The production management of hazelnuts in province of Cuneo, under a system dynamics approach. How the dormice affect its performance.

The production of hazelnuts represents an important resource in several Italian rural areas. Sicily and Piedmont, ones of the most important producers of hazelnuts, are affected by the presence of a rodent (Glis Glis), that has reduced considerably the production of hazelnuts. This project aims to show the complexity of the issue by using a System Dynamics (SD) approach to help the decision-makers to implement an optimal policy to improve the performance of production management of hazelnuts, taking as example the case of Province of Cuneo. By using the case of Province of Cuneo where Policy-makers have applied some policies to reduce the impact of the presence of the rodent, a SD microworld was built, defining the causal relationships between hazelnuts production and dormice. The results of the simulation show the effects of reduction policies to the performance of hazelnuts production and the sustainability of the system. Findings, limits and further research points are briefly reported in the conclusion section.