Landowners, managers, public authorities, and the forest products value chain have expressed their confidence in a digitalization and transformation project that could provide a major boost to the development of forest management, the prevention of natural disasters, and disaster management in the communities of the Canary Islands and Castile and León.
Introduction to the conference by Javier Ezquerra
On October 21, the Regional Minister of the Environment, Housing, and Land Use Planning for the Regional Government of Castile and León, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, together with the Director General of Artificial Intelligence at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service,
Aleida Alcaide García, and the director of the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation, and the Information Society of the Department of Universities, Science, Innovation, and Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands,
Javier Franco Hormiga, presented the RetechFOR project in Valladolid.
All agreed on the opportunities presented by the digitization of knowledge; on the strategic value of innovation for the development of new tools that improve citizens’ quality of life and safety; and on the need for collaboration among public administrations to achieve this.
In the case of RetechFOR, the goal is to improve forest management and emergency response in natural environments through the use of data that enables the creation of a continuous, automated forest inventory; to enhance fire prevention and early warning systems; to implement precision forestry; to support modeling for post-fire environmental restoration; and to promote digitization in the forestry sector.
Javier Álvarez Benedí, Head of the Office of the Commissioner for Science and Technology of the Regional Government of Castile and León, presented the framework for innovation in Castile and León through RIS3, the Regional Research and Innovation Strategy.
Antonio Ibáñez Pascual, Director General of Telecommunications and Digital Administration at the Regional Ministry of Mobility and Digital Transformation, demonstrated how the RETECH program is implemented in Castile and León.
For his part, José Ángel Arranz, Director General of Natural Heritage and Forestry Policy at the Regional Ministry of the Environment, Housing, and Land Use Planning, reviewed the objectives and work being carried out by the autonomous communities of the Canary Islands and Castile and León within the RetechFOR project. In his view, “if we want to successfully manage and have a forestry sector that generates opportunities, we must first understand and then digitize the data to create a platform that presents all the necessary information in an open and organized manner. This is the major challenge of this project, which I hope we can achieve.”
Sonia Rojo Ruiz, Head of the Innovation and Technology Transfer Department at the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castile and León (ICECYL), highlighted the role of technology centers in innovation and the development of new technologies in Castile and León.
Sergio Díaz, Director of Innovation Programs, and Álvaro López, director of the Technical Office at the Fuerteventura Technology Park, which is leading the development of the RetechFOR project in the Canary Islands, presented the digitization work being carried out using unmanned aerial vehicles in the islands, which will provide tools for natural disaster management.
Javier Ezquerra, coordinator of the Services of the Directorate General of Natural Heritage and Forestry Policy of the Regional Government of Castile and León, presented the investment in the RetechFOR project and the success of the calls for three grants aimed at creating a consortium to develop the project’s applications; for the digitization of primary wood processing companies; and for the implementation of digital entrepreneurship projects and forestry startups.
Rodrigo Gómez Conejo, Technical Director of Information and Communication Technologies at the Cesefor Foundation, and José María Vela Castresana, general representative of the Technological Institute of Castile and León (ITCL), presented the consortium of technology centers, universities, and companies in Castile and León that are developing RetechFOR in the region. According to José María Vela Castresana, “we are working on very specific applications requested by the General Directorate of Natural Heritage that will have a direct and highly useful impact on society and the region’s forestry sector.”
The presentation concluded with a panel discussion in which some of the attendees participated, during which Roberto Bravo, president of the Castilla y León Inter-Sectoral Timber Board, noted that this project is “the beginning of a necessary and exciting journey that addresses the challenges of digitization in the forestry sector.”
Pablo Sabín, managing director of the Cesefor Foundation, emphasized the opportunity presented by “integrating digitized information from across the entire sector—including landowners, public administration, technology centers, universities, and the entire wood value chain.”
José Manuel Fernández Guisuraga, from the University of León, highlighted the commitment to ensuring that “the basic research conducted at the University and its results in the form of algorithms are available in user-friendly applications that are open to end users, companies, government agencies, and landowners.”
Olga Fernández Raposo, manager of the Federation of Forest Owners’ Associations of Castile and León, noted that “it is essential for the public administration to join forces with forest owners and the sector to boost economic activity through sustainable forest management”
Concluded Álvaro López, from the Fuerteventura Technology Park, that “RetechFOR will enable a fundamental technological leap forward for forest management and the prevention and management of forest emergencies”
