Curriculum vitae

Mauro Agnoletti

Short curriculum:

Current Appointments:

  • Director, UNESCO Chair “Agricultural Heritage Landscapes,” University of Florence”.
  • President, National Association of Rural Landscapes of Historical Interest (PRIS).
  • Vice President, International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE).
  • Member, Commission on Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, Ministry of Culture, Italy
  • Scientific Expert, Presidency of the Tuscany Region, Landscape Observatory, Italy.
  • Scientific Committee, Association for the Heritage of the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. 
  • Co-Editor in chief, scientific journal Global Environment. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, White Horse Press.
  • Series Editor, Monograph Series on Environmental History, Springer.
  • Associate Editor, scientific journal Biodiversity and Conservation, Springer.

Past Appointments:

  • 2012-2026 Scientific Expert, National Observatory for Rural Landscape, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests.
  • 2010-2025 Coordinator – Laboratory for Landscape and Cultural Heritage, University of Florence
  • 2014-2025 Coordinator – Interdepartmental Unit on Management and Conservation of Rural Landscape, University of Florence.
  • 2004–2024, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forestry Sciences and Technologies (DAGRI), School of Agriculture, University of Florence.
  • 2018–2024, Director, International Master’s Program “Agricultural Heritage Systems.”
  • 2005–2023, Scientific Expert, Council of Europe, European Landscape Convention.
  • 2010–2022, Scientific Expert, UNESCO, World Heritage List.
  • 2016–2022, Coordinator, Scientific Secretariat, National Observatory of Rural Landscape, Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies.
  • 2016–2021, President, Landscape Observatory, Tuscany Region.
  • 2016–2021, President, Scientific Committee, FAO’s Global Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Program.
  • 2016–2021, Board Member, Italian Environmental Fund (FAI).
  • 2019, Coordinator, UNESCO World Heritage nomination dossier for the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene.
  • 2014, Scientific Coordinator, UNESCO-CBD, Florence Declaration on Biocultural Diversity.
  • 2007–2013, Coordinator, Landscape Working Group, National Strategic Plan for Rural Development 2007–2013, Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies.
  • 2005–2015, Coordinator, Research Group on Forest History and Traditional Knowledge, International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).
  • 2005–2009, Vice President, European Society for Environmental History (ESEH).

Teaching experience abroad:

  • 2003-2004-2005 Portland State University (USA),
  • 2007, École Normale Supérieure, Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon., France.
  • 1998, Albert Ludwig Universität, Freiburg, Germany;

Contribution to Policies:

  • 2023-2026 , President, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Forests, Commission for the Drafting of the Implementing Decree of Law 10/2013 on Monumental Forests, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Forests.
  • 2022, Delegate of the National Observatory of Rural Landscape, Partnership Table, National Strategic Plan for the CAP 2023–2027, Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies.
  • 2016, Consolidated Law on Forestry (TUFF) Coordinator, Working Group, Implementing Decree, Art. 7, c.11.
  • 2017, Consolidated Law on Wine, Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies.
  • 2015, Revision of the Forestry Law of the Tuscany Region (Recovery of Abandoned Agricultural Lands).
  • 2012, Revision of the National Forestry Law 227/2012.
  • 2010, Coordinator of the project for the establishment of the National Register of Historical Rural Landscapes traditional knowledge and agricultural practices and the National Observatory for Rural Landscape and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests.
  • 2009, Invited Expert, Council of Europe, European Commission DG Agriculture, restricted meeting on landscape policies and agriculture.
  • 2007, Coordinator, Guidelines for the Implementation of the Third Pillar of Sustainable Forest Management, Interministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests – IUFRO.

 

Research Projects

Mauro Agnoletti has coordinated and /or has been partner of 40 national and international research projects.

Conferences

Mauro Agnoletti has attended about 400 national and international meetings, 300  as invited speakers. He was invited speaker at the COP on Climate in Bonn (D) in 2017; to the High Level Segment Meeting at the COP on Biodiversity in Hadong Korea in 2018; the conference on the “State of the European Union “ in Florence, 2023.

