• The "Eucalyptus" Operational Group is the first public-private partnership project that brings together all the regional stakeholders in the eucalyptus value chain in this region.

It is this contrast in productivity per area that led to the creation of the Eucalyptus Operational Group (OG) in 2018, comprised of various actors in the eucalyptus value chain in this region. The creation of the Eucalyptus OG is enabling the public-private sector to jointly address issues that, if not managed separately, required human, material, and financial resources without achieving tangible or consistent results.

Challenges of the sector

Wood is a natural, renewable, and recyclable resource, and its transformation into products to meet society's increasingly broad and varied needs drives the bioeconomy . Responsible and sustainable eucalyptus cultivation not only generates wealth and employment in rural areas but also provides environmental benefits, such as _carbon sequestration.

Currently, plantations of this species in Asturias face a series of challenges that hinder their competitiveness and sustainability:

• Abandonment
• Lack of proper forestry
• Fragmentation and small size of properties
• Lack of adequate infrastructure

Goals

The overall objective of the project is to contribute innovations to sustainable eucalyptus forest management in Asturias. To achieve this overall objective, the project sets three goals:

1. The search for property management models :

To this end, a legal and technical analysis of current legislation and a review of existing forestry models in other regions are being conducted. This includes training for landowners.

2. Improving forest productivity by optimizing the nutritional management of plantations:

This task involves installing and monitoring a series of experimental fertilization trials being carried out at various locations across Asturias.

3. The development of web solutions for sustainable forest management, accessible to forest owners, forestry companies, managers, and industry:

Regarding this task, GO Eucalyptus has just launched the platform cultivaeucaliptosostenible.com . Freely accessible, the website includes material on best practices, as well as information for associations, companies, and institutions involved in the development of jointly managed eucalyptus areas in Asturias. As an added value, a viewer has been incorporated that estimates eucalyptus productivity based on its location and various forest characteristics.

In the words of Juan Majada Guijo, scientific director of the CETEMAS Foundation and a member of the task force, "the formation of the task force and the execution of the project are posing a major challenge for the key players in the eucalyptus sector in Asturias. However, the innovations proposed collaboratively within the task force will contribute to boosting the sustainability of the crop."

Financing

The project is based on a call from the Ministry of Rural Development and Natural Resources of the Principality of Asturias for the selection and implementation of innovation projects from operational groups of the AEI (European Innovation Partnership in Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability, AEl-agri , EIP-agri ). It is co-financed by the autonomous community, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), with a maximum eligible amount of €196,399.16 and an implementation period that will extend until 2021.