Line of action:

Terrestrial ecosystems

Status:

En ejecución

Location:

Andalusia (Jaén and Almería) and Castilla-La Mancha (Albacete)

Geographic scope:

España

Execution date:

2026

End date:

2028

Duration:

18/02/2026 - 30/09/2028

Total budget:

€1,999,959.52

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

€1,699,965.59

FORTALECE has a great transformative character due to its transversality and action in the wood value chain. It promotes regenerative forestry and the sowing and harvesting of water that, together, will revitalize the landscape with all its people, valuing their work and forest management and employing scientific knowledge. This active and sustainable management will mean a more resilient, better preserved and wealth-generating territory.

• Implement actions to improve green infrastructure and degraded protected habitats in the southeast of the peninsula, with regenerative forestry and historic irrigation.
• To enhance the value chain of wood from tree to building, generating economic and environmental value and an active forest that is resilient to climatic conditions.
• Promote sustainable forest use that generates economic and environmental value, providing the forest-industry value chain with innovative products and tools for its traceability certification.
• Implement ecological restoration actions in degraded areas and planning and management instruments for the improvement of habitats
• Encourage the creation of direct and indirect employment, promoting economic diversification in rural territories and promoting gender inclusion. Incorporate the gender perspective in order to reduce the gender gap in the forestry sector, improve equity in access to training and employment.

• Property organization, forest stocks and design of regenerative and wood quality silvicultural itineraries.
• Strengthening and uniting communities for the sustainability of green infrastructure.
• Implementation of regenerative forestry in the Sierras of the Southeast Peninsula.
• Sowing and harvesting water for the conservation of green infrastructures and fire prevention in the Sierras of the southeast of the peninsula.
• Characterization of wood for high value-added structural products.
• Development and certification of a structural product based on certified local wood.
• Impact on ecosystem services in the Sierras of the Southeast Peninsula.
• Transfer of results and promotion of the Monte-Industria chain. Networking and training.
• Communication and dissemination strategy.
• Coordination, management and follow-up of the project.

• Tools contributed to the wood value chain in the Sierras of the Southeast Peninsula.
• To strengthen the communities of owners and irrigators for the sustainability of green infrastructure in the Sierras of the Southeast Peninsula.
• Environmental improvement of green infrastructure and protected habitats.
• Sustainable wood-based structural elements for construction developed and certified.
• Certify the impact on ecosystem services (water, biodiversity, carbon, fire defense) of the FORTALECE model.
• Reduction of the gender gap, greater equity and improved access to labor in the region’s forest-industry value chain.
• Communication and effective dissemination of FORTALECE and its impact.
• Compliance with the deadlines, actions, deliverables, objectives and quality of the FORTALECE project.
• Application of regenerative silvicultural itineraries (3,000 ha), integrating them into management instruments oriented in four options (quality curves, aptitude maps, rates or mass variables).
• Generation of a water management instrument for 2,200 ha.
• Certified sustainable forest management (14,000 ha for those forests with approved or approved plans) and certification of ecosystem services (300 ha).
• Address the historical hydraulic systems to define irrigation spaces and improve governance (10 participatory management plans, 2 cultural trails of 10 km, 6.5 km of recovered historic ditches, another 200 ha of pasture use and 100 head of cattle), as well as certify 300 ha PECF-Water.
• 900 ha improved green forestry and irrigation infrastructure, 2,000 community members benefited.
• Development of courses and workshops with 283 trained people, creating a Summer School of Advanced Calculation of Wooden Structures and a School of Irrigation.