Sustainable Forest Management
Supply Chain
Ecosystem Services
Spain
Italy
September 2024
August 2028
3.6M € total, 60% co-financed by the European Commission's LIFE Program
The general objective is to reactivate and improve the forest-wood value chain to mitigate climate change and promote sustainable forest management. This objective is broken down into the following problems to be addressed in CLM and their corresponding specific objectives.
Coordinator: Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha
The forestry sector is central to the ongoing transition to a low carbon, circular and nature positive future. Forests are a major player in the absorption of CO2 and mitigation of climate change, while delivering multiple ecosystem services. Afforestation, forest restoration and improved forest management can enhance removals in soils and biomass, while the use of wood-based materials in long-lasting products ensures long-term carbon storage out of the forest. However, high fragmentation, lack of associative forms and sector skills, low-value wood supply chains and missing remuneration of ES are increasing forest abandonment, leading to less resilience to climate change.
Dendron is a key player in the WOOD4LIFE project. From a year before the official start and together with Etifor, we took on the responsibility of designing a proposal capable of obtaining funding from the European LIFE Programme. This support was key to increase the commitment to ecosystem services in the Castilla-La Mancha region. Thanks to our efforts and dedication, we were able to secure funding in a highly competitive environment at the European level.
Dendron has a key and transversal role in WOOD4LIFE, leading three fundamental areas of the project: activation of forest partnerships (WP3), communication and dissemination (WP7), and the development of agreements within the value chain (WP6).
In WP3, we coordinated task 3.3, which consists of designing and implementing action plans for forest associations in Spain and Italy, with the aim of actively integrating them into sustainable value chains for timber and ecosystem services.
In WP7, we are in charge of the communication strategy of the project, ensuring the visibility of its objectives and results, and promoting its replicability in other regions.
In WP6, we led the development of tools to reactivate the forest market, including value chain agreements and the coordination of the signing of 10 commercial agreements between forest owners and companies in the sector, as a key step towards a fairer, more structured and climate-oriented value chain.
Thanks to Dendron’s commitment, Europe’s impact reaches smallholders in Castilla-La Mancha in order to transform their forest management into a source of sustainable value, aligned with the region’s climate and social objectives.
WOOD4LIFE will engage the key actors of the forest value chain, it will test improved forest management practices in productive forests in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, for enhancing carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and wood production to supply the industries of wood-based long-lasting products, such as the construction sector. Overarching objective is to propose tools and business models to reactivate the forest value chain and strengthen its pivotal role in mitigating CC through carbon sequestration capacity and by providing less GHG-intensive materials, in line with the Carbon Farming Initiative. In particular, WOOD4LIFE will: increase and improve the forms of associations to enhance SFM for the provision of ES and wood for long-lasting products; improve CCM performances of forest-wood value chains through the engagement and training of key actors and the development of a value chain protocol for climate mitigation actions; reinforce the existing systems and development of business models for emissions compensation outside and within the value chain, through the improvement and development of PES. WOOD4LIFE acts at EU level, in Castilla-La Mancha region, with replication sites in Appennino Tosco Emiliano National Park in Italy, with replicability and transferability potential through FSC network.
The project is co-financed by the European Union. However, the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority accepts responsibility for them.
En el contexto actual, donde la lucha contra el cambio climático es una prioridad global, la gestión forestal sostenible juega un papel fundamental. Con el objetivo de crear una cadena de valor de la madera que contribuya a un futuro
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