The Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Sciences (SAF) was instituted in 2013 by the former ‘Demetra’ Department. It gathers specialists from different fields: agriculture, forestry, entomology, phytopathology, and fruit tree cultivation.

The staff of SAF provides support for basic technical teaching and applied sciences under the ‘Politecnico’ of the University of Palermo; three-year degree courses, master's degrees, and PhDs are held. In the fields of agricultural and forestry systems, research ranges from land management to production technologies linked to the environment, organic farming, and physiological and genetic interaction.

Forest research mainly concerns about the dynamics and ecology of pre-forest systems, forest inventory, re-naturalization, management of natural parks, biodiversity and land ecology, agroforestry, and forest risk management (degradation, forest fire control, soil protection, desertification).

The staff of the SAF Department contributes to national, regional, and local research projects and has also developed expertise in European projects. In regard to the LIFE program, SAF is involved in the RESILFORMED and PELAGICBIRD projects as a beneficiary partner in addition to  AFORCLIMATE.

Responsible for the AForClimate Projecct:

Donato Salvatore La Mela Veca - donato.lamelaveca@unipa.it