The coordinator of the LIFE Wood for the Future project, in its eagerness and objective to influence policies to improve the quality of life of citizens and the state of the Planet, had yesterday November 21 a working meeting with the Delegate of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Junta de Andalucía in Granada, Ms. María del Carmen Reyes, along with her technical team. On the table the reactivation of the implementation of aid for poplar cultivation in the new CAP schemes.

For its environmental values (accelerated absorption of CO2, biodiversity, water filtering, air filtering, oxygen emission, softening of temperatures, soil consolidation and its quality, stabilization against river floods, etc.) poplar deserves as much as any other crop to receive this aid, which other crops receive that do not even remotely provide the eco-systemic services that poplar provides to society as a whole and the planet. This situation makes poplar lose competitiveness compared to other annual rotation crops and is tremendously unfair.

In addition, the new industrial ecosystem of structural wood being implemented in Granada and Andalusia offers poplar the opportunity for a new local industrial transformation, which will allow the fight against depopulation. Poplar is synonymous with industry, rural development, the fight against depopulation, increased biodiversity and environmental improvement, and the fight against global warming. Just the great axes for which the European Union is committed, and the Junta de Andalucía should be sensitive to these aspects.

Other autonomous communities such as Castilla la Mancha and Navarra have implemented these aids in the intervention 6883 of Productive Forestry Investments in the new CAP schemes. Andalusia cannot be left out of these schemes.