Before ninety attendees, the Teatro de la Merced in Cazorla, hosted on March 3 a conference on the opportunity of wood and forestry in the construction sector, which aims to give economic value to the forest under a sustainable use and fight against the unstoppable depopulation in the area and promote prevention against major fires. Organized by AFA-Profor and LIFE Wood for Future, the event was inaugurated by the Mayor of Cazorla, as a beautiful host city of the event, the Deputy of Infrastructures of the Provincial Council of Jaén, the territorial Delegate of the Ministry of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy and the Director General of Forestry Policy of the Junta de Andalucía. They all highlighted the opportunity of construction as an engine for the future of this region through the use of timber, compatible with the maintenance of biodiversity and the conservation of the forest.

The technical conference was opened by the master Rufino Nieto with a broad and detailed retrospective of the timber harvesting in the Natural Park of Sierra de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas, especially for the naval and railway sectors. Next, Marián Núñez, President of the Association of Forest Owners of Eastern Andalusia, outlined the objectives of the Association and the imperative need to include them in forestry policies, as they represent more than 70% of the Andalusian forest territory. Subsequently, Gabriel A. Gutiérrez, President of AFA-Profor defended the need for Sustainable Forest Management to ensure the coexistence between a maintained use that creates wealth, and the conservation of the forest and its biodiversity. This combination also allows to generate a strong resistance of the forest to fires and pests, as well as its adaptation to climate change in a context of high temperatures and less water resources. “More Forest Management and less Forest Congestion”, was his motto. For her part, Marta Conde, professor and researcher at the University of Córdoba, once again highlighted the exceptional mechanical properties of laricio pine wood for structures. She defended this wood as “the best coniferous wood in Europe”.

In a mixture of commitment to her land and professionalism, architect Beatriz Segura, promoter of the Habirtate studio based in Peal de Becerro, conveyed the need to create development in the area through the use of the raw materials from the mountains of this region, with wood as an abundant and sustainable material. “Jaén is olive groves for oil and pine forests for wood,” he defended. Both are resources of great value for an extraordinary and unknown province. “Wood can and should play a fundamental role for the low-carbon and sustainable construction of the present and the future in the Sierra de Cazorla if we generate an industry that transforms it,” argued architect Beatriz Segura. Finally, Professor Antolino Gallego defended the opportunity offered by the structural products developed by the LIFE project to give economic value to the wood from Jaén and at the same time generate industry. These products are based on the alliance between two very different wood species such as poplar and laricio pine, as well as on a strategic and efficient pairing with concrete. Both are products that put wood at its highest value and prestige. “The project will bring the development and CE certification of these products to an industry. If that industry does not appear in Andalusia, these products will be manufactured elsewhere in Spain or Europe, thus missing a historic opportunity,” Gallego argued. The professor announced the construction of AVRA’s 8-story public building in Granada to demonstrate the mixed wood-concrete product, as well as a small pre-performance on a full-scale slab to evaluate the effectiveness of mixed poplar-pine beams and the costs of the forest-industry-construction chain, in collaboration with the owners of Marjal poplar and the Natural Park of the Sierra de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas and the Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Sustainability in Jaén. “To continue with the use of wood for shredding and sawing for packaging and pallets as the only products is a real waste that we should not allow ourselves, as well as an undignified end for laricio trees over 100 years old that have seen so many stories happen in our forests,” argued Prof. Gallego. The event, due to nasal congestion and lack of time, was closed by encouraging the attendees to follow the field day of the following day, as a round table in the forest. The following day, master foresters Rufino Nieto, Valentín Badillo and Toni Tortosa guided some of the attendees during a visit to the pine forests of the mythical Monte de Navahondona within the Natural Park. During the visit, Ana Belén Noriega, Director of PEFC Spain, highlighted the value and importance of the role of Sustainable Forest Certification as a seal of guarantee of conservation of forest resources and its rich biodiversity, as well as respect for the social and cultural values of the territory. In a parallel visit, some attendees, guided by María Rosa García and Estanislao Moreno de Simón, contemplated the exceptional legacy of the house of Mr. Enrique Mackay, Forestry Engineer to whom the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas owe the forest status that led to their declaration as a Protected Natural Area.