The feasibility of combining forest cultivation with agricultural crops such as vegetables, corn or aromatic plants will be tested in the plot.

“Today we take a step towards what could be the germ of one of the main uses of the Vega in the present and the future”, said the mayor, Francisco Cuenca

Granada, February 11, 2022
Salvemos la Vega and LIFE Wood for Future/Madera para el Futuro have planted this Friday 430 poplars in the La Nocla farm, ceded in December by the City of Granada for an experimental project on the feasibility and profitability of combining this forest crop, which has been key in the Vega of Granada but is in danger of disappearing, along with other types of annual rotation crops, such as vegetables, corn, garlic and aromatic plants, among others.

The mayor of Granada, Francisco Cuenca, has stressed that, with the transfer of La Nocla, the City Council gives a new impetus to raise awareness about improving air quality and the importance of the Vega as “authentic green lung of Granada”. “We have managed to strip the Vega of urbanistic tensions that still exist and we are achieving that there is a collective conscience to preserve air quality and our natural signs of identity. Today we are taking a step towards what could be the germ of one of the main uses of the Vega in the present and the future.”

The president of Descubrir la Vega and representative of Salvemos la Vega-Vega Educa, Manuela Martínez, explained that this 6-hectare area will be used for urban and educational gardens and spaces for farmers who want to try certain products or as a refuge for endangered species. In addition, through a collaboration agreement, LIFE Wood for the Future, a project funded by the European Union and led by the University of Granada, will develop a research project on the cohabitation between poplars and agricultural crops with the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (Ifapa) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía.

“We want that, at the end of those ten years, Granada feels proud of this green space and that it has a contagious effect so that other plots are recovered,” said Martinez, very excited about this project that has been five years in the making.

For his part, the coordinator of LIFE Wood for Future, Antolino Gallego, stressed that the transfer of La Nocla “is good news for all citizens, because this action will improve the environment of the Metropolitan Area, highly deteriorated by poor air quality and high temperatures, and for the primary sector, because it is testing a new agroforestry system that allows owners to have three types of income: Those from annual crops, the sale of carbon credits from the trees as they grow, and the sale of the timber in ten years’ time.”

“It is also good news for the economy and the construction sector, because it is expected that with this wood laminated beams will be made; the nice thing would be that they end up in a wooden building of its owner, the City Council,” said Gallego, professor of Applied Physics at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Edificación.

The main objective of LIFE Wood for Future is the recovery of the poplar groves of the Vega de Granada -which currently occupy some 3,000 hectares, 75% less than two decades ago-, the renaturalization of the banks of the rivers of the Metropolitan Area and the revaluation of poplar wood through its transformation into structural elements for sustainable construction.

Environmental and economic benefits
The objective of the La Nocla experiment is to study the behavior of both poplars and annual rotation crops in this mixed system. Thus, the conditions under which this cohabitation is beneficial from an economic point of view will be analyzed. For example, the poplars will have to be spaced farther apart – with a 10×6 meter frame, as opposed to the 5×5 of the forestry plantations – and it will be necessary to study how pruning, irrigation, etc. are carried out.

In principle, this mixed system seems to imply positive balances for both poplars and orchards, since it favors the absorption of nutrients and increases plant resilience to pests or drought.

The environmental benefits of these agroforestry systems have already been scientifically proven, since mixed crops attract birds and insects, favor pollination and increase CO2 uptake compared to conventional agriculture. In addition, poplar trees act as ‘green filters’ and prevent nitrates and phosphates used in agricultural crops from reaching aquifers.

The Nocla could also serve to measure the impact of poplar groves in reducing environmental pollution in the Metropolitan Area of Granada, currently the second most polluted conurbation in Spain. Poplar trees have a great capacity to sequester CO2 and absorb polluting gases.

Together with the University of Granada, LIFE Wood for Future is participated by the Diputación de Granada, the Confederación de Organizaciones de Selvicultores de España, the University of Santiago de Compostela and 3edata Ingeniería Ambiental.

On December 28, the Granada City Council unanimously approved the ten-year transfer of this property on the Ogíjares road, 81.5% owned by the city council and 18.5% by the Archbishopric, to the association Descubrir la Vega/Salvemos la Vega.

The event was also attended by María Belén Ferich, director of the Healthy Campus Secretariat of the University of Granada; María del Carmen Fernández, delegate for the Environment and Animal Protection of the Provincial Council of Granada, María Ángeles Álvarez, director of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (Ifapa) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Regional Government of Andalusia; Javier de Teresa, president of the Social Council of Granada; Fernando Bueno, managing director of CajaGranada Foundation; and Rosa Márquez, director of Caixabank’s Institutions Center of Eastern Andalusia. Both foundations are sponsors of the Salvemos la Vega project in La Nocla.