest police tasks. After the unification of Italy in 1861, various earlier forest management organizations continued to exist. However, these were gradually adapted to the Piedmontese system and then integrated into it. In 1869, a national forest academy ( Regio Istituto Forestale di Vallombrosa ) was founded in the abbey of the Vallombrosans near Reggello in Tuscany , which was then closed and later became the agricultural faculty of the University of Florence . A law of June 20, 1877 created a uniform legal and organizational framework in forestry. With another law of June 2, 1910, the Corpo Reale delle Foreste (Eng. "Royal Forest Corps") was founded, which left all administrative tasks to the forest administration. The CRF had around 3,400 members at the time.

Under the fascist regime , the CRF was militarized and renamed the Milizia Nazionale Forestale . In this form it was also used for reforestation work. After Mussolini was deposed in 1943, the organization regained its old status and its old name Corpo Reale delle Foreste . When the monarchy was abolished in a referendum in 1946 , the current name Corpo Forestale dello Stato was introduced .

In the years that followed, the newly introduced Italian regions were given a number of responsibilities in the field of forest management and forestry. The CFS then aligned its organizational structure to the regional level, while the five autonomous regions of Italy completely took over the tasks of the CFS and founded their own forest police authorities.

In August 2015, the Italian Parliament passed a law reforming public administration and the police. On this basis, the government ordered the dissolution of the CFS and the realignment of the other police forces in January 2016. The police unions spoke out against the extensive forced militarization of forest police officers and protested against the dissolution of the CFS because of its special tasks, although there has been evident overlapping of competencies with special units of the Carabinieri, the provincial police , the fire brigade and other authorities for a long time . The Carabinieri assured the almost 7,200 forest police officers who had taken over that they would continue their work unchanged within the new organizational framework and would not have to fear any professional disadvantages.

tasks

CFS company vehicle
CFS helicopter
Members of the CFS at a 2007 parade in Rome

The CFS (also known as Forestale for short ) monitored compliance with nature and environmental protection laws , especially in forest and nature reserves and on inland waters . It also looked after national parks and other protected areas. Poachers were prosecuted across the country in cooperation with other authorities and private organizations , and species protection offenses also occurred at national borders . In addition to general animal welfare , consumer protection was also important. The CFS had particularly important tasks in the prevention and control of forest fires . The CFS was an important pillar of the Italian civil defense . It had last around 20 own helicopter could when necessary and fire fighting aircraft of type 415 CL Canadair Request. In cooperation with the mountain troop command of the army and the weather service of the air force , the CFS issued avalanche and bad weather warnings in the Alps and the Apennines ( servizio meteomont ). The CFS also provided units for the national mountain rescue service .

In addition to the CFS, special units from other police forces were also active in environmental and consumer protection (e.g. NOE and NAS of the Carabinieri ). Tasks in the field of hunting protection and in the fight against poaching took on the provincial level , the small provincial police forces , as far as they were set up there, as well as state-approved game wardens , which, however, have no police powers in Italy.

A distinction should be made between the CFS and forest scientists , forest technicians and forest workers who are employed by the forest administrations or forest enterprises of regions or other local authorities as part of their forestry responsibilities. In southern Italy in particular , forest workers are hired to a greater extent seasonally (also for job creation purposes ), including for reforestation .

organization

The General Directorate of the CFS was recently subordinate to 15 regional commands, which managed around 1,000 forest stations with a total of around 8,500 officials (target strength by 2015) in 15 of the 20 Italian regions via coordination offices at the provincial level . In various regions, the CFS had advanced observation posts for the timely detection of forest fires. The CFS maintained forest fire fighting coordination centers ( CORAIB ) in all regional commandos and was represented in all civil defense coordination centers, especially in the “Joint Air Coordination Center” in Rome ( Centro Aereo Operativo Unificato-COAU ).

The special units included special criminal investigation groups that acted against arsonists , garbage trafficking , illegal waste disposal , cruelty to animals and poachers , among other things .

The CFS had two major training centers in Cittaducale and Sabaudia ( Latium ). There were also some smaller, partly specialized training centers in various regions of the country. The higher forest police officers were trained at the Scuola superiore di polizia in Rome. The CFS training facilities were integrated into the Carabinieri training organization in 2016.

In the 1950s, on the initiative of cross-country skiers who belonged to the CFS, the Centro Sportivo Corpo Forestale dello Stato , which was named Gruppo Sportivo Forestale from 2007 , was created. Members of this sports promotion organization have won over 50 medals at the Olympic Games and over 230 at world championships. These athletes were taken over by the corresponding organization of the Carabinieri in 2016.

Uniform and ranks

Riding forestali with shako and blue sash .

The ranks of the officials of the CFS and their designations largely corresponded to those of the Polizia di Stato .

The gray of the CFS uniform was called grigioverde or "gray-green" until its dissolution . This was the color of the army uniforms from 1915 and 1934. The service uniform was essentially the same as that used by the Guardia di Finanza until 2011 , with the following differences:

For a uniform field in cap has often Käppiform ( Pasubio called and about a mountain cap accordingly) worn instead of the Beret. The riding forestali wore breeches with green lampasses ; in addition to the parade uniform the conical shako from 1861, with the hair bush of the mounted artillery .

Autonomous Organizations

The forest police authorities of the autonomous regions were structured largely according to the CFS model. In some cases they also take on technical, supervisory or advisory tasks and management measures. The forest police in the Aosta Valley has around 150 employees and 14 stations, in Trentino there are around 240 employees and 37 stations, in South Tyrol there are just under 400 employees (300 of them in the State Forestry Corps) and 38 stations, in Friuli there are around 250 employees and 28 Stations. The "Forest and Environmental Protection Corps " ( Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale ) of Sardinia consists of seven district offices, 82 stations, 10 coastal bases and over 1,400 employees. The Corpo Forestale in Sicily is also somewhat larger (as of 2020).

Web links

Commons : Corpo Forestale dello Stato  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Decreto Legislativo 19 agosto 2016, n.177 on normattiva.it
  2. ↑ Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol. Forestry Department.
  3. ↑ altalex.com, August 17, 2015
  4. ↑ regione.vda.it: Corpo Forestale della Valle d'Aosta
  5. ↑ provincia.tn.it: Servizio Foreste e Fauna
  6. ↑ Answer to Landtag inquiry no. 3441/18: Employees in the State Forest Service
  7. ↑ provinz.bz.it: State Forest Service = Servizio Forestale Provinciale = Sorvisc Forestal dla Provinzia; Forest Act (Provincial Act of October 21, 1996, No. 21), Art. 56 ff.
  8. ↑ regione.fvg.it: Corpo Forestale Regionale (CFR)
  9. ↑ regione.sardegna.it: Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale (CFVA)
  10. ↑ regione.sicilia.it: Corpo Forestale della Regione Siciliana (CFRS)