Last Saturday, September 25, the LIFE Wood for Future project team met with 30 owners of poplar groves in the Vega de Granada in the facilities of the Andalusian Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production (IFAPA).

The LIFE Wood for Future project is a European climate change mitigation project in which the University of Granada, as coordinator, the Diputación de Granada, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Confederación de Organizadores de Selvicultores de España and the spin-off 3edata Ingeniería Ambiental participate as beneficiary partners. In addition, it also has associates such as IFAPA, the non-governmental organizations Salvemos la Vega – Vega Educa and the Asociación Árboles contra el Cambio Climático (Trees against Climate Change Association).

Francisco Carreño, President of the Confederación de Organizadores de Selvicultores de España (COSE), opened the conference by highlighting the importance of partnerships to facilitate sustainable forest management of poplar groves and access to a carbon credit market.

Patricia Gómez, manager of COSE, was in charge of presenting the LIFE Wood for Future project to the landowners, which aims to recover the poplar groves of the Vega de Granada by contributing to the improvement of biodiversity and long-term carbon sequestration with structural bioproducts. In his participation, he explained to the attendees the advantages of joining the Ecoproducers Group that is intended to be created within the framework of the project. This group will favor the sustainable management of poplar groves, streamlining administrative procedures, facilitating access to subsidies and providing silvicultural advice to producers to obtain quality wood for structural use. He also pointed out that the project team is currently selecting the demonstration plots on which agreements will be established with their owners. On these plots, plantations and silvicultural treatments will be financed, backed by an environmental silvicultural model and certified sustainable forest management.

Esteban Jordán, from Ingeniería del Entorno Natural, presented the results of the LIFE FOREST CO2 project, explaining the methodology of the carbon credit market they have designed, and on which the LIFE Wood for Future project will be based to account for the CO2 stored in poplar groves and design the Carbon Farming scheme.

As an example of experience of joint management of poplar groves and sale of wood lots, the conference was attended by Olga González, manager of the Federation of Forestry Associations of Castilla y León.

Arantza Pérez Oleaga, responsible for Sustainable Forest Management in PEFC Spain, closed the round of interventions, highlighting the importance of PEFC forest certification to add value to forest products and ensure the environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of poplar groves.

Afterwards, guided by IFAPA researchers M.A. Ripoll and F.B. Navarro, a visit was made to the experimental poplar plots at the IFAPA facilities where the influence on growth and wood quality of four genotypes in three irrigation scenarios is being evaluated, in order to optimize water resources, within the framework of the SELVIAGROTEC project (http://compop.ugr.es/selviagrotec/financiado) by the Junta de Andalucía, and whose results are being transferred to LIFE Wood for Future.