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The role of forests is of fundamental importance for the economy of rural areas and their management ensures positive environmental and social spillovers. In the world, there are approximately 10 million workers in the forestry sector and the enterprises operating in the Western Italian Alps employ a total of roughly 3,000 workers. One of the main goals of the European Union's rural development policy is to improve the performance of companies operating in the forestry sector in order to increase their competitiveness. The aims of this work are to evaluate the performance of 4 case studies, through the use of indicators based on the economic balance sheet results, and to assess the potential development strategies of business activities with the combined use of SWOT and TOWS methods. The study shows that all the examined enterprises achieve suitable economic results and appear stable and robust in the medium and long term. These results allow a double reading, on the one hand the enterprises contribute in guaranteeing an increase in the employment rate in disadvantaged rural areas and on the other hand they ensure the management of fragile territories with important environmental and social effects. Future development strategies should include investments in professional training, in order to provide new skills and specialisations, and strengthen the organisational capacities of such firms to achieve further improvements in economical performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the honey sold in Italy, as in the rest of Europe, comes from abroad, especially from Argentina and Hungary, where it can be produced at lower costs. Italian producers have higher production costs, mainly related to labour. It could therefore be interesting to analyze the results obtained from different types of beekeepers, in order to understand their economic results and to identify any possible opportunities for improvement, with the aim of verifying the reproducibility of these results. In this frame, we have considered the introduction of pollination service and identified all the costs and related revenues. In recent years, there has been an increase in the pollination demand, and this increase in interest could lead to an interesting source of income diversification and represent an opportunity in marginal areas. The work has highlighted the economic sustainability of beekeeping in rural areas, at different production scales, both in mountainous and hilly areas, and has proved that the introduction of pollination service could further improve the economic results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]