Forestry associations in Galicia, forest owners, wood industry, the Conselleiro of Economy, Labour and Industry, Francisco Conde, the territorial head of que Consellería of Environment and Land Management of A Coruña, Cristina Carrión, the mayor of Rois, Ramón Tojo, the president of the Juana de Vega Foudation, Enrique Sáez, and the chairman of the governing board of the Oín neighborhood, Luis Añón, among others, gathered today in the mountain of Oín to pay a tribute to the galician forests on the occasion of the International Day of Forests. The event had a representation of Betanzos HB as a key agent of the Galician forestry industry.
In his speech, the president of the Cluster da Madeira e Deseño de Galicia, José Manuel Iglesias, emphasized the importance of forests for their contribution to social, economic and environmental sustainability. According to Iglesias, “Galicia is not understood without its mountain or its people. To speak of Galicia is to speak of green, of trees, of smell of wet grass, of the ‘morriña’ that invade us when we are far from our land.”
During the event it became clear the great contribution of forests’ owners to the economy of the country. Only in wood, the produce is 8.7 million cubic meters and around 250 million euros per year, which is distributed among many Galician families. If the whole of the Galician mountain was well managed, it would employ about 20,000 people every year.