There are many recent initiatives that take over from the work accomplished by Interreg Sudoe SustForest and SustForest Plus Projects, ‵Multi-functionality, conservation and rural employment in southern Europe through resin extraction‵  

The SustForest Project was born in 2010 out of the believe that the European resin sector should join efforts to face a very important challenge and thinking that France, Spain and Portugal had to form a united front to tackle such a complex problem: the global economy impact on our forestry resources, our rural employment sources and our high added-value products.

The SustForest Plus transnational initiative, which has been co-funded by the  Interreg Sudoe Program through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), has been the hallmark of the European resin sector and it has laid down the basis for a real transnational cooperation much needed to protect the European resin interests. Furthermore, it has established some long-term strategies and created steady networks of joint collaboration which allow attaining the European natural resin sector’s objectives:

• Mobilizing the European resin resources to supply the local industry in a steady way. See the Project results.
• Improving the resin workers’ working conditions that results in the creation of stable and quality employment in the rural areas found at the European Southwest Region. See the Project results.
• Expanding the by-product markets through the commercial and technological valorisation of the European Southwest forest-originated natural resin as a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable resource in the context of a new bioeconomy driven by the European Union. See the Project results.

The new Operational Groups ResinLab, ACREMA and RESINEX are already working to keep with the research and innovation in the resin production.  

GO RESINLAB

The GO RESINLAB is coordinated by the  Fundación Cesefor and it will go on until 2023. ResinLab presents the coordinated action among partners from   Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León and Extremadura with the aim to generate new models for the resin workers’ professional development, for designing new extraction methods and actions to improve transparency and the product traceability. The  RESINLAB Project is meant to be an experimental territorial network where the different stakeholders in the resin value chain may co-create innovations aimed at ensuring a user-focused innovation and a clear socio-cultural, environmental and economic return on the investment based on the bioeconomy and maintenance of the ecosystem services and rural development.

GO ACREMA

The GO ACREMA is coordinated by the company Sinergias Sostenibles Resiforest, S.L. with the participation of partners from Galicia, Asturias and Castilla y León. It aims at improving Pinus pinaster and Pinus radiata productivity by integrating an innovative resin use that allows obtaining high added-value bioproducts as an add-on to the production of quality wood and maintaining the mass sustainability at once.  

GO RESINEX

The GO RESINEX is a regional Project aimed at knowledge transfer, professional development and innovation of the Extremadura resin sector. It is coordinated by the company Jardinería Técnica Norte Extremeña S.L. It will be active until 2022.