The AFG meets with two regional departments on matters of interest to forest ownership
The Galicia Forestry Association held two institutional meetings to discuss various topics of interest to individual forest owners and private communal neighborhood forest owners.
On Monday, March 10, the director of the AFG and the member of its Board of Governors, Julio Aneiros, met with the general director of Defense of the Forest. Among other issues, we were interested in the draft of the new forest fire prevention law, and we once again stated that the obligations to maintain the secondary fire prevention strips that the current legislation imposes on forest property should, at the very least, be mutualised and also assumed by the owners of the urban plots adjoining the forest, or by the competent administrations in terms of civil protection. The need was raised for fire protection distances to be measured from the front of inhabited buildings and not to be applied to urban development lines regardless of the presence or absence of buildings.
The approach to the criteria for fire aid was also addressed, which give priority to large-scale forests regardless of the strategic interest or not of the requested action for fire protection, such as in the vicinity of inhabited areas or in areas where fire usually enters the forests.
On Friday, March 14, the director of the AFG and the vice president Juan Ramón Gallástegui held a meeting with the director of the Galician Forest Industry Agency to, among other things, see channels of collaboration in this new stage of XERA. The topics discussed included the concern of forest owners about the damage caused by band disease in pine stands, an issue that will cause supply problems for the Galician processing industry in the short and medium term. The situation and need for support for the CIF of Lourizán by XERA was addressed insofar as the research carried out there will be fundamental in the medium and long term to be able to solve health problems and genetic quality problems in conifer and broadleaf stands.
We also take this opportunity to convey our congratulations to the director of the Agency and our satisfaction with the work developed by XERA so far, in favor of the forestry sector, hoping that this line will be maintained, such as in the work being done to promote sustainable construction with local wood in Galicia.
