• David Vigario

    Merida

Updated Thursday, January 20, 2022-01:34

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In July 2012, a devastating fire of intentional origin (it had two sources) destroyed

more than 1,900 hectares in the Las Hurdes region of Cáceres

. The fire started in the town of Cambroncino, near the river, but spread to other nearby towns, such as Nuñomoral and Caminomorisco, destroying a large part of the mountains and, above all, its trees, most of which are timber pine forests with a average age between 50 and 65 years. The fire front reached an extension of three kilometers.

It was a tough experience for the mayors of the area, such as

Gervasio Martín

(Caminomorisco), who is also a forest firefighter: "In this region we are used to this scourge caused by fires, which year after year devastate our mountains, and cause a great damage, both environmentally and economically, but on that occasion, despite all the efforts and means, we fought against many other factors, such as strong heat, humidity, wind...", he regrets.

With this background in a territory that has been particularly hard hit by serious fires in recent decades, Extremadura has become the first autonomous community to join 'Motor Verde', an innovative

public-private collaboration

project promoted by Fundación Repsol together with its Grupo Sylvestris, in which Banco Santander, Fundación Tierra Pura, Ilunion and Enagás also participate. The objective is to promote the compensation of emissions through

large-scale reforestation

in Spain, generating benefits for the environment, society and the economy. 'Green Engine' aspires to become the largest large-scale reforestation project to promote the compensation of CO2 emissions.

The global objective is to reforest up to 70,000 hectares in Spain to promote the compensation of 16 million tons of CO. To this end, the aim is to create

15,000 local and inclusive employment opportunities

in rural areas and thus become an ambitious commitment to a social, green and sustainable economy. In Asturias, a similar project has also started a few weeks ago in the municipality of Grandas de Salime on a 160-hectare piece of land that was devastated by two fires in 2017.

The director of Repsol Social Impact,

Luis Casado

, explains that "it is a differential project within the company's strategy of betting on the ecological transition and its purpose of the new 2021-2025 Strategic Plan to be a company that achieves zero emissions in 2050, in line with the objectives established in the Paris Agreement".

To this end, the 'Green Engine' strategy was born, aimed at reforestation efforts seeking a triple impact: environmental to regenerate biodiversity with the restoration of natural spaces scorched by fire;

carbon capture to contribute to action against climate change and also the generation of employment in Rural Spain, especially in vulnerable groups, points out Luis Casado.

For this, territories were sought "in the wettest Spain, in areas where CO2 capture is better absorbed and in public forests, where the management task is easier if there is the will of the administrations, as is the case of Extremadura, that also has other positive factors, with the weather or the large extensions of land to be able to create a long-term project

aimed at recovering land that was burned

and also agricultural land that was abandoned and is not in production".

With the planting of new species on the ground, also with the design of firebreaks, the aim is to make the area more resistant to fire, together with the incorporation of state-of-the-art technology, such as the installation of sensors in strategic areas that detect the start of flames and thus be able to act preventively more quickly, explains the company manager. In this sense, Fundación Repsol and Hispasat have signed a strategic alliance to develop new high-end technologies, such as monitoring, follow-up and satellite control of forests and also so that the carbon absorption process is as scientific, price and rigorous as possible. To all this we must add that on the ground, the project is led by the Sylvestris Group, a company owned by Fundación Repsol,which has more than 30 years of experience in the forestry sector.

In Extremadura, the objective is to reforest

5,000 hectares

of vacant land or land affected by fires in different municipalities (the next one will be in Piornal, in the Valle del Jerte) in the next three years with the planting of four million trees.

These new forests will absorb 1.3 million tons of CO from the atmosphere, allowing companies and institutions that join the 'Green Engine' to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

Trees, through photosynthesis, absorb CO and fix it in their tissues.

BEGINNING OF WORKS

Specifically, the recovery of the great green lung in Caminomorisco goes through the creation of a new forest of native species in an area of ​​600 hectares that will

offset more than 179,000 tons of CO

.

The first tasks began last December with clearing and cleaning of scrub from the mountain and the erosion of the pines that were born after the fire.

Subsequently, the planting of black pine, yew, hawthorn, oak and rowan of hunters or azarollo will be addressed, in the most degraded parts, with the implantation of a thousand trees. "We have started with the hiring of 50 workers, all of them from the villages of the Hurdes region, who are going to complete 12,000 days in periods between seven and eight months over the next three years," confirms the mayor. For the total of the project, it is planned to hire 1,000 workers from the area and companies in the region, 70% belonging to vulnerable groups, helping to establish population in the area. "The project is very attractive because local people and companies work on it, which multiplies its value," emphasizes Gervasio Martín. What's more,It is planned to launch training programs and promote innovation and technological development in the forestry sector.

THE WORLD MARKET

Globally, it is estimated that the voluntary carbon emissions market could multiply by 15 in 2030 and by 100 in 2050, with which its value could reach

between 5,000 and 30,000 million dollars

, depending on the different scenarios, according to the institute 'The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets'.

For

Francisco Castañares

, former director general of the Environment of the Junta de Extremadura and president of the Extremadura Association of Forestry and Environmental Companies (AEEFOR), the problem in Spain is that "there is no forest management or policy for the maintenance of forests and being able to extend their useful life", although the appearance of projects such as the 'Green Engine' is to be welcomed, which can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions through carbon storage, under the supervision of the Office of Climate Change, regulatory body of the sector.

"The important thing is to maintain the forests and prevent the trees from deteriorating," Castañares points out. For this reason, it advocates a better use of wood from trees, especially the youngest, for the biomass sector, such as the production of electricity, heating or hot water, and also for furniture or doors ("premium furniture" ) in order to prevent CO2 from returning to the atmosphere.

Eduardo Rojas

represents a world authority on the matter. Dean of the College of Forestry Engineers and president of the PETC International Forest Certification System, denounces that Spain has lacked for years "a coherent forestry policy that acts on all fronts" and warns that in our country there is "a lot of young and abandoned forest ", which causes the possibility of greater sources of fire within a context where the number of forests in Spain has grown notably in recent decades, currently existing around 18 million hectares (12 in the 70s), of which some four million have been repopulated. Approximately 300 million tons of CO2 are emitted from them, approximately 30%.

"Repopulation has its technical complexity and a small mistake can ruin everything and achieve very debatable results; there are even cases -he adds- that it has been done through drones and the result in cases can become a boomerang". "You have to do it right," says Rojas, who delimits those that are currently interested in being reforested to two or three million hectares, with the pine forest being

the species that regenerates most easily.

, which is why he also advocates the use of wood from trees as an element that provides a lot of energy.

"Reforestation cannot be treated as a charitable issue and the entire forestry world must be involved and aligned with other important elements, such as reservoirs or climate change, in short, act on all fronts," he also summarizes. professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and coordinator of 'Together for the Forest', which brings together more than 100 entities from the Spanish forestry sector.

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