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The Hen laying Golden Eggs in Galician Forests is... Australian
Gustavo Iglesias Trabado 
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS
Galicia is a tiny sized autonomous region in Northwestern Spain, inhabited by some 2.8 million funny people who like to grow things. Some cultivate potatoes, other cultivate cabbage, and a few cultivate analphabetism. There are also over 600,000 hobbits who grow trees in the rainy green corner of Spain. In fact, the +1.4 million tree covered hectares of Galicia reach a 10% of total Spanish tree cover, and some 3% of total tree covered acreage in Europe. A tree country, we could say.
Fig. 1: The size of record-breaking 2008 timber harvest in Galicia equals (if not exceeds) the highest building in the world if stacked over 1 hectare. (Click image to enlarge)
But what does this mean? What makes Galicia special besides great seafood? Easy: that Galician 10% of Spain tree cover yields 50% of its total roundwood output. One of each 2 wood logs produced in Spain was grown and harvested in Galicia. And during 2008, a historic record was achieved. For the first time, the threshold of 8 million cubic meters of harvested roundwood was reached. If you stacked all that harvested wood during year 2008 over 1 hectare, you could build a pile at least as high as the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
And... why all this blabla in an Eucalyptus blog? Because an important part of that yearly "Galician wood built Burj Dubai" would be made of harvested Eucalyptus timber! A recyclable and renewable primary resource of high quality for several industrial lines and of strategic importance for all.
Fig. 2: Galician timber harvests are 50% of total timber harvests in Spain. The overall harvested volume has increased a 40% compared to 1996. Statistics courtesy Juan Picos & Asociación Galega Monte-Industria. (Click image to enlarge)
During the last 30 years, Galician timber outputs increased three-fold while those in the other regions of Spain have remained nearly stable. That growing trend has been rocketing in the last 12 years, with a 40% increase in harvested volumes comparing 2008 to 1996.
Softwoods are one of the two engines of Galician forestry sector. The combined output of Radiata Pine, Maritime Pine, Scots Pine and Douglas Fir accounted a 56% of timber harvests back in 1996. By 2008 they remained at nearly 50% of annual harvested volume. The other engine is a special type of hardwood that grows mostly in Galicia's man-made coastal rainforests: Eucalyptus globulus, known among its growers as "Eucalipto do país".
Fig. 3: Eucalyptus timber harvests have yielded 1651 Million € to Galician timber growers during the last cultivation cycle. Statistics courtesy Juan Picos & Asociación Galega Monte-Industria. (Click image to enlarge)
The Eucalyptus tree belt of Galicia, covering less than 1% of the acreage of Spain, yields 25% of its annual timber output. Nothing similar can be said of any other tree, native or exotic, grown in these latitudes.
During the last cultivation cycle, Eucalyptus cultivated forests have generated 1651 Million € for Galician tree growers. That means, Eucalyptus timber crops alone, without considering for a moment the value-adding industrial chain using this timber as primary resource, have returned a 110% the amount of public subsidies for the whole of the agricultural, dairy and forestry sectors mustered by combined Galician, Spanish and European Union governmental authorities under the label of "Rural Development Programme 2007-2013".
In the last 12 years, the pouring analphabetism driven by a few misguided individuals has found its echo in different social strata. Within this time frame Eucalyptoculture has been excluded from public subsidised policy lines for forestry or rural development. And its not formally included in any public support programme up to at least 2013. Very smart line of thinking when there are good hints suggesting that the productivity of Eucalyptus cultivated forests in Galicia could yet increase a 60% by improving silviculture without the need of increasing acreage.
So, the one of the main question that could stay on the air after reviewing these macroeconomic numbers would possibly be no other than... are some Galician temporarily blind or permanently stupid?
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