Papers

Professor Agnoletti has authored 14 books and edited 18 volumes with national and international publishers and has produced approximately 200 scientific articles. Regarding his publications in scientific journals, rankings from Stanford University and Elsevier  for 2020-21-26 place him among the top 2% of the most influential researchers worldwide. Below are some of his most significant publications:

Recent scientific papers:

Hawksworth, D.L., Agnoletti, M. Cultural forests, sacred groves, and traditionally managed woodlands: key contributors to the maintenance of biodiversity. Biodivers Conserv 34,

special issue: Cultural Forests for Landscape-Scale Biodiversity Conservation, Issue Editor M. Agnoletti; 3113–3117 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-025-03122-w

  • Piras, A.Santoro, F.Romano , M.Agnoletti, The VASA (historical and environmental evaluation) multitemporal approach for the analysis and assessment of rural landscape transformations. Landscape ecology, Volume 40, Issue 3 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-025-02072-6
  • Francesco Piras, Marta Allegri, Beatrice Fiore, Mauro Agnoletti, Antonio Santoro,Cultural landscape transformations in the “Prosecco hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene” UNESCO World Heritage Site in the context of terrain morphology, Journal of Rural Studies,Volume 112, 2024,103452, ISSN 0743-0167, (2024) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103452.
  • Piras, F.; Pan, Y.; Santoro, A.; Fiore, B.; Min, Q.; Guo, X.; Agnoletti, M. Agro-Silvo- Pastoral Heritage Conservation and Valorization—A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and of the Italian Register of Historical Rural Landscapes. Land 2024, 13, 988. https://doi.org/10.3390/ land13070988;
  • Agnoletti M., Santoro A., Fiore B., Piras F.Romano F., BAzzurro A., Agricultural Heritage Sytems in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, 2023, Springer, Dordrecht and New York
  • Agnoletti M., Santoro A., 2022, Agricultural Heritage Systems and Agrobiodiversity, Biodiversity and Conservation, Special Issue: Agricultural Heritage Systems and Biodiversity, Guest Editors Mauro Agnoletti & Antonio Santoro; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02460-3
  • Santoro, A.; Piras, F.; Fiore, B.; Frassinelli, N.; Bazzurro, A.; Agnoletti, M. The Role of Trees Outside Forests in the Cultural Landscape of the Colline del Prosecco UNESCO Site. Forests 2022, 13, 514. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13040514
  • Agnoletti M., Piras F., Venturi M., Santoro A., Cultural values and forest dynamics: The Italian forests in the last 150 years, Forest Ecology and Management, Special Issue on Restoration of cultural values in forested landscapes, Guest Editors John Parrotta & Mauro Agnoletti, Volume 503, 2022, 119655, ISSN 0378-1127,

The paper: Agnoletti M., 2014, Rural landscape, nature conservation and culture: Some notes on research trends and management approaches from a (southern)European perspective, Landscape and Urban Planning.  126 (2014) 66-73. Was ranked  among  the 1%  of the most read papers in the field by the Web of Science in 2016-2019

Recent books:

  • Agnoletti M., History of the Italian forest landscape, Springer, Dordrecht and New York, 2025.
  • Agnoletti, M., Santoro, A., Fiore, B., Piras, F., Romano, F., Bazzurro, A. Agricultural Heritage Systems in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America. Springer, Dordrecht and New York, 2023.
  • Agnoletti, M., Conti, L., Frezza, L., Santoro, A., Tei, T. I Sistemi Terrazzati in Toscana. Analisi territoriale e tipologica. Lorenzo de’ Medici Press, Florence, 2017.
  • Agnoletti, M., Emanueli, F. (Eds.). Biocultural Diversity in Europe. Springer, Dordrecht, 2016.
  • Agnoletti, M. (Ed.). The Italian Historical Rural Landscapes. Cultural Values for the Environment and Rural Development. Springer, New York, 2012.
  • Agnoletti, M. Paesaggi Rurali Storici per un Catalogo Nazionale. Laterza, Bari, 2010 (out of print).
  • Agnoletti, M. Rural landscape, nature conservation and culture: Some notes on research trends and management approaches from a (southern) European perspective. Landscape and Urban Planning, 126 (2014), 66-73. (Ranked in the top 1% of most-read articles worldwide in the social sciences and humanities sector by Web of Science).
  • Agnoletti, M. Atlante dei Boschi Italiani. Laterza, Bari, 2010.

Agnoletti M. ed., Italian Historical Rural Landscapes. Cultural Values for the Environment and Rural Development, Springer, Dordrecht and New York, 2012. Was ranked among the 25% of the most downloaded book by Springer in 2013.

Awards:

  • 2025, Career Award, University of Florence, Italy.
  • 2024, Distinguished Service Award, International Union of Forest Research Organization
  • 2022, Co-Winner, FAO-World Food Forum, Transformative Research Challenge, Roma.
  • In 2019-26 he was included among the most influencial researchers in the world by Stanford University and Elsevier.
  • 2019, Bologna Award, Fondazione Fico, Studies on Landscape Planning.
  • 2008, Regione Toscana, Prize “Città Ideale”, project  for  the Rural Landscape Park of Moscheta.
  • 2006, Regional Government of Tuscany/Ministry of Environment –Diploma Award for his  studies on landscape.
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