PLURIFOR responds to health and organizational problems linked to Sudoe forests by offering risk management plans and adapted technical instruments. For this, it has focused on 8 problems of the forests in the area: storms, fires, soil degradation, pine nematode, cynips (¿) chestnut, eucalyptus weevil, pine canker, devastating and exotic or emerging pathogens.
Among its activities, PLURIFOR has carried out:
- An analysis of the missing instruments in the existing forest risk management plans and the identification of missing plans. To this end, immersion activities were carried out in agencies responsible for managing forest risks. Thus, it has been possible to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of current risk management methods. The data were categorized depending on whether they apply to a specific region or more globally.
- An improvement of management plans and existing instruments.
- A test of the improved or elaborated risk management plans to evaluate their effectiveness in an operational context, with different forest users.
- The validation of these plans through workshops aimed at a general public.
Thus, PLURIFOR has developed 13 plans and 27 instruments for forest risk management. On the other hand, the project has diversified the risk management instruments used locally, based on the adaptation of instruments used in other regions. For example, maps of fuels and fire hazard areas were created for Asturias, drawing on Basque techniques. On the other hand, the project has encouraged citizen participation, creating a “Silvalert” application that allows citizens to report damages in forestry areas and send a notice to the competent authorities.
