The consortium of the European SocialForest project held a monitoring meeting on Monday at the Midi-Pyrénées Observatory of the University of Toulouse, France, with the aim of assessing the progress achieved and coordinating the next actions planned within the framework of this transnational cooperation initiative. The meeting brought together representatives of partner organisations from Spain, France and Portugal participating in the project, which is funded by the Interreg Sudoe programme. During the meeting, strategic, technical and management issues related to the promotion of innovative sustainable forest management models and the strengthening of the role of rural communities in forest territories were discussed.
One of the main items on the agenda was the review of the Transnational Forest Strategy developed by the project. The meeting also provided an opportunity to present the preliminary results of the pilot actions currently being implemented in different regions of Spain, Portugal and France. These practical experiences aim to generate innovative solutions to improve the sustainability of forest systems and foster new socio-economic opportunities linked to forest areas.
In the field of sustainable forest management, the partners reviewed the progress of the Replicability Strategy and the National Action Plans, which will enable the transfer and scaling-up of the results achieved by SocialForest to other European territories with similar characteristics.
The meeting concluded with a training workshop on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, delivered by the Universitat Politècnica de València, which enabled the partners to strengthen their technical capacities for the analysis and monitoring of forest ecosystems through geospatial technologies.
With this meeting, SocialForest continues to make progress in developing innovative solutions that contribute to more sustainable, resilient and participatory forest management across south-west Europe.
