THE OLOT MEATS GROUP JOINS THE FIGHT AGAINSTTHE CLIMATE EMERGENCY
It is the first Spanish company in the meat sector to intervene in forests, on its own initiative, with the goal of achieving sustainable forest management.
In a pioneering initiative for the slaughterhouse industry in Spain, the OLOT MEATS GROUP intervenes in a forest in Catalonia each year in order to help address the global challenges posed by the climate crisis. To enable this action, the group has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Forestry Consortium of Catalonia (CFC) – which brings together most of the private forest owners in Catalonia – and the Boscos Agricultural Foundation. Cooperation between public and private organisations is clearly increasing in Europe. The trend is especially relevant in the case of this agreement for the implementation of a Forestry Project for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change (PROMACC). It serves as a pilot project within the framework of the LIFE CLIMARK European project, with the goal of fostering multifunctional forest management funded through climate credits. These credits will form part of a future voluntary and local market for offsetting emissions and reducing energy expenditure.
The purpose of this collaboration agreement – an initiative of the Olot Meats Group – is the implementation of the PROMACC in Sant Miquel del Mont-La Vall de Bianya (county of Garrotxa, in the province of Girona), on the basis of the quantification of the impact of forest management on carbon, water and biodiversity in the selected stands. In this case, the fixation of 93 tons of CO2, the provision of 1,961 cubic metres of blue water and a 9% improvement of the capacity to host biodiversity have been established for each climate credit.
The context
Catalan forests are undergoing a process of expansion and transformation caused, among other factors, by the profound socioeconomic changes experienced by the countryside since the middle of the last century, and by the impact of climate change. Sustainable forest management is the tool to ensure the generation of environmental, social and economic benefits by forestry activity, as well as the improvement of the functions of forests, both now and in the future.
The challenges
- TO FIGHT AGAINST THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY
- TO INCREASE CO₂ FIXATION
- TO PREVENT FIRES
- TO PRESERVE BIODIVERSITY
- TO MAKE THE MOST OF WATER
The action
A Forestry Project for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change (PROMACC) is currently being implemented. Over a two-year period, actions will be carried out in a total of 29.5 hectares, distributed across four estates in the municipality of La Vall de Bianya (county of Garrotxa, in the province of Girona), populated by a mountain holm oak forest, a beech forest and a pedunculate oak forest. Felling and clearing activities will be carried out on these estates with the goal of regulating competition for water resources, thus making it possible to increase the vitality of the target area through sustainable forest management criteria. The action will also take into account criteria for the conservation and improvement of biodiversity, such as respecting trees with cavities, standing dead trees or other features that boost the ability of the forest to host biodiversity.
Maximum efficiency in the use of water, the overriding goal
Aware of the impact of its activity, and of the drought affecting Catalonia, the Olot Meats Group has undertaken a firm commitment to ensuring the efficient use of water, through the clearing of biomass, considering that the high vegetation cover of forest areas is one of the factors that contributes to reducing the amount of water that reaches rivers, reservoirs and aquifers. The forestry interventions of the Olot Meats Group are aimed at the recovery of blue water, in line with the plan of measures established by the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) of the Government of Catalonia.
