Results of the Resinerxia Operating Group
On July 16, 2024, an informative joruney took place in the private communal neighborhood forest of Baroña, in the A Coruña, municipality of Porto do Son, to show the innovations experienced within the Resinerxia Operational Group, cooperation actions for the development of the resin sector.
Within this operational group, it was sought to define the most effective mechanized resining protocol, trying to minimize execution times, maximize production and avoid possible errors.
For this, four experimental plots of different conformations were established, one of them in the private communal neighborhood forest of Baroña. The format of the test was designed with two different periodicities, 15 and 35 days, and two stimulant pastes that would improve the persistence of the stimulant in the pine and thus achieve a wider production flow than had been considered until now. This objective results in an obvious improvement in efficiency, since it has been proven that it is preferable to carry out fewer pikes with longer periods, between 21 and 35 days, depending on the pine forest, than a greater number of pikes in the campaign with longer and shorter periods. Both the tools and the fungibles used in the process have also been improved.
With respect to the tool, the milling cutters have been lightened, trimmed and sharpened, more powerful tools have also been obtained, obtaining better performances and lower battery consumption, a battery that is now considered to be carried in a vest, which will allow to reduce trips for the necessary recharges during the campaign.
Another novelty is that both the implant used so far and the resin container bag have been integrated into a single resinization module, simplifying its application and execution times drastically, from about 60 pine trees per hour with the initial material, to about 100 pine trees per hour with the new prototype. In the dip stage, collection of bags full of resin, obvious improvements were also shown by having a pressure cap and fewer parts to disassemble. All these novelties were presented to the people who attended the conference on resination on July 16.
On the other hand, within this project, the Forestry Association of Galicia has estimated the potential for resin exploitation of the Galician pine forests. Once the territory suitable for resination has been delimited, considering it as the main species Pinus pinaster, with trees in diameter at 1.3 m greater than 25-30 cm, with a minimum density of 300 feet per hectare, a slope of the land less than 45% and good accessibility. Having done this, the territory was classified into three categories according to the slope of the land and the type of property, resulting in the following map:
Conclusions
- It is estimated that there are 71,658 ha in Galicia with high resin potential and 16,301 ha with medium potential for resin production.
- With the latest techniques it is estimated that one person could collect 2,500 bags of resin per week.
- The maximum capacity of a person to resinate cyclically and regularly is 12,500 pines, which is equivalent to an average surface of 20 ha.
- More than 4,000 direct jobs could be created with the resin activity in Galicia.
