• The Provincial Nursery will provide native plants to repopulate the riverbank, now very deteriorated, with poplars, willows, ashes and hackberry trees.
• The project involves the participation of volunteers from Árboles Contra el Cambio Climático and other NGOs and includes an environmental awareness campaign with schoolchildren.

The Delegation of Employment and Sustainable Development of the Diputación de Granada has commissioned the drafting of a comprehensive restoration project of the river Dílar along 12 kilometers of the riverbed, from Gójar to Vegas del Genil, which will involve the repopulation of the riverbank, currently very deteriorated, with native plants from the Provincial Nursery. The provincial institution thus extends its collaboration with the LIFE Wood for Future/Madera para el Futuro project, which has obtained European funding to recover the poplar groves of the Vega de Granada and promote the creation of a poplar wood industry for sustainable construction.

LIFE Wood for the Future is a project funded by the European Union [LIFE 20 CCA/ES/001656] and participated by the University of Granada (UGR), the Diputación de Granada, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Confederation of Organizations of Foresters of Spain and the spinoff 3edata Environmental Engineering with the collaboration of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA) of the Junta de Andalucía.

The president of the Provincial Council, José Entrena, and the coordinator of LIFE Wood for the Future, Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Granada Antolino Gallego, met recently to promote this project, The execution of which must have the authorization of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir (CHG) and the support of the municipalities involved (Gójar, Otura, Las Gabias, Churriana de la Vega, Alhendín, Cúllar Vega, Granada and Vegas del Genil), among other institutions.

This project represents a new challenge for the Diputación’s nursery, which until now provided ornamental plants to the municipalities of the province, but not native species for environmental restoration. The renaturalization of the river Dílar will have the scientific advice of the UGR and IFAPA and the collaboration of volunteers from the citizen organizations Árboles contra el Cambio Climático, Somos Dílar, Salvemos la Vega and Bosques para el Futuro. In addition, it will incorporate training and environmental awareness activities for schoolchildren, both in the planting in the nursery and in the target area.

The river Dílar as it passes through the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Granada is for the most part highly deteriorated, with scarce vegetation, no water flow in summer or drought periods and a large amount of accumulated garbage. White and black poplars, willows, osiers, dogwoods, hackberry trees and ash trees are some of the native species of trees and shrubs that will be used to renaturalize the riverbed. In the drafting of the project, the feasibility of including a pedestrian path and a bicycle path along the riverbank will also be studied.

With the development of this project, LIFE Madera para el Futuro would more than meet its objective of restoring a 2 km stretch of the Dílar river between Gójar and Granada. Another of the project’s aims is to recover the poplar plantations of the Vega, which have reduced their surface area by 75% in the last two decades – currently some 3,000 hectares remain – due to the loss of profitability of the wood, usually used for the manufacture of fruit crates, pallets and chipboard.

Sustainable forest management and the development of poplar wood structural elements such as laminated beams would make it possible to revalue this raw material, which is increasingly in demand throughout Europe due to the directives on reducing the carbon footprint of construction. Poplar (‘Populus’) plantations, a fast-growing species, have a high capacity to sequester CO2 – and thus mitigate climate change – and also cool the environment, filter groundwater pollution, prevent soil erosion and attract high biodiversity.

“This exciting project shows the firm commitment of the Diputación de Granada with the defense of the environment, landscape and air quality, and the decisive role of the institution in cooperation between municipalities to enable a more humane, healthy and sustainable Metropolitan Area,” said the president of the Provincial Council, José Entrena.

For his part, Antolino Gallego stressed that “the momentum of the Diputación de Granada is essential to achieve the necessary active participation of key stakeholders and essential for the restoration to be a success, as the Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir, the municipalities of the banks of the Dílar and citizen associations, and at the same time demonstrates the commitment of the public administration with environmental and social values and actions proposed by the LIFE Wood for Future project”.