Forest-based bio/circular economy

The operational group was created to find a demonstration action to promote secondary hardwood species of high ecological value in the ES5110011 area of the Natura 2000 Network. At present, hardwood harvesting is practically limited to obtaining products with little or no added value, such as firewood or biofuels in general. This is the reason why the profitability of the uses is very compromised.

According to the analysis carried out, it is considered convenient to perform the following demonstrative actions:
- To manufacture a children's playground of wood of local origin and free of chemical treatments.
- Implement new wood grading systems as is done in other European countries.
- Articulate the different agents along the production chain
- Demonstrate that quality products can be made from locally sourced wood

Improving the profitability of timber harvesting by diversifying the products obtained. As a result, the aim is to guide forestry exploitation to obtain quality products, enter into the distribution chain of local and specialized markets, establish a more efficient logistic distribution process and extend the time needed to capture atmospheric carbon by using wood for uses with a longer service life than bioenergy.

Structural sawn timber intended for construction must offer similar guarantees to those offered by other materials and products intended for the structural construction sector. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop classification tools that allow manufacturers and marketers to certify the strength and stiffness values of all the wood that is placed on the market (adjusted to the species and origin that corresponds).
It is, in addition to being a legal obligation, a tool for the valuation of wood that is enabling a competitive improvement of its industrial network.

Technological development of structural sawn timber not only enables it to be directly promoted in the construction sector as a construction element, but also to be incorporated into the manufacture of technological products with high added value, such as glued laminated timber, duos, trios, CLT, prefabricated panels... These are high value-added products that require high levels of competitiveness that cannot be achieved without their main raw material, structural sawn timber, increasing its competitiveness, optimising its manufacturing times and its declared mechanical properties

Visual classification tools have been developed for the main commercial wood species found in Spanish forest stands, such as Pinus sylvestris, Pinus insigne, Pinus nigra, Pinus pinaster, Abies alba, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Quercus rubra, Castanea sativa and Eucalyptus globulus. Tools that in many cases enable the possibility of classifying structural sawn timber into three structural qualities, which allows the different qualities of wood that the timber industry places on the construction market to be classified and valued.
Mechanical classification systems are currently being developed for the main species of the Pinus genus. This is one more step in the competitive improvement of this type of wood, as it improves the classification times and the classifying performance in the different mechanical qualities.
Both developments have enhanced the value of the wood of the different wood species characterized, and have promoted its use in construction.