The Association of Forestry Municipalities of the Valencian Community (AMUFOR) is going to develop a training course to promote the creation of companies in the solid biofuels sector, which also makes it possible to combat depopulation and prevent large forest fires in the territory.
A double utility, that of promoting entrepreneurship and preventing fires, which will be financed by the Valencia Provincial Council and which will be carried out in four territories, Local Action Groups (GAL), in the province of Valencia: Turia-Calderona, Som Rurals , Caroig-Xúquer and Rurable. The course will run from the end of the month until June 2023.
"It is about giving a boost to the creation of companies in the solid biofuels value chain in rural municipalities or those at risk of depopulation, municipalities that are located in the territory of the Local Action Groups of the province of Valencia and that they need to carry out sustainable agroforestry management actions”, points out the president of AMUFOR, Chelo Alfonso.
A coordination meeting was held yesterday to explain the initiative to local actors, which will consist of a mixed course of 60 teaching hours, 12 of them with practical experiences "in situ", which may be attended by up to 60 people, 15 for each of the four participating areas.
The recipients are both active entrepreneurs and people interested in creating a business, as well as townspeople and technicians, especially Employment and Local Development Agents (AEDL).
The training is subsidized by the Area of Rural Development and Policies against Depopulation of the Diputación de Valencia, whose deputy for fire prevention, rural development, policies against depopulation and historical memory, Ramiro Rivera, applauds the initiative and recalls that "it is not we can reverse the territorial imbalances without activating economic activity in the value chains that have their origin in the raw materials of these territories and establish employment for the local population”.
The training will encourage the creation of forest management companies - pruning cleaning, removal in the bush -, installation of boilers, production of chips or pellets, among others.
Its development will be based on the material already developed by AMUFOR in a guide on sustainable entrepreneurship that was presented last year that analyzes the demand for solid biofuels in the Valencian Community, where eight production plants are installed, as well as other more modest ones in production. that are not included in the Spanish Association for Energy Valorization of Biomass.
