Approach to the Spanish Forestry sector

Abstract

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Government of Spain pointed out that the forestry industry accentuates its great diversity of species and trees and a multifunctionality of goods and services. The contribution of the wood industry pointed to a wide range of indirect economic activity (extensive livestock farming, nature tourism, fire extinction) of the Spanish forestry sector. In order to protect these activities and the natural environment in general, the Spanish Forestry Strategy was developed, a forestry policy program for the sustainable management of private and neighborhoods forests, as almost 70 % of Spanish forests are private. Spain was among the 130 countries that agreed on National Forest Plans for the development of a comprehensive forest management policy. Therefore, the general objective of this research was to investigate the evolution of the forestry sector in Spain during the last two decades of the 21st century, based on two variables: employment and foreign trade. To this end, an inductive method was used to carry out a quantitative and descriptive analysis, based on secondary sources of information. The result required the identification of the main sectors of the national forest industry (wood, pulp, paper and/or furniture), the positive evolution of the Spanish forest sector and the significant investment in forest policies such as fire extinction.