These days, we're once again experiencing the drama of forest fires firsthand. They're not just a problem for the environment and the landscape, but have become a public safety issue. We must take seriously what could happen with the vast expanse of urban development in the forests we have in Catalonia.
Someone might wonder why forests seem to be more dangerous now. Three things have happened in recent decades: on the one hand, the abandonment of the rural world over the last 60 years has allowed the forest to spontaneously recolonize what were once crops; on the other hand, the forest has ceased to be a source of wealth and income, and therefore, many landowners have stopped managing it; and finally, climate change is causing great stress for forest ecosystems, which, with high temperatures, evaporate even more water from the soil. All of this amounts to the perfect storm. Of fire. We now know that fires with a lot of dry fuel can even generate a change in the local climate, with enormous clouds (pyrocumulus) reaching the highest layers of the atmosphere and, once there, cooling and falling back, rapidly spreading the fire. What to do?
The first lesson we have learned as managers of the largest private forest estate in the country, those of the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation, is that cooperation is essential. It's no use having your forest well managed if the one next door burns, especially in a country with small or, at most, medium-sized properties. It is necessary to bring forest owners together, as the Barcelona Provincial Council has successfully done, or to seek synergies, as the Girona Provincial Council has done in Les Gavarres, with its Consortium and with our Foundation, to accelerate strategic work for fire prevention. This model of public-private cooperation is also beginning to bear fruit in Montserrat, in the Prades mountains, or in Collserola, where, with the collaboration of the Natural Park Consortium, the Owners' Association, and the l'Olivera cooperative, we are recovering the old crop terraces and producing a risk of social production and produced in a source of social work, causing the spread of fires.
A second lesson is that things must be done properly. We need to protect biodiversity, maintain the environmental services of forests, which protect the soil, generate clean water and air, provide space for walking, enjoyment, and even health. A vision that includes all of this and adapts to the conditions of each location is needed. Overly general regulations are unhelpful, and administrations should make an effort to facilitate management work. Between fire risk restrictions from mid-March to mid-October and wildlife protection restrictions in spring, which sometimes begin in February, forest work can only be done for three or four months at most. A company that can only operate a quarter of the year is hardly viable, especially if its products are low-value added (firewood, biomass for heating, and, at most, pallets). That's why forestry companies have been disappearing; forest work is of little economic and social value, and it's difficult to find someone who can manage your work during such a short time window.
Thus, another solution may be innovation. We must find new products or reinvent traditional ones, such as wood. Now, the cross-laminated laminate (CLT) technique makes it possible to create any beam or wall with all the technical and architectural requirements that previously could only be achieved with very large trees, such as large pines or oaks, which are increasingly scarce. Now we can take advantage of the scrawny pine trees, which make up the vast majority of our forest cover, for green construction in wood. All it would take is a push from city councils and administrations to promote social housing made with local wood. For example. Another avenue for innovation is chemical products derived from wood or cellulose. In fact, everything manufactured with fossil fuels could be obtained with derivatives of current plant cellulose, meaning renewable, which neither pollutes nor warms our climate. We are already beginning to see new viscose fabrics made from tree cellulose or bamboo: an opportunity for this powerful industry. We also have new initiatives that are beginning to produce activated carbon (biochar) with properties that improve the productivity of agricultural and forestry soils, or directly new high-calorie fuels for the aeronautical industry.
We need to make up for lost time by promoting public-private cooperation and forestry associations and facilitating permits and authorizations so that it isn't a lifeline for managers; by promoting the recovery of the forestry sector to allow for the revaluation of forest work with trained young people; and, finally, by investing in forestry innovation and applying it in all possible areas. For forests of the future.
