Italy boasts a unique and unrepeatable heritage of biodiversity. More than 3 million hectares, or about 10.5 percent of the national surface area, are protected in Italy today, and this system complements the Natura 2000 Network, which covers a total area of about 6 million hectares, 19.3 percent of the national territory. About 21% of Italy's agricultural area is potentially classifiable as an agricultural area of high nature value, where a high number of species and natural habitats are maintained.

A true green infrastructure, which in addition to producing food provides numerous ecosystem services essential for the performance of various economic and social activities: water cycle regulation, hydrogeological defense, carbon sequestration, soil and landscape protection, as well as significant cultural, educational and tourism services. It also allows for improved connectivity with protected natural areas.

There are more than 700 thousand active farms in the country that ensure, with their daily work, the protection of forest heritage and crop biodiversity through practices in line with evolved production models.