The Life Climark project has been launched to raise money from the business world to finance multifunctional forest management based on the promotion of water, carbon or biodiversity. It does so through 'climate credits' so that companies and entities can offset their carbon footprint by investing in forest management projects.
Three forestry associations, two Catalan and one French, are sharing experiences this week in the Vall de Lord, the Parc del Montnegre and the Corridor within the framework of the Sylvonatur cross-border cooperation project. This is one of the nine projects chosen under the coordination of the Pirineus Mediterrània Euroregion, whose objective is to exchange experiences and knowledge between the three forestry associations that go beyond simple productive forest management.
In Solsonès they have been able to learn first-hand about the 'climate credits' initiative, which has been put into operation thanks to the Life Climark project, which is now in the regulation and implementation phase after five years of study. The main objective of the project is to promote smart forest management to fight climate change and make forests more sustainable and absorb more CO2.
To finance this forest management, the creation of a climate credit market is proposed. In other words, companies and entities can offset their carbon footprint by participating in forest management projects. Each project will be valued with a certain number of credits, each of which will have an economic value.
Specifically, in the Vall de Lord a project related to water management and fire prevention has been launched. The objective is to manage a total of 107 hectares spread over 14 different forests of red pine and oak. It is the pilot area of Catalonia that has the largest area of land.
Specifically, the actions that are proposed to be carried out in these forests are thinning of the adult forests, improvement of the tree structure and preservation of unique trees with microhabitats.
The entity that promotes the actions in Solsonès is the Vall de Lord Forestry Association. The objectives that have been set with the actions are to improve biodiversity, reduce carbon emissions and also increase the water that goes into the rivers. The vice president of the association, Josep Pintó, explains that it is a "revolutionary project" that represents a "paradigm shift.
"We want to make society understand that the forest is not important for what it produces but for what it intervenes in." In other words, according to Pintó, "the improvement that it brings to ecosystem services, water management, landscape and pastoral value is much more important than wood production."
For her part, Teresa Cervera, from the Center for Forest Ownership, which is the coordinator of Life Climark, explains that this is a different way of managing forests because "it integrates biodiversity and values everything the territory needs."
In addition, there is also training in forestry work companies and the administration does constant monitoring so that "the final result takes into account the real ecosystem services." Cervera reports that what the LIFE project has financed are demonstration actions in these eight pilot areas, but from now on it will be the companies that finance the actions based on the purchase of climate credits.
