He is 82 years old and wants to give his town, Estamariu, in the Lleida Pyrenees, opportunities like those that life has given him. Joan Planes Vila, founder of the company Fluidra, an IBEX 35 multinational specialized in equipment and connected solutions in the pool and wellness sector, has created the Planes Corts Foundation (named after the surnames of his children) to establish a population in his town, in which 130 people are registered.
It wants to do so by generating sustainable projects, promoting photovoltaic energy, installing a biogas plant, building a community workshop or promoting craft workshops to encourage the creation of microbusinesses. And do it by promoting pride of belonging.
“The Fundació aims to develop and make life in a town sustainable because living in a town means working for the future and the environment,” says Joan Planes Vila. He lives between Estamariu and Sant Cugat.
"In the first phase, the foundation has installed solar panels in its buildings, in the museum and on a cow farm and has promoted twelve craft workshops, one each month, to promote trades while working on a project to create the workshop shared. The biogas plant will arrive later, it has been slowed down due to bureaucratic problems,” says the director, Montse Ferrer.
Only the energy projects, plates and biogas plant, have a budget of 1.2 million, with a subsidy of 385,000 euros from the CE-IMPLEMENTA program of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE)
To promote a change in the energy model, the foundation has created the Alt Urgell-Vall del Port Negre Energy Community, which works on the implementation of infrastructure in Estamariu and Bescaran, a town in the valley. The objective is to generate energy for the self-consumption of the inhabitants of the valley, the same valley, at reduced prices.
“In Estamariu, the director says, we have farms with Friesian cows (they produce milk) and brown cows. Cow manure and slurry are a by-product that we intend to value beyond its use as fertilizer.
organic for the meadows of the municipality.” In this sense, he points out that the methane that is released from excrement is an optimal resource for energy generation and, for this reason, the energy community project contemplates the implementation of a biogas plant in one of the Estamariu farms.
What are already reality are the craft workshops. 12 have been programmed for this year, one for each month. Salvador Maura, from the Mas d'Eroles cheese factory, in Adrall, taught two courses on cheese making, one on blue cheese.
For him, the creation of a community workshop for cheeses and horticultural products will be an opportunity for the territory. "The factory will allow cheese to be made with own or purchased milk without having to make the investment that a cheese factory would require and, since it will have a health record, it will be able to be marketed."
Basketry, writing, edible wild plants, traditional liquors, furniture restoration, photography or dry stone walls have been other courses organized by the foundation. According to the director, those that have been made so far have been full.
Ferrer believes that the foundation, in addition to revitalizing the Port Negre valley, which has just over 200 inhabitants, can serve as tests to develop a model that can be reproduced in other parts of the rural world, an idea that Salvador Maura also shares.
To strengthen the idea of belonging, the Festimariu rural art and culture festival was held this weekend and the town museum was inaugurated. Streets, squares and eras have hosted pieces by around twenty Pyrenean artists and in some homes you could see large-format photos with faces of residents of the town over 70 years old.
Concerts, conferences, cinema and a debate on literature and ruralism have focused the first edition of the festival that will continue in the coming years. “We believe that culture and identity root people to the territory, in addition to the economic commitment, reinforcing cultural activities helps. “This festival has been exciting, many people from the territory have participated.”
"Culture," concludes Montse Ferrer, "is an essential part of the territory's development and this weekend it was evident."
