The sector demands that innovation should be promoted to increase yields, improve the professionalisation of resin workers and make the profession compatible with other forest activities.
In the House of the Culture of Gata, the Association for the Integral Development of Sierra de Gata (ADISGATA) together with resin workers from the area, representatives of forest owners, industry, technology and research centres, university and neighbours gathered in the past July 19 in the municipality, where the extraction of resin reappears as a hope to give life to the towns of the region and revitalise the pine forests of this wonderful natural enclave of Sierra de Gata in Caceres, with the purpose of increasing the performance of the resin activity, taking into account the multifunctional exploitation of the forest.
Currently the activity of resin extraction, almost extinct in our country since the late 80s, seems to be reborn after a prolonged period of crisis. The activity comes back in the era of new technologies, but it is still anchored in the methods and techniques of traditional exploitation. The new resin pickers use the same tools as their ancestors in the 60s. The halting of production implied, in turn, a halting in the process of modernisation of the resin sector.
During the day of presentation, the three basic premises of the future project ResiMec were set out to the large group of attendees. Technical improvements will be implemented in key areas: Mechanisation, forestry management protocols and decision-making system.
The debate highlighted the real need to update the methods used by workers and to value the natural and endogenous resources of our forests to generate wealth in the territory, demands of resin workers and forest owners, both public and private, collected in the OG ResiMec, . The objective is to bring innovation to the mechanisation of extraction of natural resin from prototypes being examined (mechanised pike) and existing methods (such as the bore hole or taladro basal in Spanish, an American method) with application of stimulants without sulfuric acid and collection in a closed container to prevent the entry of impurities. Samples of the developing machine were shown and videos of its use in the forests were also shown in the morning.
It was also explained that parallel work will be done on the integration of resin production with other forest products, especially wood, by applying new multipurpose forestry techniques and by developing a decision support system that facilitates forest management.
The new tool (easy to use and light), the compatibility with other forest activities, the knowledge sharing and expert advice on forest management will result in the optimisation of the resin production and the yield of the pinaster forests, that along with an improvement in the working conditions of resin pickers will make this traditional system a modern and efficient activity, with great benefits to face depopulation and rural exodus.
The entities that are part of this operational group as beneficiary partners are Cesefor, Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo y Experimentación, s.l. (CIDEX); Sociedad de Resinas Naturales, S.L.;Confederación de Organizaciones de Selvicultores de España (COSE); Federación de Asociaciones Forestales de Castilla y León (FAFCYLE); Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral de Sierra de Gata (ADISGATA) and Centro de Investigación Forestal del Lourizán.
