The Geopark of Granada collaborates with the European project LIFE Wood for Future- Wood for the Future with the aim that the poplar groves become a reference for the economic promotion of the territory. This collaboration was formalized last November 3 in Cortes de Baza.

The Geopark of Granada will promote poplar groves as a key economic, environmental and tourist resource in the development of this territory recognized by UNESCO for its geological and cultural values. In addition to the landscape value and timber wealth provided by this traditional crop, with a large presence in the fertile river basins of the regions of Guadix, Baza, Huéscar and Los Montes, poplar has important environmental benefits, thanks to its great ability to capture CO2 and pollution from the atmosphere, filter water polluted by agriculture, attract biodiversity, retain soil and cool the environment.

The Geopark of Granada presented this new strategy to promote poplar forestry in a ceremony held on Thursday, November 3, at the Town Hall of Cortes de Baza, which involved the head of the Rural Development Group (RDG) of the Altiplano de Granada, Enrique Gomez Muriel, the president of the Association of Poplar Producers of Granada Marjal, Victoria Carreras, and the coordinator of the European project LIFE Wood for Future (Wood for the Future), Antolino Gallego.

Enrique Gómez Muriel recalled that the rich heritage of the Geopark of Granada is not exhausted with the spectacular landscapes of the bad-lands or archaeological sites where the oldest human remains in Europe are found, but also includes agricultural and livestock practices or gastronomy based on local products. From the Geopark of Granada it is strategic to cover innovation in the enhancement of this heritage linked to sustainability,” said the technician of the GDR of the Altiplano de Granada. We believe that the LIFE Wood for Future project fits perfectly into that strategy and therefore it will be of great interest to establish the appropriate synergies to promote it”.

In recent months the cultivation of poplar has received a strong impetus in the province thanks to LIFE Wood for Future, a project funded by the European LIFE program against climate change, led by the University of Granada and participated by the Provincial Council, which aims to revalue the wood of this species through innovative products for sustainable construction. In this sense, Antolino Gallego stressed that the goal is to lay the foundations for the creation of an industry of these structural elements, such as laminated beams for building, as a complement to the current majority use in the manufacture of packaging for the fruit and vegetable sector.

Last spring, the Granada Poplar Producers’ Association Marjal was formed, bringing together more than 70 foresters with some 1,300 hectares under cultivation, with the aim of obtaining quality, sustainable and certified wood to supply the industry on a constant basis, develop a brand with a designation of origin and exercise a common defense of their interests before the market and the administrations. The president of Marjal, Victoria Carreras, pointed out that a third of the members are based in the northern area of Granada, and encouraged those who do not yet belong to the group to join in the next membership expansion.

The Geopark of Granada, a territory of 4,722 square kilometers of 47 municipalities belonging to the regions of Guadix, Baza, Huéscar and Montes, includes the fluvial valleys generated during the Quaternary in the North of the Province of Granada, as well as a large part of the Guadix-Baza Basin and part of the mountains that delimit it. Its declaration as a World Geopark by UNESCO on July 10, 2020 is an opportunity to stop the process of depopulation of the territory and raise awareness among citizens about the importance of natural, cultural and ethnographic heritage.