On March 11, 2022, members of the LIFE Wood for Future team presented the project first hand to the Delegate for Sustainable Development in Granada, Mr. Manuel Francisco García Delgado. Marcos Moleón and Antolino Gallego, researchers from the UGR, together with Francisco B. Navarro, IFAPA researcher, explained in detail the different actions of the project, both in environmental matters and in terms of actions for the implementation of a bioeconomic ecosystem that contributes to the sustainable development of the Vega de Granada and other regions of Granada and Andalucía. The Delegate, very interested in all the actions, defined the project as global and very ambitious, as well as a good instrument to generate an effective sustainable development. García Delgado stressed that the key to the success of the project is the development of new structural products, because of the importance that would have the implementation in the area of an industry that would generate green jobs and would be a driver of new plantations and a bioeconomical activity of more added value around the poplar plantations. This industry of mixed poplar-pine laminates could also play a crucial role in the valorization of the extensive coniferous forests of Andalusia, which would contribute to their better management and therefore to their conservation and resilience in the face of climate change and the spread of fires and pests.

The Delegate also showed his total disposition to work together with the Regional Ministry in the valorization of environmental aspects of first magnitude that the project contributes, highlighting among them the inclusion of poplar in the Vega of Granada as a very useful instrument for the reduction of air pollution in the area of Granada. The Delegate was determined to include poplar in the strategy being coordinated by the Junta de Andalucía with other administrations to reduce pollution in the metropolitan area of Granada. García-Delgado also highlighted the value of poplar trees and new structural products as a quantitatively very powerful tool to absorb and sequester carbon from the atmosphere in the long term, and therefore contribute to the mitigation of climate change. For all these reasons, his Department was in favor of supporting the development and implementation of a system of carbon credits for this crop, the sale of which would generate a fair income for poplar tree owners. Finally, García Delgado highlighted the environmental value of poplar trees to increase the biodiversity of the area and to serve as green filters and to naturally purify the water that reaches the aquifers from other agricultural activities.