Not out of the woods yet

A third of the way through the International Year of Forests, and on the eve of the traditional summer season when thousands of hectares of timber usually go up in smoke, now is a good time to take stock of Spain's woodland resources.

To begin with, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that forest cover has grown faster in recent years in Spain than in any other EU country. Furthermore, the Ministry of Environment's latest survey shows that 85 percent of Spain's trees are in good shape, while forest fires last year affected 63 percent less woodland than the annual average for the previous decade.

And leaving aside Russia's 800 million hectares of forest, and Sweden and Finland's 28 million and 22 million hectares, respectively, of pine grown for industrial use, Spain emerges as a leader in forest diversity, home to some 18.5 million hectares of oak, pine, beech, oak, laurel, and fir species, divided between the country's Atlantic, Mediterranean, Pyrenean, and Canarian woodlands, along with a diverse range of habitats in the interior. And with some 27.5 million hectares - half of the country - now set aside for forestland, surely the outlook can only get better.

Some 27.5 million hectares - half of the country - is set aside for forestland

But ecologists point out figures include large areas turned over to industrial use

Not so fast, say environmental groups. They point out that the figure of 18.5 million hectares includes large areas turned over to growing eucalyptus, pine and poplar for industrial use, and cannot be considered woodland proper. The Association for the Recovery of Indigenous Woodland (ARBA) this year launched its "A wood is not a farm" campaign, pointing out on its website that "the two cannot be included together, as the FAO has done. Forestry companies all over the world are taking advantage of this approach to increase commercial forests."

A recent report by Greenpeace and other environmental groups highlights the problems caused by the spread of eucalyptus plantations, among them terracing of hillsides, encroaching protected natural areas, and reduced biodiversity.

The Spanish government, while welcoming the increase in forest cover in Spain by 118,500 hectares a year over the last decade, admits it cannot take much of the credit. Speaking on the occasion of the FAO's latest report on forests around the world, Eduardo Rojas, who heads the Environment Ministry's forestry department, said that most of the growth in forestland in Spain is due to previous policies, some of them dating back decades. "Forest extension in Spain is as much to do with the policies carried out in the 1940s through to the 1970s as it is to do with people leaving the countryside, which has allowed for the spontaneous spread of new woodlands, particularly in mountainous areas," he said.

Rojas also warned of the dangers of allowing uncontrolled extension of woodlands. "The collapse of the rural economy brings with it a sharp decline in land cultivation and pasture, which has allowed our woodland to increase in size. But there will be no benefit from this if we do not apply more active policies that will allow us to prevent, for example, future forest fires," he noted.

The key, say the experts, is sustainability. "We must use our forests. If we do, this will allow us to protect them over time," says Álvaro Picardo, an expert in woodlands who advises the regional government of Castilla y León. He has helped set up a project in the Urbión forest between Soria and Burgos, which combines commercial forestry with conservation.

Picardo says the growth of Spanish woodland will continue for at least the next half century. "We are now seeing a natural process in which biomass is increasing along with diversification of species." But he adds that for this growth to be sustainable, and to be of use, we are going to have to lend a helping hand. "This will require intervention about every 15 years to avoid forest fires, the spread of disease, to prevent over density, or simply to make the woodlands more attractive for people to be able to enjoy walking in them."

Félix Romero, who heads the Spanish division of the World Wildlife Fund, is one of many environmentalists who agree that a balance can be struck between the commercial use of forests and their value as a haven of biodiversity, but as part of a policy carried out by the state.

"Conserving our woodlands should be a strategic goal of the central government and the regional administrations, mainly because of the benefits this will bring: water, oxygen, biodiversity, wood, protecting land... It is absurd for us to import timber from tropical countries, resin from China, and woodfuel from North Africa and the Middle East when we could obtain all this from our own forests just by managing them better," he says.

One of the ways to achieve this is through forest certification, a system pioneered in Canada a decade ago for identifying well-managed forestland. In this context, sustainability includes maintenance of ecological, economic and social components. Products from certified forestland can, through chain-of-custody certification, move into production streams and in the end receive labeling that allows customers to know the product came from a certified, well-managed forest. Fully implemented, certification will become a market-based mechanism to reward superior forest management.

Spain has yet to embrace certification, and just 13 percent of the country's forests are managed sustainably. The reason, says Picardo, is that "woods are not profitable." He explains that the problem is finding a way to reward the owners of woodlands (75 percent of Spain's forests are privately owned) for the benefit they provide to society.

"Now is not exactly the best moment for the state to start investing in forests," says José Jiménez, head of the Environment Ministry's forestry policy body. "That said, we do work with the regional governments to set out guidelines for mountainous woodlands to improve their management." He says that the state continues to play a key role in improving and increasing biodiversity. "In recent years we have had notable success in bringing about the return of species to areas where they had died out, or even introducing them to new areas," he says.

Successive Spanish governments have done little to increase awareness of environmental issues, and their record in protecting the country's forests is wanting. Woodlands are threatened by ski stations, reservoirs, housing, and motorways. And yet Spain's forests are the last refuge of some of the continent's most endangered species, among them bears, vultures, eagles, bats, wood pigeons, the capercaillie, along with a range of fungi, mushrooms, lichen, and trees.

Gregorio Montero, president of the Spanish Society for Forest Sciences, also points to forests' ability to help reduce greenhouse gases. He highlights a recent study by INIA, the National Institute for Food and Agrarian Technology and Research. "The latest data shows that each year, trees absorb some 87 million tons of CO2. This represents something like 23 percent of the total amount of emissions produced by Spain." The Environment Ministry's José Jiménez adds: "Another function of the forests that we must take into account is their contribution toward helping stave off climate change; we have to protect them from climate change, and help them to adapt to it at the same time as we use them to help absorb emissions."